Welcome back to the Hive FPL and game week 3 of the season.

There's plenty for managers to consider this week as we head towards the end of the transfer window. As tends to happen, there's not been a huge amount of movement on the market since the beginning of the football itself but if rumours are to believed there are still a good number of deals in the pipeline to be completed over the coming days.

If nothing else, the potential for player movements plus the upcoming international break is precisely why managers should still look to be conservative with their chips during the early part of the campaign, even if you've had a shocking start and your finger is twitching over the wildcard option!

In fact, GW2 saw the potential benefit of picking players who have moved club. Gyökeres, Grealish, Dango, Joao Pedro and Diakite all made an immediate impact for their new clubs and put up big FPL numbers in the process.

GW2 also saw the importance of getting your vice-captain pick correct. Cole Palmer was the 2nd most popular selection for the armband last weekend but was a shock exclusion from Chelsea's starting XI against West Ham due to a niggle.

GW2 review

On the transfer front, our tips for who to bring in were pretty much on the money.

Burnley enjoyed a clean sheet against Sunderland but despite Dubravka and Estève being 2 of the most popular picks in the Hive FPL, the vast majority of managers missed out on the points they scored, preferring to stick with them as purely bench options.

There was far more interest in Arsenal's defenders with Gabriel sneaking into the top 5 picks for that position in the FPL with ownership in just under a quarter of teams. Either managers are chasing points on a week by week basis or they have confidence in Arsenal's defensive resilience against much tougher opposition in the coming rounds.

We also suggested that you look at Bournemouth midfield assets for their home game against Wolves and it was one of our picks in Tavernier who delivered a goal and 3 bonus points. In the Hive FPL, it was Semenyo who was the far more popular transfer in for GW2. He did get an assist and really should have scored too.

Going forward, he looks to be the Cherries main attacking threat and we did see the likes of Kluivert and Christie start the EFL Cup game in midweek, suggesting that rotation for the other positions in the XI will become more frequent going forward.

A lot of sides looked to jump on Man City players following their 4-0 opening day win but familiar problems have been exposed during GW2.

Of particular concern will be those who transferred out Liverpool's Frimpong due to his injury and replaced him with Ait-Nouri who went off injured himself with an ankle problem in the defeat to Spurs. He's listed as a 75% chance of playing against Brighton so probably one to watch in the run up to the deadline on Saturday morning.

Price changes and the most valuable squads in Hive FPL

The difficultly with these injuries and the mass movements of players coming in and out of squads is the price changes that it creates.

Ait-Nouri's popularity in GW2 saw him rise to a price of £6.1mil while by contrast, Frimpong fell to £5.9mil. Making that transfer costs squads £0.2 mil! It may become even more costly to replace the Man City full-back if he's not available this weekend.

The biggest price rises so far have been for forwards with Ekitike, Wood and Richarlison all rising by 0.2mil since the start of the game. Ekitike's ownership is currently at 25% but expect that to rise dramatically for GW4 once Liverpool are clear of Arsenal and assuming that they don't complete the signing of Alexander Isak. If it does look like Isak is going to get what he wants then I'd expect we'll see a sizable shift away from the Frenchman. Isak, for his part, has already dropped 0.1mil in value.

Similarly with price drops, it's again the forwards that have seen the biggest slumps. Solanke who was a popular pick in pre-season with the expectation that he'd be Thomas Frank's main man in attack has dropped 0.2mil due to injury and the form of Richie.

The other forward to drop 0.2mil is Jarrod Bowen. For him, you know it's not a lack of game time that is causing managers to shift him out of their sides (nearly half a million did just that in GW2) but a damning endorsement of his West Ham side more generally who look to be in real trouble this season.

I'm not that surprised that it's the forward line that is seeing the most movement. In my opinion, picking a front 3 was harder than any other area of the pitch at the start of the season and I'm not convinced that the situation is any clearer following the opening 2 games. Expect more turbulence amongst these players over the coming rounds!

As far as Hive FPL is concerned, the 2 most valuable squads are @ronnie10 (value £100.4mil) and @valchiz (£100.3mil). However, I would note that both have used their wildcards in GW2 allowing them to jump on some of the early trends noted above. Let's see if that pays off for them as the season progresses. @ronnie10 are currently sitting 11th in the Classic League but @valchiz are down in 44th. Obviously it's very early days!

The 3rd most valuable team in the league and the top ranked side in Hive FPL belong to @kelvinpeters who has achieved that without the use of any chips so far! Here's his squad

Phoenix FC by @kelvinpeters are top of the Hive FPL and ranked 80,217 in the world with 147 points from their opening 2 GWs

Having Reijinders and Ekitike in from the start has been a massive boost both to his points haul and squad value.

Where he's going to struggle going forward is his lack of bench options which was nearly exposed by Cole Palmer's injury in the warm-up against West Ham.

In total, the 4 players on his bench in both game weeks to date have scored just 2 points! With the fixture list only becoming more congested as the season progresses, it'd be a wise move to invest some of that additional value on players who can contribute off the bench when needed.

GW2 Results

Division 1

Division 2

GW3 Fixtures

Division 1

Division 2

GW3 player picks and tips

Which fixtures and players should you be targeting for maximum points this week? Here's our recommendations...

