The opening weekend belonged to home sides, overwhelmingly and almost immediately. Seven of the ten fixtures were won by the home team, five of those without conceding at all, and two of the three that were not produced the only away wins of the round. That is not how anyone modelled it, ourselves included, and it is the single fact that explains most of what follows.
Every result
- Arsenal 3–0 Coventry City — Saka, Ødegaard, Havertz
- Hull City 2–0 Man Utd — Ajayi, Mendy
- Everton 2–0 Crystal Palace — Dewsbury-Hall, Barry
- Ipswich Town 2–1 Sunderland — Clarke, Emersonn, Angulo
- Nott'm Forest 0–1 Leeds — Stach
- Brentford 3–0 Spurs — Lewis-Potter, Kayode, Janelt
- Brighton 4–0 Aston Villa — Hinshelwood (2), De Cuyper
- Man City 2–1 Bournemouth — Guéhi, Gvardiol, Tavernier
- Newcastle 2–2 Liverpool — Elanga, Willock, Gakpo, Szoboszlai
- Fulham 2–3 Chelsea — King, Gonzalo, Rogers, Palmer, João Pedro
How our predictions scored
Before a ball was kicked we published an exact scoreline for all 10 fixtures. Unedited, here is how that went: 3 of 10 results correct, 1 exact scoreline.
The misses were not scattered. We predicted three home wins; there were seven. Five of our seven wrong calls share exactly one shape: we took the away side or the bigger name, and the home team won anyway — Hull over Manchester United, Brentford over Tottenham, Brighton over Aston Villa, Ipswich over Sunderland, Everton over Crystal Palace. Four of those five were clean sheets. The error was not in rating the squads; it was in pricing the venue, and specifically in assuming a stronger squad travels well in August, when nobody has any rhythm and the home crowd is the loudest it will be all season.
Where we were wrong
- Hull City v Manchester United — we said 0-2, it finished 2-0
- Everton v Crystal Palace — we said 1-1, it finished 2-0
- Ipswich Town v Sunderland — we said 1-2, it finished 2-1
- Nottingham Forest v Leeds — we said 2-0, it finished 0-1
- Brentford v Tottenham — we said 1-2, it finished 3-0
- Brighton v Aston Villa — we said 1-2, it finished 4-0
- Newcastle v Liverpool — we said 1-2, it finished 2-2
The standout performers
By FPL points, the players who did most in Gameweek 1:
- De Cuyper (DEF, BHA) — 17 points, 1 goal, 1 assist, 2 bonus
- Hinshelwood (MID, BHA) — 16 points, 2 goals, 3 bonus
- Mendy (DEF, HUL) — 15 points, 1 goal, 1 bonus
- Ajayi (DEF, HUL) — 14 points, 1 goal, 2 bonus
- M.Sangaré (MID, BRE) — 14 points, 2 assists, 3 bonus
- Kayode (DEF, BRE) — 13 points, 1 goal, 1 bonus
The top two scorers in the entire gameweek came from the same match, and neither was a striker. Brighton's Maxim De Cuyper, a full-back, returned a goal and an assist for 17 points in the 4–0 over Aston Villa, with midfielder Jack Hinshelwood scoring twice behind him. When a defender is the highest scorer of the round it usually means a game got away from someone early, and this one did: Villa never made Brighton defend, so the players paid to defend spent the afternoon attacking instead.
The table after Gameweek 1
Brighton lead on 3 points, with Arsenal 2nd.
Treat that table as decoration. After one match a side that won 4–0 sits above a side that won 1–0 on goal difference alone, which tells you nothing about either. The only durable information from Gameweek 1 is the home-advantage skew above — and even that is one round of football, which is why we will keep publishing the scorecard rather than quietly adjusting and claiming we knew all along.
Think you would have called it better? Predict every scoreline yourself — it is free, and it scores against the real matches all season.