Northern Ireland international tops Fantasy Premier League standings after incredible topflight debut

The Sunderland defender made a big impact at both ends as the Black Cats romped to a 3-0 win over West Ham

What a weekend it was for Sunderland defender Daniel Ballard.

Not only did the Northern Ireland international make his Premier League debut alongside his international teammate Trai Hume, but he also scored as the Black Cats got off to the perfect start beating West Ham 3-0.

Ballard headed home Simon Adingra’s cross in the second half to make it 2-0 to the hosts at the Stadium of Light.

In the first half the 25-year-old was alert to get back and clear El Hadji Malick Diouf’s shot off the line with the scores still level at that stage.

Those telling interventions at either end not only earned Sunderland an opening day win but also meant Ballard was the top player in the Fantasy Premier League this week.

Remarkably three FPL managers triple-captained the centreback meaning they picked up a whopping 51 points!

Ballard even outscored Semenyo and Haaland even though the forwards helped themsleves to a brace in their opening games.

While the former Arsenal man finishing as top scorer on game week one may have caught a few by surprise spare a thought for one FPL manager.

@tarnjit_hundal posted: “Took him out my team on Wednesday gonna stop listening to these FPL experts.”

It’s been an incredible few months for Ballard after he scored the goal to take Sunderland to the Championship play-off at Wembley back in May, now he is relishing being in the topflight.

“The lads were so focused. We’ve had this game in the back of our minds for six weeks now,” he told safc.com.

“The lads were ready. We matched them toe-to-toe and we had that little bit of quality in the final third which was the difference.”

“I didn’t quite expect to score today,” he added. “I thought I might have to wait a while for my next one but I’ve been working on it a lot in the last few days.

“That second phase around the back post is something we’ve worked on. It was a great ball in and I was delighted to score again. It was a fantastic feeling.”