Cole Palmer replacements

Cole Palmer, the most picked player for the first 2 weeks of the season is out for GW3!

Having missed the match at West Ham following an injury in warm-up he was always a doubt for this weekend but it's now confirmed he will not be a part of the Chelsea squad for the game against Fulham. If you've got him in your team (and you probably do) who should you replace him with? These are probably the top options

Semenyo - excellent start to the season and with Bournemouth having a decent run of games coming up and a number of first team players returning to fitness then there's no reason to think that the Ghanian will stop delivering.

Sarr - With Eze gone, the responsibility for creating and scoring goals rests largely on his shoulders. It's a great opportunity for him to step out of the shadows after a really solid 24/25 season. He also has a fantastic record against Villa.

Kudus - Already a popular pick and looks to be one of the first names on Frank's team sheet. He was the creative hub for Spurs in their opening 2 games, providing 6 key passes and 2 assists to date. Not really finding himself in many goal scoring positions so far.

United midfielders - see below but Fernandes would be the obvious call

There are of course many many other options. Palmer's price point means that managers can afford to bring in anyone bar Mo Salah as a replacement! That makes GW3 and potentially beyond pretty exciting as we're about to see some real differentials appear in that midfield area.

The alternative is of course to do nothing. After all, we head into an international break after this round and while there is no set return for Palmer, the update from the press conference simply stated that the Fulham game was 'too soon' for him. That to me suggests he's not likely to be missing weeks or months of football.

Whether you can take the hit of having a £10mil asset not playing probably depends on 2 factors. Firstly your bench depth and secondly your captaincy options. I'd imagine with Salah facing Arsenal that a lot of managers had Palmer earmarked for the armband in GW3.

Chelsea defensive options

As noted in our match previews, the Chelsea v Fulham match is likely to be a fairly tight affair but is it one in which the Blues can keep a clean sheet?

Chelsea certainly tightened up at home over the later part of last season and their opening match this year against Palace finished nil-nil. That means that in the last 450mins of Premier League football played at Stamford Bridge, the only team to score a goal were Liverpool (a VVD consolation in a 3-1 defeat for the champions).

Sanchez in goal is already the most popular GK pick in the FPL so for many teams that might be enough.

If you don't have him in the line-up or you fancy doubling down on Chelsea defensive options then the obvious choice is Marc Cucurella who appears to have nailed down the left-back spot. In fact with Frimpong injured and Ait-Nouri a doubt he may become the attack minded full-back of choice for this weekend offering the potential of points at both ends of the pitch.

Otherwise, the only other defender to start both games for Chelsea this season is Trevor Chalobah who of course got himself on the score sheet against West Ham.

With Colwill out injured long-term, centre-back does look like a position where Chelsea aren't blessed with quite so many options, certainly not in comparison to everywhere else on the pitch. That could open up possibilities for a few players with low ownership and decent pricing to become genuine options.

Tosin (£4.5mil) missed the opening match due to injury but started against West Ham. He's currently in just 1% of teams. 19-year old Acheampong (£4.0mil) started the game against Palace and delivered 9 points thanks to his clean sheet and 3 BP. He might have been expected to go out on loan but could see the opportunity for further minutes as the season progresses.

Forest defenders offering value at both ends of the pitch

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/b31uxrs2ux0

Forest host a West Ham side that have looked desperately poor so far this season after a fairly weak finish to last year too.

As noted in our match previews, West Ham have conceded 4 goals in 2 games from set-plays so far and are up against the team who scored more set-piece goals than anyone else last year.

On that basis, a player like Milenković could be a good shout for a clean sheet and a goal involvement. He managed 5 goals and 2 assists in the EPL last season including a goal when these 2 met back in May.

Beyond this match, Forest face a tricky game against Arsenal after the international break but they then have matches against Burnley and Sunderland to take advantage of.

Are you brave enough to go for United assets?

On paper, United's home fixture against Burnley looks like a good opportunity and if you made your transfers early then you may well have been looking to bring in any of their midfield options for this game.

However, the result on Wednesday night against Grimsby marks another low point for the once dominant force of Premier League football. Surely we'll see a response from the players at the weekend?

Mbeumo came off the bench on Wednesday and did score a very nice goal. Cunha has looked busy and is perhaps unfortunate not to have found the back of the net in the opening 2 matches. Despite blanking in both games to date and United having a tough run of games after this, he's already risen 0.1mil in value possibly due to him playing in a more advanced role than expected after the arrival of Sesko.

Amorim has been brutally trolled on social media after looking at best, not interested in his side's performance against Grimsby

Then there's Fernandes who, had he have converted that penalty against Fulham, would almost certainly have gotten a double digit points haul when considering his defensive contributions and high probability of bonus points.

The fact of the matter is, that it's just very difficult to know which United will turn-up every week. If they showed the level of energy and application that they did against Arsenal on the opening weekend in this match then you'd think any of those 3 players would be a great option.

Going forward, what we do know is that United's sole focus between now and January is the league. So those 3 big hitters, baring injury or a dramatic loss of form, are guaranteed starters which is unlikely to be the case for many other big name players who will begin competing on several fronts in the coming weeks.