EVERY Dream Team manager wants to burst out of the blocks at the start of a new season.
Tottenham fan Patrick Blaney did just that at the weekend when his XI racked up 107 points.
Only 22 gaffers amassed a century of points in Game Week 1 and all will fancy their chances of claiming August’s incredible prize for the first edition of our monthly competition, a brand new PlayStation 5!
Let’s take a closer look at the early front runner…
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Controversially, Patrick’s team relies hugely on his club’s fierce local rivals!
How many of his fellow Spurs supporters have picked an exclusive Arsenal defence in front of Aaron Ramsdale (£3m) to start the season? It can’t be many.
This just proves that it’s generally wise to discard your emotions and biases when selecting your Dream Team because Patrick’s disloyalty earned him a whopping 43 points on Friday when the Gunners beat Crystal Palace 2-0.
Oleksandr Zinchenko (£3.5m) was the standout performer as he provided an assist on top of the clean sheet to ultimately scoop the Star Man award.
It should be noted that Patrick was hugely helped by Kieran Tierney’s (£3m) introduction as an 83rd-minute substitute, meaning the Scotsman could claim his share of the clean sheet points.
Kevin De Bruyne (£7m) opened his assist account for 2021/22 with a perfectly-weighted throughball for Erling Haaland (£7m) that resulted in Manchester City’s second goal against West Ham.
Premier League viewers may see that combination a few times this season.
However, it was Dejan Kulusevski (£3.5m) who provided the most plentiful return in midfield with a 15-point haul.
The young Swede thoroughly deserved the Star Man award as he scored one goal and assisted another as Spurs thrashed Southampton 4-1 in north London on Saturday.
It’s not often Antonio Conte’s side score four goals without Son Heung-min (£6.5m) or Harry Kane (£7.5m) making an appearance on the scoresheet but that just shows the status Kulusevski has established on these shores in rapid time.
Up front, Patrick was one of very few gaffers who wisely backed Aleksandar Mitrovic (£3.5m) from the off.
Fulham’s No9 plundered 43 goals in the Championship last season and he picked up where he left off to cause all sorts of problems for Trent Alexander-Arnold (£6.5m) and Virgil van Dijk (£6m) en route to a brace and his first Star Man award of the campaign.
Whereas Mitrovic was a savvy differential, Haaland featured in over half of all teams created ahead of the Game Week 1 and he justified his popularity with two goals at the London Stadium.
His cyborg-like acceleration to draw a foul from Alphonse Areola (£2m) in the box and his ruthlessly efficient one-on-one finish for the second were both reminders of why the Norwegian has been so hyped in recent years.
And last but not least, Mohamed Salah (£7.5m) bagged his obligatory opening day goal despite Liverpool dropping two points at Craven Cottage.
The prolific Egyptian is as reliably brilliant as any Dream Team asset has ever been.
Looking forward, Patrick’s high-risk-high-reward strategy at the back could come back to bite him.
If Arsenal concede two or more goals in any game this month then he will almost certainly see the PlayStation 5 slip between his fingers.
Saying that, the upcoming fixtures look pretty favourable for Mikel Arteta’s side so perhaps it’s tactic worth sticking by for the foreseeable future.
And he may already be wondering if the £5.5m spent on Riyad Mahrez could be better invested elsewhere but for now Patrick should enjoy the satisfaction of being the outright best Dream Team gaffer in the world!
Good luck to all ahead of Game Week 2.
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