Ahead of each round of Premier League games The Hype Train analyses the best left-field player options for your Fantasy Premier League teams. Historically, weekly FPL Dream Team’s comprise of mostly differential players whose selection falls with a low selection percentage of overall players, to which there is no doubt that their influence cannot be ignored. With such an abundance of points coming from the FPL’s hidden gems The Hype Train selects one player from each Premier League match in the upcoming Gameweek to decide who could be the differential that sets your team apart. All aboard.

Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 1 Deadline

For the 2019/20 Premier League season, the FPL deadline will be one hour before the commencement of the week's first game. Our website provides a real-world countdown timer for the the upcoming Gameweek, whilst you can read our latest Fantasy articles from the season on our 2019/20 FPL weekly hype sub-section.

GW1: Weekly Differentials

Another transfer window, another few million people studying pre-season line-ups looking for answers to the start of the new FPL season. We are here once again to help players select some of the outsiders, the differentials who could make a difference for the week. The big fixtures for differentials see Liverpool host Norwich, City travel to West Ham, Bournemouth host promoted Sheffield United, and Spurs host Villa who return to the Premier League after a couple years in the Championship.

Here are the ten players we think are noteworthy differentials for the opening day of the season.

GW1: Fixtures & Differential Picks

LIV/NOR: Divock Origi (LIV, FWD, £5.5mil, 2.6% ownership)

WHU/MCI: John Stones (MCI, DEF, £5.5mil, 2.5% ownership)

BOU/SHU: Chris Mepham (BOU, DEF, £4.5mil, 0.2% ownership)

BUR/SOU: Chris Wood (BUR, FWD, £6.5mil, 1.4% ownership)

CRY/EVE: Christian Benteke (CRY, FWD, £6.0mil, 0.9% ownership)

WAT/BHA: Roberto Pereyra (WAT, MID, £6.0mil, 4.7% ownership)

TOT/AVL: Kyle Walker-Peters (TOT, DEF, £5.0mil, 1.6% ownership)

LEI/WOL: Youri Tielemans (LEI, MID, £6.5mil, 6.9% ownership)

NEW/ARS: Joelinton (NEW, FWD, £6.0mil, 2.0% ownership)

MUN/CHE: Ross Barkley (CHE, MID, £6.0mil, 4.3% ownership)

GW1: Differential Highlights

Kyle Walker-Peters (TOT): Injury to Juan Foyth looks like it settles the Spurs line-up debate with Kyle Walker-Peters looking to start the season at right-back, but we don’t expect that to be a long-term thing if Walker-Peters doesn’t impress. Aston Villa on the opening day is reason enough to back for the opening Gameweek.

Christian Benteke (CRY): The hardest part of picking this weeks differentials revolved around Everton’s visit of Selhurst Park, mostly because Everton have had a goal-shy pre-season and Crystal Palace have been rotating their forwards, with both Wickham and Benteke fit for the start of the season I can see a former Red causing trouble for the Toffees in the wake of Lucas Digne reaching huge ownership numbers.

Chris Mepham (BOU): There have been lots of people who are trying to guess the Bournemouth starting eleven, but if you simply read their pre-season reports you will see that at the centre of their defence has been Mepham who has had a full pre-season to properly bed himself into the team. Having been integrated into the team when he was signed in January, we expect him to start against Sheffield United ahead of £4.0mil defensive options that are uncertain to get game time.

Joelinton (NEW): Arsenal have been generating lots of page grabbing headlines with signing Nicolas Pepe, Dani Ceballos, Gabriel Martinelli, and William Saliba. Despite the buzz, we think there is a trap with this fixture as Arsenal were woeful away from home last season, and it looks like the Gunners haven’t addressed their defensive problem. Newcastle can be competitive in big fixtures, and this could be a head turning game if the Arsenal of last season rears its head. Joelinton is now Newcastle’s record signing and has scored in pre-season for his new club, and without knowing much about a £40 million record signing the Brazilian is a big question mark for this fixture.

