Gianni Buttice
FPL expert and eight-time top-50k finisher

Manchester City might not have the best opening fixtures but with the addition of Tijani Reijnders, Rayan Ait Nouri and Rayan Cherki they have recruited elite level players than improve their XI.

These additions will ease the goal scoring burden on Erling Haaland as they surely challenge for the title once again.

A clean sheet last time out, as well as improving defensive numbers in the run-in last season, suggest Guardiola’s men will be better defensively this time round.

Gianni Buttice
FPL expert and eight-time top-50k finisher

Image source, get

Luke: What would you do with Bowen after a poor start in the first gameweek, hold or swap out...he has already dropped in price!

Gianni: Re-classified as a forward, Bowen is less appealing this year but there aren’t many mid-price forwards options to move Chris Wood - but I wonder how European Football and playing twice a week will effect him longer term

Gianni Buttice
FPL expert and eight-time top-50k finisher

If you own Bukayo Saka, Viktor Gyokeres or Erling Haaland these three have a good home fixture and all feel like relatively safe bets.

Many however will be deciding between the games two highest owned players; Mohamed Salah and Cole Palmer.

The first round of fixtures suggest Liverpool will continue to be the leagues best attack and Salah has a good record against Newcastle, a fixture that is often high scoring.

Meanwhile Palmer hasn’t scored an open play league goal since January.

Statman Dave: You should be looking at Reijnders. If he plays for Manchester City consistently for the entire season, he's going to score a minimum of 10 goals in the Premier League, potentially 15. He's just someone that you want to get in your team - the spaces he plays in are perfect. Kevin de Bruyne is gone - he's basically playing that same area.

John Acres: If I didn't have him I think I would have jumped before his price rise. He just looks set, doesn't he? He just looks he looks like you've got to have him. And it feels like by the time we get to gameweek six or seven, everyone will have him.

Gianni Buttice: Before Manchester City's pre-season match against Palermo, where Reijnders scored twice in his 45-minute cameo, the Dutchman was under 5% owned in FPL. He now goes in to this weekend's fixtures in one of every three teams.

AC Milan fans would have been shocked to see FPL price the Dutchman at £5.5m. The Serie A's midfielder of the year scored 10 goals and earned five assists in the league last season for what was a poor Milan side that finished outside of the European places.

Image source, BBC/Getty Images

A reminder to get those questions in to Gianni this afternoon.

We've got plenty in the tank already but he'll be with us until 17:00 to answer any of those dilemmas that are already facing you before gameweek 2 gets under way!

Remember, the deadline is 18:30 this evening!

Image source, Premier League

Gianni Buttice is an FPL expert and best-selling author of the book: "Fantasy Premier League: Unlocking the Secrets to a Top 1% Finish."

He has only finished outside the top 100k three times in the past 14 seasons and has eight top-50k finishes.

Gianni runs an FPL YouTube channel, is a regular on the Official Fantasy Show, Sky Sports News FPL show and has appeared on the BBC's Fantasy 606 podcast.

He has 52k followers on X, 28k on YouTube and more than 800k likes on TikTok.

Brentford

Brentford boss Keith Andrews confirmed Yoane Wissa could return to the squad to face Aston Villa.

"He’s been training with the team," he said. "I’ll make a decision tomorrow.

"He’s Brentford player right now. My stance is that I don’t want him to leave and that hasn’t changed.

"I’ve spoke to him, he knows that I want him to stay… that has not changed."

Ben Ramsdale
BBC Sport

Before we get to meeting today's expert - in case you missed it in the big recap - there was some very interesting team news coming out of Brentford manager Keith Andrews' news conference today...

The deadline for this week is TODAY at 18:30.

Do not forget to make those changes if needed.

It's a long gameweek this week, kicking off this evening before rounding off on Monday night.

