First weekend of the Premier League
GW1 delivered proper chaos. Arsenal made light work of Coventry, with Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard all getting on the scoresheet in a 3-0 stroll — Havertz clearly still buzzing after also scoring in the Community Shield.
But the real fireworks were elsewhere: newly-promoted Hull City turned up at the MKM Stadium and mugged Manchester United 2-0, with centre-backs Semi Ajayi and debutant Nobel Mendy both scoring — imagine getting beaten by the opposition’s defenders on your own opening day.
Marcus Rashford came off the bench for his first United appearance since December 2024 and, created, well, nothing. Brentford somehow topped that humiliation, tearing Tottenham apart 3-0 courtesy of Lewis-Potter, Janelt and Michael Kayode, with Spurs so shell-shocked they didn’t even manage a shot on target in the first half.
Sunday’s headline act was Newcastle 2-2 Liverpool, a genuine roller-coaster: Anthony Elanga put the hosts ahead inside five minutes, Cody Gakpo levelled midway through the second half, Joe Willock restored Newcastle’s lead within seconds of coming off the bench, and then, deep, deep into stoppage time, Dominik Szoboszlai stepped up and buried a penalty to rescue a point for Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool — an absolutely filthy way to open your reign as manager.
Man City eventually saw off Bournemouth 2-1 and Monday night brought the perfect close to the game week: Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea reign kicked off with Joao Pedro scoring after just 31 seconds, before Morgan Rogers marked his debut with a goal and Cole Palmer added a third, as Chelsea survived a Fulham fightback to win 3-2.
One game week in, and it’s already clear this season is not going to behave itself.
Supersubs
We’re already had a stack of “the dog ate my supersubs” emails into support, so whilst Supersubs it is a very useful tool and will pick the optimal team for each round of games, it can sometimes need guidance, especially if a manager has numerous defensive options.
Therefore, we’d recommend checking each round before clicking Accept And Save to ensure there are no players you want playing left on the bench – you can see this by checking for any players highlighted in green.
• Green ticks against all names in the player list – any black crosses mean they won’t play
• Please spend some time and actually check the Supersubs confirmation email for any names in bold on the bench, which means they won’t accrue any points.
Please ensure that any retrospective points adjustments come through your chair, confirmation emails are a huge help for us too, a quick check and reallocation of points if needed.
Transfer Day Deadline
A day here at FL HQ we hate, as usually it ends in a big evening of disappointment, with OPTA not updating their feed for the juicy signings until around 3AM. So as usual, we will be around until close it closes at 11PM Tuesday, the 1st of September. We expect most high profile signings, will be added the following day. Lets face it, there are lots of teams looking at some very late replacements.
Team of the week – GW1
Anyhow, the most important news this week, is the first winner of 2026/27 Manager team of the Week.
Congrats go to:
The Binmen managed by Matt who is part of the UTFR 2026-27 league, which has a league size of 12 managers.
The binmen picked up the first 30 point weekend, with a skip filling 35.
Being in a larger league (12 teams) and a small squad size (13 players) means Matts also well clear in the overall rankings, but most amazingly of all, he has just a single striker! Stand up Matt and take a bow! A fantastic week.
