GW8 - Premier League preview, MA Summary

International break and your teams injuries!

FL Gameweek 8 is the first round back after the international break, and plenty of managers will be nervously checking their injury lists, because the break wasn’t kind to some of the big names. Saturday opens with Arsenal hosting an unbeaten Leeds. The Gunners are still smarting from the 3-0 defeat at Brighton and are short of bodies, with Kai Havertz and Christos Tzolis both picking up hamstring problems on international duty and Ezri Konsa a fitness doubt after a knock. Brentford, third in the table after that win over Chelsea, travel to a Villa side buzzing from the comeback-that-nearly-wasn’t against Spurs. A Chelsea side without a win in three then face Bournemouth, hoping to put Xabi Alonso’s wobble behind them. Elsewhere on Saturday afternoon there’s Ipswich against Fulham and Sunderland against Brighton, two games that could easily go either way. The evening kick-off sees Manchester United host Tottenham, with Carrick missing Benjamin Šeško, Noussair Mazraoui and Patrick Dorgu.

Sunday is dominated by the big one at Anfield, where Liverpool host Manchester City at 4:30pm. City arrive with a perfect record from five games and Erling Haaland declared fit, though Phil Foden serves the last game of his ban. Liverpool are in trouble up front, with Alexander Isak and Gakpo both hurt on international duty, leaving Iraola short of firepower for the game of the weekend. Earlier in the day, Crystal Palace host Nottingham Forest, and Hull welcome an Everton side who’ll fancy their chances. The weekend wraps up on Monday night with Coventry against Newcastle, a chance for the Magpies to bounce back after their heavy defeat at Leeds, while Coventry look to build on their first win of the season.

European Competition

Chairs, it’s time to get your teams entered for our European competitions! The deadline for entries is 19th October, so please make sure you’ve signed up for both the Champions League and the Europa League before then. We’ll also send a reminder email to all chairs next week, just in case it slips your mind.

No Football, No Problem: FL’s International Break Round-Up

A three week break, gave us a real chance for a data purge. We been doing a bit of a data cleanse of old records, leagues and teams. Additionally, we’ve consolidated our late league entries, we have a number of leagues who wait until the first International break to start their league. So we’ve been running points backdates for those leagues, proving its never to late to start a Fantasy League League 🙂
We’ve had a first guest news blog of the year, last years confessions writer Stephen Fuller popped up with a great article on hidden FL gems for your sealed bids, if you haven’t seen it, its well worth a read: https://news.fantasyleague.com/2026/10/07/hidden-fantasy-league-gems/

Manager Support – What is it really like?

We’ve just published a no-holds-barred look at what a day in the life of Manager Support really involves. Pop along and have a nosy at the FLHQ shenanigans here: https://news.fantasyleague.com/2026/10/02/inside-manager-support-what-really-goes-on/