Friday

• West Ham v Chelsea (20:00 BST)

Saturday

• Man City v Tottenham (12:30 BST)
• Bournemouth v Wolves
• Burnley v Sunderland
• Brentford v Aston Villa
• Arsenal v Leeds United (17:30 BST)

Sunday

• Crystal Palace v Nottingham Forest (14:00 BST)
• Everton v Brighton (14:00 BST)
• Fulham v Man Utd (16:30 BST)

Monday

Newcastle United v Liverpool (20:00 BST)

All games kick-off at 15:00 BST unless stated...

Ben Ramsdale
BBC Sport

Well, that was all a bit dramatic wasn't it?

Time to switch gears now to other serious matters, like Fantasy Premier League.

A fun-filled 90 minutes in store. Let's get to it!

Image source, Getty Images

Just the ELEVEN Premier League managers have been facing the media today.

Before we start on our deep dive in to fantasy football, let's get some team news:

• City - Rodri and Foden return but Kovacic, Gvardiol and Savinho out
• Arsenal - Norgaard, Timber, Jesus and Havertz out - White a doubt
• Newcastle - Fully fit team and Ramsey could make debut
• Bournemouth - Christie could return but Kluivert unlikely to feature
• Manchester United - Mazraoui and Martinez only two players missing
• Spurs - Kulusevski and Udogie the only two not fit
• Palace - Kamada unlikely to feature but rest of the squad looks good
• Everton - Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Patterson remain out
• Brentford - Wissa could return against Villa
• Fulham - Sessegnon and Robinson doubts
• Wolves - Jackson Tchatchoua is available to play this weekend

Now is the time to make any transfers...

A reminder that full news conference updates for all of the respective teams can be found on our football habit pages. You can access those from the BBC Sport home page and clicking on the team of your choice.

Image source, Getty Images

Nuno Espirito Santo was appointed as Nottingham Forest's manager back in December 2023 when the club were sitting 17th in the table.

He managed to keep Forest up, despite a four-point deduction, and then he guided the club to seventh in the Premier League last season to qualify for Europe for the first time since 1995-1996.

Nuno also took them to the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time since 1991, where they lost 2-0 to Manchester City.

And just a couple of months ago, he signed a new three-year deal with the club.

It seems like things have changed significantly since then.

Image source, Getty Images

Evangelos Marinakis is the founder and chairman of Capital Maritime & Trading Corp, an international shipping company, and was voted Greek Shipping Personality of the Year by British publication Lloyd's List in 2017.

He has also invested in the media and his company, Alter Ego Media, bought two of Greece's best known daily newspapers - Ta Nea and To Vima.

In 2019, he launched a new television channel, One Channel, in Greece. Earlier this year, his Alter Ego Media company, the largest media organisation in Greece, floated on the Athens stock market.

As well as owning Forest, Marinakis bought Olympiakos in 2010.

Under his ownership, the Greek side have won 11 domestic league titles and the Europa Conference League in 2024. Portuguese side Rio Ave also come under his portfolio.

Image source, Getty Images

These were Evangelos Marinakis' words when Nuno Espirito Santo signed a new three-year deal with Forest in June.

"Nuno has made a great impact and performed very well during his time with us so far," Marinakis said earlier this summer.

"He has demonstrated that he maximises player performance and is an expert at developing players, whilst also embedding our young talent into the first team set-up.

"We enjoy a strong and solid relationship together and, above all, we share the same dream and ambition of writing a new history for Nottingham Forest, competing in the Premier League and in Europe and winning trophies for our great club."

Not so rosy now.

Sami Mokbel
BBC Sport Senior football correspondent

Nuno Espirito Santo's future as Nottingham Forest manager is uncertain after a breakdown in his relationship with owner Evangelos Marinakis.

Sources have told BBC Sport that Nuno's position is not completely safe despite last season's achievement of qualifying for Europe and their opening-day win over Brentford on Sunday.

The uncertainty, according to sources, has now stretched to the playing squad who are said to be aware of the situation.