ESPN FC's Fantasy Premier League: Which expert will reign supreme in 2022-23?

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Fantasy sports are not included in sports. If we didn't have teams of our own to root for, how would we enjoy the real event?

With the 2022-23 season upon us, we thought we'd try a fantasy league among some of our staff, but we'd do it differently and put a trophy at the end of the campaign for everyone to fight for, along with the eternal bragging rights.

The writers weregrudgingly agreed to throw down with James Tyler. On the eve of the first game, we drafted our teams, debated our picks, and panicked when it was our turn to pick. Semi-regular updates will be provided throughout the season on the road to the FC Fantasy crown.

How we did the draft

We went with American style for the experiment. We went with a draft format instead of the traditional approach in which everyone has an equal amount of money to spend on their squad and players can appear in multiple teams. They're not available to anyone else.

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We went 1-6 in round one, 6-1 in round two, and 1-6 in round three, instead of reverting back to the first manager.

Everyone had 30 seconds to make a decision. There is no room for second guessing here.

The basic rules

Due to other commitments, we will tally the weekly points totals of the entire squad so as not to penalize anyone who wasn't in a starting XI. Managers are expected to make as many in-game changes as their real-life equivalents. We have locked our free agency add/drop except in case of a season ending injury. We're stuck with these players even if we don't like them or the transfer window is short.

The basics are covered, from clean sheets, to goals, to bad, to red cards.

The first two rounds

The two best goalkeepers were off the board before most players had figured out their strikers, as elite defenders were drafted quickly, and the best player in the world was taken in the fourth round.

Round 1: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Erling Haaland, Alisson, and Tyler.

Round 2: Harry Kane, Joao Cancelo, and Ederson.

You can watch the entire draft on the internet.

The final squads

We finished the 15-round draft. It's always a good sign when people are unhappy with how their picks turned out.

We'll be keeping an eye on the teams every few matchdays to see who is pulling ahead and who is lagging behind in the quest for a trophy.

Gab Marcotti

• Ederson is a goalkeeper for Man City and Lukasz Fabianski is a goalkeeper for West ham.

• Trent Alexander-Arnold, Eric Dier, Raphael Varane, and Tino Livramento are all defenders.

• Jadon Sancho, Allan Saint-Maximin, Youri Tielemans, and Ilkay Gundogan are some of the players in the middle.

• The FW is made up of Darwin Nunez (Liverpool),Ronaldo (Man United), and Raul Jimenez (Wounded Wolves).

Ederson is a good keeper and it's good to keep a clean sheet. The machine told me that he gets a lot of points. Is it dier? He and Varane are both in the same position. Alexander-Arnold will get me a lot of points thanks to his play.

I think that Tielemans is going to have a monster year, and that Sancho is going to bounce back for United. Saint-Maximin is a monster on his own, and I'm most excited about Bowen, who will be trying to make the England squad for the World Cup.

Darwin isn't going to get all the playing time we think he will, but he will get some and he will score goals. You might have seen his strike partner, and my fourth-round pick. He's going to have the power in the dressing room if he stays and he should perform well this season.

ESPN+ writer Ryan O'Hanlon

• The goalkeepers are Jose Sa of wolverhampton wanderers and Aaron Ramsdale of arsenal.

• Trippier, Digne, Gabriel, and Ming are from the same school.

• Phil Foden and James Maddison are both from Manchester City.

• Harry Kane and Erling Haaland are FWs.

Let's first clarify what we're talking about. All of the players points are added up for the whole season. The points aren't the same as they would be if you were to use the same method. I want to give a brief description of my team.

Right, Ramsdale. I'm thinking there. He will not give up as many goals as some of the keepers on some of the worst teams in the league because he's on a good team. I don't know why I brought that up, but Jose Sa was probably the best keeper in the league in terms of shot stopping last year.

There's a beautiful game here. You can watch tournaments and teams.

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There is a Friday in August. It was 10.

• Freiburg vs. Borussia Dortmund, 2:30 p.m. ET

• Osasuna vs. Sevilla, 3 p.m. ET

There is a Saturday in August. There are 11 people.

• RB Leipzig vs. Cologne, 9:30 a.m. ET

• Hertha Berlin vs. Eintracht Frankfurt, 9:30 a.m. ET

• Celta Vigo vs. Espanyol, 11 a.m. ET

• Barcelona vs. Rayo Vallecano, 3 p.m. ET

Trippier, Digne, Gabriel are at the back. I think of Digne as a poor man's Andy Robertson, he will get me some assists. It's possible that Trippier will as well. I hope they don't give up that many goals, and I think Gabriel will play a lot. I picked Mings because I believe he will play 3000 minutes. As Juls pointed out, he has the potential for a lot of cards, but also, he makes a lot of tackles and intercepts, and also dribbles the ball forward.

One of the pure minutes-based picks in the middle of the field is Zaha. It's the same thing. Bruno is just a points total play. If he's playing for Man United, he's on the ball, trying ridiculous passes into the box, and even if he has a bad season, we'll probably have you know eight to 10 assists or something. Foden speaks for itself.

