Richard Masana 
We return for MatchWeek Two of the EPL season. One match stands out as a mismatch in particular, as newly promoted Bournemouth travels to play the defending Champion Manchester City. It is a safe assumption that we might see the Cherries “get popped” or perhaps “Pep-ped” if you will, given the City theme to the affair.
As far as the plays, let’s try not to overreact one way or another based on the one-match sample size we have to date. Not much has changed in terms of the overall outlook on players from last week. However, now we have a number of fresh faces added into the mix on this slate. Last week, we had the luxury of having some extra salary to spend up on defense and/or goalie. Nevertheless, that is certainly not the case here as we’re suffering from some Manchester City-induced inflation and money is tight.
Saturday 8/13 EPL
Match Odds
Leicester City (+500) at Arsenal (-195)
Newcastle (+200) at Brighton (+145)
Bournemouth (+450) at Manchester City (-1400)
Leeds United (+215) at Southampton (+130)
Manchester United (+100) at Brentford (+290) “FanDuel only“
8/13 EPL Top Plays
DraftKings/FanDuel Forward
Erling Haaland – Manchester City – $11,000/$23 – The defending champions’ star acquisition is off to a brilliant start to his Manchester City career. If there was ever a good opportunity to follow up on his two-goal EPL debut, it will be in this spot hosting the Cherries. As you might imagine, he will be extremely popular and along with Kevin De Bruyne, a cash piece, with what sets up as a stars and scrubs cash slate. If building at least two tournament lines, I’d go one with, and one without given how expensive he is in addition to the boom or bust nature of a striker.
Pivots: Bukayo Saka – Arsenal – $9,300/$17, Phil Foden – Manchester City – $8,000/$21
DraftKings/FanDuel Midfielder
Kevin De Bruyne – Manchester City – $10,000/$22 – Finally fully healthy and in control of set pieces for Man City, De Bruyne is a stand-out play. While Man City’s first match of the season versus West Ham only yielded five corners for our man, I’d expect much more possession and thus many more chances/set pieces here. The biggest issue is the price as in tournaments a De Bruyne/Haaland pairing is likely not optimal. He also has far less goal-scoring upside than Haaland although much higher assist upside and a larger floor in general.
Pivots: James Ward-Prowse – Southampton -$8,900/$18, Bukayo Saka – Arsenal – $9,300/$17
DraftKings Defender
Joao Cancelo – Manchester City – $6,500 – Cancelo might not take any set pieces but gets in on free kicks here/there and in general acts like a forward at times. Given the matchup and odds here that’s enough to propel him to the very top of the defender rankings this week.
Pivot: Matt Targett/Kieran Trippier – Newcastle- $6,200/$5,500, James Justin – Leicester City – $4,000
FanDuel Defender
Matt Targett – Newcastle – $12 – Targett has a split on Newcastle set pieces with Kieran Trippier leading to some chances created. He also grabs a variety of defensive stats as well, so I think he is a good “mid-range” FanDuel defenseman as it is hard to go any higher up in price given the costs elsewhere when building lineups this week.
Pivot: James Justin – Leicester City – $8
DraftKings/FanDuel Goalie
Ederson – Manchester City – $5,900/$15 – As mentioned above, Man City is a -1400 money line favorite hosting Bournemouth. In terms of odds versus costs given the chances of a clean sheet, this is one occasion it makes sense to spend up at goalie.
Pivot: Nick Pope – Newcastle – $4,500/$10, Marek Rodak – Fulham – $4,500/$9
EPL Top Bets
Over 2.5 Goals Southampton/Leeds United (-140) – Bet MGM – 1 Unit – Two defensively deficient teams are in play here and although far from even money, I still think this hits.
Make sure to hop in our Expert Discord Chat for FREE! Rich will be there answering questions all day and all night! Follow Rich on Twitter @JFan303 and be sure to be on the lookout for future articles at https://windailysports.com/daily-fantasy-soccer/
