One of the fastest growing fantasy games is the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) - a season-long version of fantasy soccer for the English Premier League (EPL). With millions of players each year, the FPL game is becoming a fixture for soccer enthusiasts across the globe.

Having played the game for the last twelve seasons and largely languished in mediocrity (apart from a top 30K finish in 2009/10), I was ready to finally put my largely wasted knowledge of football statistics to use and strive to become one of the game's elite players. Last season, I finished around the 250K mark and in the process won my family league - but that is not enough for me.

Tired of wasting my time with meaningless, emotion-fueled transfers, I have decided to make a concerted effort to not only destroy my fantasy league this year, but improve on last year's finish and - hopefully - have a good amount of fun in the process. Thanks for joining me on my journey through EPL's Fantasy Premier League. I hope you enjoy the embarrassment that is about to unfold and, just maybe, pick up a piece of advice from a self-described non-expert on the game.

EPL Diaries - Fantasy Premier League

The Squad:

GK: Joe Hart (4.5M), Maarten Stekelenburg (4M)
DF: Marcos Alonso (6.7M), Benjamin Mendy (6.4M), Andrew Robertson (6.1M), Aymeric Laporte (5.5M), Ryan Bennett (4M)
MF: Eden Hazard (10.6M), Sadio Mane (9.9M), Christian Eriksen (9.4M), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (7.1M), Pedro (6.7M)
FW: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (10.9M) , Aboubakar Kamara (4.5M), Isaac Success (4.5M)

Analysis:

Sometimes, it just feels like it isn't meant to be. Trading away Mitrovic, losing Salah, a Richarlison red card, and captaining Aubameyang. When those things happen at the same time, you feel like you can't do anything right. But, such is life in the early stages of the fantasy season. I have already played my wildcard, and can't fit Salah in my team even if I wanted to, so I have to stick with what I have and hope for the best. Let's see how my team did last week.

I finished the Week with 55 points, bringing my total to 163. Having placed in the top 1.7 million on the weak (this is so sad, get ready), I am now, sigh, ranked 2.1 million. Hopefully, my team can turn up, because if not, this weekly post may become even more of a laughingstock than it already is.

Despite conceding four goals, Joe Hart still had five saves on the night and somehow ended up with two points. My defense saved me this week, as Mendy somehow got two bonus points, Alonso had 11, Laporte scored (wow, one of my selections actually worked out), and Robertson got the three bonus points for his side. All in all, to have 34 points from your goalkeeper in defense would guarantee you a top finish for the week. However, it just didn't work out that way for me.

Hazard scored a nice penalty, and to be fair played beautifully in a game that he absolutely got bullied and injured several times. Eriksen finally got an assist for the team, which was good to see as he hopefully starts to pay off. However, Mane and Mkhitaryan both missed chances in their match and couldn't do anything special, and new signing Richarlison got himself sent off. Never again, buddy. Never again. Up top, captain Aubameyang was substituted for Danny Welbeck in the 74th minute. The same Danny Welbeck that scored a last minute stoppage time winner and collected three bonus points for his trouble. It's easy to look at this situation in despair and hopelessness. But at the very least, I am trying to stay positive and at least provide a template for other fantasy owners on who NOT to select in their lineups.

Nevertheless, I needed to regroup, so I sold Richarlison while he still had value and have brought in Pedro, who seems to be one of Sarri's favorite players so far this season. I am not sure how long I will keep him, as I don't want to hedge against Hazard performing as well. I need Hazard to come as close to replicating Salah's performances each week as possible - otherwise, my strategy to not have the Egyptian in my lineup will most certainly backfire (as I am slowly realizing that it most likely will, anyway). I might wait until after Gameweek 5 and double transfer Pedro for a budget mid and one of my forwards for Mitrovic once again. He seems to be Fulham's main attacking outlet and already has the second most shots in the league this season, behind Aguero.

Approaching Gameweek 4, I have some solid matchups to take advantage of. Hart plays a Manchester United team in shambles - hopefully he can produce something decent. With the majority of players already having Mendy, Robertson, and Alonso, I can only hope that they do well enough to take me above the people who don't have them. Additionally, Man City take on Newcastle; hopefully, they can keep a clean sheet, giving Laporte another six points. Equating clean sheets to goals from a team's striker, Man City kept 18 of them last year. If Laporte starts 14 of those games and chips in with the odd goal himself every now and then, I am confident that he will return his 5.5M value to me.

I have decided to captain Hazard this week over Aubameyang or Mane because I believe in his talent above all else as well as his opponent - Bournemouth. Hopefully, the magician can come up with another solid display and justify my choice of captaincy. Alongside him, Mane, Pedro, Eriksen, and Mkhitaryan all have good matchups against lesser sides and should have enough about them to produce one or two good displays.

Finally, up top, Aubameyang faces Cardiff. Having failed to score in his first three games, he really needs to step up his game because the 11M I invested in him is too much to have someone blank for that many games in a row. The chances are there, the matchups are there, now he just needs to take advantage of his opportunities and SCORE! Is that too much to ask? Just once or twice, please. Give me some hope that you can replicate your form from the rest of your career, Pierre.

Hopefully, I can finally have a breakout week with my team and start clawing my way up the rankings. It's now or never time with my team - they can't let me down anymore.

That's all for this week - good luck gents!