Haaland has been the most productive attacker in the Big Five over the last three seasons. Kane had his first bad finishing season of his career last year, so I expect him to lead the league and goals and assists this season. The record for goals in the English Football Championship will translate to the premier league. We're going.

Also Ward-Prowse. There is no cost for free kicks.

Julien Laurens

• Hugo Lloris is a goalkeeper for Spurs and Robertnchez is a goalkeeper for Seagulls.

• Andy Robertson and Kalidou Koulibaly are both from the same team.

• Bruno Guimaraes is fromNewcastle United and he is aMF.

• Jamie Vardy and Anthony Martial are both from Man United.

This is the same team that I had on my draft prep paper, and I picked all the players I wanted to. It's incredible. There are World Cup winners, European winners, Golden Boot winners, and so on and so forth.

After a full preseason and his first full season, you've got Lloris in goal. There are many assists, clean sheets goals from set pieces and even set-piece takers from Robertson, Koulibaly and Cash. The back-three is amazing.

If I want to get a few more points, I'll play my "bench boost" on the bench.

Look at the middle of the field. The screen is so good that I can't even look at it. At some point, Mount will get a lot of points, too, but at the moment, it's Salah who gets a lot of points. I picked Guimaraes because you need a little bit of the Brazilian touch in good teams.

Jamie is 52 years old and still working out how to pay his legal bills, but he will be amazing once he can concentrate on the pitch. You never know if Watkins will hit the target for most of his chances, but I believe in him this season. Ten Hag can definitely resurrect his career once Martial is fit again.

Mark Ogden

• Alisson and David de Gea are the goalkeepers.

• Ivan Perisic and Ruben Dias are both from Manchester City.

• John McGinn is from Aston Villa, while Marcus Rashford is from Manchester United.

• Ivan Toney is a FW from Brentford, as well as from Man City and West ham.

Alisson is more likely to keep a lot of clean sheets than Ederson. Cucurella is going to be playing for a big club soon and he makes a lot of assists. How does this work? Dias is a good defender and plays a lot for the team.

It's not very complex. You pick the best players on the best teams.

I gambled on Marcus because he doesn't score as many goals as he should, but he is getting forward. It's a big season for him. It doesn't lose many games for Bernardo Silva. McGinn was a bit of a wild card because I was running out of positions in the middle of the field.

The same thing happened with Odegaard, he was a last gasp pick, but he will play a lot of games because Arteta likes him. He'll probably let me down because he'll probably under achieve again.

Who cares about Thiago's fitness-wise? He has skills and is great to watch. Toney is a penalty type. I was running out of picks and Antonio was selected in the 10th round.

Is it true that I have "substitutes?" The man is going to be on the bench. I think he will play a bigger role for City. He's a decent talent, and I think he'll score more goals than people give him credit for -- he might be like the kind of modern daySolskjaer, underestimated but scores lots of goals.

There you go. I don't have a lot of science in my team.

Tom Hamilton

• Goalie: Jordan Pickford, Jordan Pickford, Jordan Mendy.

• Kyle Walker, Aymeric Laporte, and Clement Lenglet are all defenders.

• Heung-min Son, Gabriel Martinelli, Neto, and Harvey Barnes are members of theMF.

• Patrick Bamford, Gabriel Jesus, and Gianluca scamacca are FWs.

Basically. I panicked so much that I couldn't sleep. It hasn't gone as well as I would have liked, but you never know.

Mendy's in goal. I hope they keep a few clean sheets. Three people are back. I am not sure if he is going to play much. hoping for a lot of help I think he might play in the middle of the field.

In the middle of the field, my first two picks were son and sterling. I think he will score a few more goals if he plays a bit more of a central role. Barnes is going to have a big season atLeicester and I expect goals from Martinelli and Jesus as well. I'm expecting a lot from the club. If he stays fit, I hope he gets a few goals. If Neto gets at least 10 goals this season, that will be a good investment for my eighth-round pick.

The less people talk about Pickford the better.

ESPN Editor James Tyler

• Nick Pope and Emiliano Martinez are the goalkeepers for Aston Villa.

• Joao Cancelo and Thiago Silva are both on loan.

• Jack Grealish is from Man City, Dejan Kulusevski is fromTottenham, Philippe Coutinho is fromAston Villa.

• Kai Havertz, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and Diogo Jota are FWs.

I have a lot of Man City players on the team but I am happy. I'm very pleased with my center of gravity. They will have to work very hard to make up for the rest of the squad. I'm going to struggle for goals with all of them in the middle, but they can create and convert with ease.

Jota is out with an injury, Havertz is out with an injury, and Calvert-Lewin is out with an injury. Thiago Silva is good for clean sheets and organized defending, while Cancelo is good for assists down his flank. I'm praying that he doesn't make as many errors as he did last year.

I'm a fan of Guehi. He had a good year at Palace, but it depends on what the future holds in the middle of the park. Even though he's moved to a new team, Coady still doesn't miss a game.

Between the posts, I'm hoping Pope does well in his next match. They'll be in the top half of the table, with him providing the shot- stopping they've been missing.