Key Differential: Chris Wood (BUR)

The summer transfer window and pre-season has been dominated by back page headlines such as ‘Wan-Bissaka joins United’, and ‘Where will Wilfried Zaha go?’. Liverpool have refused to sign anyone for their first team after Champions League success, and Chelsea have still managed to spend £100mil in the calendar year despite being on a transfer ban. Arsenal even broke their £45million budget by splurging on Nicolas Pepe from Lille.

The big pre-season games have seen Spurs win the Audi Cup by overcoming Bayern Munich and Juventus, and Arsenal losing to Lyon. Liverpool have had struggles, with their only big win coming over Lyon, and Chelsea even beat Barcelona 2-1 in Saitama, Japan. Man United have beaten Inter Milan and Spurs, with many of their youngsters making impressions.

The opening Gameweek sees Liverpool host Norwich, and Man City travel to the Olympic Stadium in the two fixtures that people anticipate where most of their points will come from on the opening weekend. Man United host Chelsea in a blockbuster fixture to the end weekend, and Spurs host Villa in what should be a whitewash. Captaincy options are rife, but there is one fixture that is being overlooked. Nobody knows what to make of Southampton or Burnley, making this 3pm kick-off an interesting fixture. Surprisingly, the best differential for the first Gameweek will play in this fixture.

The New Zealander Chris Wood has been making small ripples in pre-season for his scoring exploits, and if he is able to replicate his form from pre-season then it could be a huge haul for the Clarets forward. Burnley look like they are going to stick with two central forwards, with Wood as the target man, and another striker to play off Wood. So far, Wood has two hattricks in pre-season against Accrington Stanley and Nice, which should be enough to slightly turn your head.

Chris Wood’s preseason goals:

Wood scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Fulham in Portugal.

Wood scored a hat-trick against Accrington Stanley in an 8-0 win.

Wood scored a goal in a 2-0 win against Fleetwood Town.

Wood scored a hat-trick against Nice in a 6-1 win at Turf Moor.

This visit of Southampton isn’t a flashy fixture, or one that will dominate preview reports, but it could be a surprising fixture with both Clarets and Saints in good scoring form during the summer. That’s right, Southampton are unbeaten in pre-season and Che Adams has been making his presence known. This fixture is perfect for our differential captain as there may be plenty of managers that looked over this fixture with their sights set on more flashy players.

Other Considerations

Joel Matip (LIV, DEF, £5.5mil, 0.9% ownership) vs. Norwich (H)

Che Adams (SOU, FWD, £6.0mil, 1.5% ownership) vs. Burnley (A)

Gini Wijnaldum (LIV, MID, £5.5mil, 2.4% ownership) vs. Norwich (H)

Seamus Coleman (EVE, DEF, £5.5mil, 3.9% ownership) vs. Crystal Palace (A)

Troy Deeney (WAT, FWD, £6.5mil, 2.7% ownership) vs. Brighton (H)

Jan Vertonghen (TOT, DEF, £5.5mil, 3.0% ownership) vs. Aston Villa (H)

Fabian Schär (NEW, DEF, £5.0mil, 2.1% ownership) vs. Arsenal (H)

Pedro (CHE, MID, £7.0mil, 2.7% ownership) vs. Man United (A)

Want to know more about The Hype Train?

The Hype Train is an entertainment website founded in 2015, specialising in Fantasy sports reporting, starting with Fantasy Premier League (FPL), before expanding to MLS Fantasy coverage in 2018.

We pride ourselves in providing beautiful graphics, statistics, in-depth analytical reporting and free weekly insight for hopeful players attempting to climb rankings tables. We are also occasional media reviewers, with a keen interest to review games, live sport, and professional wrestling.

In 2019, Hype Train Football Club was formed, becoming the first Fantasy Football website to take to the field. HTFC is a socially active team across social and web channels, providing regular match highlights, match reports, comprehensive player statistics and unique player profiles.

The Hype Train were nominated and shortlisted for the 'Best Football Blog' in 2016 by the Football Bloggers Association at their annual Football Blogging Awards (The FBA's), and were again shortlisted as a finalist in 2019 in the 'Best Fantasy Football Blog' category.

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All aboard.