In this blog, the teams with the worst opening first six fixtures in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) are ranked by Attack and Defensive difficulty using the Fixture Planner tool.

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Worst Attacking Fixtures

Newcastle were a popular team for fantasy football managers to invest in over the 2022/23 campaign but the Magpies are ranked bottom of the Fixture Planner for Attack Difficulty. The likes of C. Wilson and Isak look like poor picks early doors with their first four fixtures against Villa, Man. City, Liverpool and Brighton - sides who all finished in European spots last season. Watkins was also a popular option but the Villa talisman's fixtures look daunting with two away games to Newcastle and Liverpool. As the below image from the Stats Sandbox feature shows, only Man. Utd (10) conceded fewer goals in home matches than the two aforementioned sides. Mitrović has received a price hike to £7.5m this season and with Fulham's opening fixtures, it is probably best to wait and see if he can justify his price tag.

Worst Defensive Fixtures

Newcastle had the joint-best defensive record in the division last season along with the highest scoring defender in Trippier, but the Magpies' schedule looks unappealing from a defensive standpoint. Villa are very capable of scoring under Emery while Man. City, Liverpool and Brighton were amongst the top scorers last season. The right-back is the second most expensive-defender in the game and might suffer price drops if returns are slim early doors. Leno and Fabianksi are likely to be popular goalkeeper options with a bargain £4.5m price but managers might be better off going for Pickford in that price bracket with the aforementioned duo's teams ranked 18th and 15th for Defence difficulty.

Who are the Elite Managers going with?

As the above image from our Elite XI: Team Reveal feature shows, the Consensus XI currently has Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Estupinan and Gabriel in defence with none of the players mentioned earlier in the blog popular selections. Brighton and Arsenal both have great fixtures early doors and Alexander-Arnold is the most attack minded defender in the game.

You can check out the Elite XI: Team Reveal tool by clicking HERE.