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Welcome to the 2023/24 Fantasy Premier League season, RotoBallers! The FPL game launched on July 5 and all the prices are revealed. Today, we will continue our team previews with Chelsea and work through the EPL teams, looking at what catches our eye as well as their FPL outlooks.
We began our FPL coverage two years ago and are going big for the upcoming 2023/24 campaign. We will have position previews, team previews, and reactions to the most significant transfers in the preseason. Then, during the year, we will bring you our usual Staff Roundtable, weekly rankings, and a new monthly article: the Watchlist.
The first game of the 2023/24 Fantasy Premier League season is August 11 at 3:00 PM ET. Also, look out for the rest of our excellent soccer coverage as the squad gets you all set for every English Premier League and UEFA Champions League with our EPL DFS lineup picks and betting picks.
FPL Team Preview: Chelsea
Chelsea had a disastrous 2022/23 season, finishing 12th despite spending over £500m on new players. After sacking two managers last season, they appointed former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino this Summer in a bid to stabilize the club and get back into title contention. This year will probably be too soon for that but they've begun trimming their squad and it's set to be an interesting season for the five-time Premier League winners.
Last Year's Chelsea Stats
- League Finish: 12th, 44 points
- Most goals: Kai Havertz, seven goals
- Most assists: Raheem Sterling, four assists
- Most FPL Points: Kepa Arrizabalaga, 118 FPL points
Who is your favorite Chelsea defender for the upcoming FPL campaign?
- My favorite is Ben Chilwell. He edges out Reece James as Chilwell not only scored 26 more points than James, but he averaged 3.0 points per game compared to James' 2.8 points per game. Both had their injury issues last year but Chilwell's set-piece prowess is also a little extra bump for me.
Which Chelsea midfielder is catching your eye?
- As much as I don't want to fall into the trap, I do kind of like Raheem Sterling at £7.0m. Last season was undoubtedly a bad one but it was for every Chelsea player. Sterling still ended up reaching triple-digit points (101) despite only starting 23 games and occasionally featuring at wing-back. If Pochettino reverts to a more traditional 4-3-3 formation, as he did at Tottenham, Sterling should feature as a right-winger and could have a bounce-back season.
The Chelsea forward who will be bagging us some FPL points is...?
- Christopher Nkunku would be the one tempting me to roster. At £7.5m, he's less than the top-tier strikers and while I'm not expecting 25 goals this season, he's scored 36 goals with 17 assists in 51 starts over the last two seasons in the Bundesliga. I'm usually a bit reluctant with new signings from overseas leagues but the Bundesliga isn't too dissimilar to the EPL and Nkunku should adapt pretty quickly.
What run of fixtures favors Chelsea the most for the 2023/24 FPL season?
- Gameweeks 16 - 21 sees Chelsea face six teams (three home and three away) of which two are newly promoted teams, three finished in the bottom half of the table last season, and the only game against a team that finished in the top half is Fulham at home (they finished tenth). We should have a good idea of what to expect from Chelsea by that stage as well.
How many Chelsea players will you have in your Gameweek 1 squad?
- I'll likely have two as I tend to ensure whichever goalkeeper I start. I also like to play a defender from the same team, and I'm looking at having Arrizabalaga to kick things off, so I will probably pair him with Chilwell. That seems like a pretty solid tandem for £10.5m.
What is one bold FPL prediction for any Chelsea player?
- Noni Madueke ends the season as Chelsea's highest-scoring midfielder. If Sterling doesn't get back to his previous self, there's no guarantee that their big-name signings suddenly become good and Madueke could benefit from that. He was just featured in England's successful UEFA European Under-21s Championship victory, playing in all six games. Although he may have a late start to the season, he's someone I'll be following closely. If Chelsea opts to loan him out to another EPL club, he could really thrive.
