It's about that time. The weekend is approaching, you just sat through a meaningless Carabao Cup match where your favorite team casually trotted out a pack of 15-year-old reserve players and took an L to a League Two side, and the Premier League is back this weekend. Time to fix that FPL roster that scored you 29 points last week and find this week's Son Heung-min to captain. We're here to help with the best FPL Week 3 picks out there.
On Dec. 11, 2018, Manchester City and the Columbus Crew agreed on an estimated $7 million transfer fee for American goalkeeper Zack Steffen. After 653 days, the Pennsylvania native can now officially say he has played for Manchester City. The monumental Zack Steffen debut that us American outlets hyped up ended up being a quiet occasion.
It appears that the Kepa Arrizabalaga experiment is ending for Chelsea. The club announced the signing of goalkeeper Edouard Mendy from Stade Rennais on Thursday for a fee of $26 million. The Senegalese international allowed just 0.76 goals per game in Ligue 1 last season, second in the league, but is he the solution to Chelsea's goalkeeping headache, or will he be just another overpaid, underperforming shot-stopper?
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says his side are "evolving" and that German playmaker Mesut Ozil will find it difficult to break into the squad.
Ozil, whose contract is set to expire next June, did not feature towards the end of last season and was not named in Arsenal's matchday squad for the first three games of the new campaign.
Chelsea midfielder Kai Havertz got off the mark with a hat trick in a 6-0 thrashing of Barnsley at Stamford Bridge in the third round of the League Cup on Wednesday.
Havertz, who joined Chelsea from Bayer Leverkusen for 71 million pounds ($90 million), started both of his side's Premier League games against Brighton and Hove Albion and Liverpool but showed his class against Championship (second tier) side Barnsley.
Fantasy Premier League is kind of a big deal here at The18. Friendships are strained over trash talk and sometimes it seems like people put more effort into perfecting each week’s lineup than their day-to-day duties.
When I joined The18 this year I had plenty of soccer knowledge but knew nothing about the arbitrary rules of Fantasy Premier League. But I had an idea: using the latest in data science and machine learning to derive the best possible fantasy team to conquer The18’s FPL league.
It’s been a challenging couple weeks for Americans keeping tabs on Yanks abroad. With Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams and Sergiño Dest making headlines, Zack Steffen’s new role as understudy to Ederson at Manchester City has been largely overshadowed.
Wolverhampton Wanderers have signed 26-year-old Portuguese defender Nelson Semedo from Barcelona for 30 million euros ($35.1 million) plus add-ons, the La Liga club announced on Wednesday.
The right back, 26, has penned a deal that will keep him at Molineux until June 2023, with an option to extend it to June 2025.
Semedo made 122 appearances for Barcelona in all competitions after arriving from Benfica in 2017. He won two Spanish league titles, a Copa del Rey and a Spanish Super Cup.
On paper, Watford traveled to southeast Wales on Tuesday as overwhelming favorite over Newport County in their third-round League Cup tie. Watford was a Premier League club last season, while Newport County was a middling League Two side. What the Hornets failed to account for though was Newport's penchant for upsetting upper-league opposition in cup competitions.