Fibs about United v Villa initially affected players? (7)
I believe the answer is:
luvvies
'affected players?' is the definition.
The definition suggests a plural noun which matches the answer.
'fibs about united v villa initially' is the wordplay.
'fibs' becomes 'lies' (I've seen this before).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'united v' becomes 'uv' (this might be a standard abbreviation of which I'm unaware).
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'villa' is 'v'.
'uv'+'v'='uvv'
'lies' enclosing 'uvv' is 'LUVVIES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for luvvies that I've seen before include "Thespians" , "Theatrical people" , "Affected actors" .)