Say What? – Gameweek 4

Say What? returns from an international break to bring you the juiciest sound bites from another exhilarating weekend of Fantasy action. This week we hear from an impassioned José Mourinho on the character of his star striker, while Arsene Wenger has a few words of encouragement for Arsenal’s new recruit. Brendan Rodgers and Raheem Sterling discuss the young Liverpool midfielder’s progress, Roberto Martinez puts the wind up his captain, Gus Poyet and Steve Bruce hints at a few potential changes for their squads in the coming weeks and Jack Cork reveals Ronald Koeman’s approach to midfield risk.

Undoubtedly the name on everyone’s lips this weekend was Diego Costa. The Chelsea star was a doubt for the second consecutive Gameweek after missing out on international duty with Spain due to concerns over his hamstring and, having overcome the same problem to score a brace against Everton, the striker went one better against Swansea – bagging his first Chelsea hat-trick. José Mourinho took a moment to recognise the character of his powerful striker.

“Diego was a risk and a doubt before Everton, a risk and a doubt before the Spain game, a risk and a doubt before this game [all because of a hamstring problem]. But nobody can stop him. I tried, I tried to be sure. I wanted to be 100 per cent sure, but he goes on to the pitch. He is a fantastic character and if he feels he can play, he plays. With Diego it is, ‘The team first – they need me – and me second. I am ready to go for the team’. When you get guys with this mentality they become special and they can be an influence to the people around them. He is a leader, who knows exactly what the team needs and is ready to give it.”

While Costa was busy overcoming his injury doubts, Raheem Sterling was a surprise exclusion from a Liverpool side already missing their main forward, Daniel Sturridge, who sustained a thigh injury on international duty. Brendan Rodgers chose to rest his in-form starlet, to the dismay of the nearly 300,000 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers who’d transferred the midfielder in for the visit of Aston Villa, and was made to pay the penalty as his side blanked in a 1-0 shock defeat at home. Here, Rodgers explained the decision with Champions League ambitions in mind.

“I said at the beginning of the season that I need to trust all the players we have. We’ve got a big couple of months – a really exciting couple of months – coming up. Looking at it, I felt this was a game we could do that. If he didn’t have international football, it would have been a different case. He came on and was bright. He’s going to be, and already is, a big player for us, but we’ve built a squad here and I trust all of the players. As a team and a squad, we just didn’t deliver today. ”

Those new Sterling owners (who have now taken his FPL ownership to over 47%) can at least console themselves with the news that the Liverpool star has set himself a target of increasing prolificacy after evaluating the progress he has made over the past year.

“When I got the ball in the reserves, within two touches I would turn and look to attack my opponent, whereas in the first team I was trying for the safer option. I needed to go back to basics. I needed to get defenders on the back foot again. A better goals-to-game ratio is the aim for me now.”

Arsene Wenger gave his new striker, Danny Welbeck, a home debut against reigning champions Manchester City and the Arsenal manager was encouraged by the late arrival’s performance, despite a missed opportunity with the scores level at 0-0. Welbeck offers Fantasy managers a cheap route into Arsenal’s attack and his move from Manchester United persuaded more than a quarter of a million managers to acquire his services over the international break, with his price rising from £6.9m to £7.1m (FPL) in the process:

“He did well. I believe that he needs to develop his link play with our players but that is a bit normal. It’s sad that he couldn’t take his chance but overall every time he had an opportunity to find some space he looked dangerous. There are some things to work on with him to integrate him well into our game but I’m happy with his first game.”

Everton’s rocky start to the season has raised a few eyebrows, particularly in the direction of a defence that had conceded a whopping ten goals in their opening three fixtures ahead of the Gameweek 4 encounter at West Brom. Roberto Martínez took the opportunity to place Phil Jagielka’s contributions under the spotlight, with the expectation that his captain will raise his game to a higher level by offering no guarantees over his starting role.

“Being captain is a massive role but that doesn’t guarantee you anything in respect of playing. I always thought Phil Jagielka, like any player that comes back from the World Cup, was going to have a period to get back to his best. It takes time… I thought his performance with England [against Switzerland in the Euro 2016 qualifier] will help him a lot in terms of having to perform in the hardest moment of the game. Phil will be a very important player for us but no one has playing time guaranteed, that’s for sure.”

Southampton kept up their goal-scoring exploits with a 4-0 hammering of Newcastle United coming hot on the heels of a 3-1 win at West Ham and midfielder Jack Cork, who notched on Saturday, revealed his manager’s influence on the recent upturn in both his and Morgan Schneiderlin’s attacking opportunities at the club.

“In training, me and a few, like Morgan and that, are always half decent in front of goal. It is just over the last few years we have been playing a lot deeper. We didn’t really get the opportunities last year. We were always quite deep and defensive minded, and now I don’t think the manager minds us going forward if it’s on as much. That’s going to help Morgan and myself and a few of the other midfielders get the goals up.”

Changes may be afoot at Hull, with Steve Bruce sharing his thoughts on the switch to four at the back that saw James Chester dropped to the bench. Chester had missed the previous match at Aston Villa following his red card in Gameweek 2 but was in line for a return against West Ham on Monday night – Bruce’s comments may offer solace to the 5% of FPL managers banking on the defender’s pitch time. The Tigers boss also went on to suggest that Hatem Ben Arfa (ineligible to face parent club Newcastle this weekend) could also be in line for a call to action:

“I think one of our strengths in the last couple of years has been to adapt and change and I’m sure over the coming months we’ll switch between two or three systems that we know we can play. But we have to remember that there is a knack to keeping the goals out at our end too, and we didn’t do that well enough on Monday night… [Hatem Ben Arfa is] going to have a big part to play here because he gives us the flexibility to play whatever formation we like. All I want him to do is go out there and enjoy playing again, feel wanted, be part of the club and be appreciated.”

Sunderland manager Gus Poyet explained his decision to leave Steven Fletcher out of the squad for the match against Tottenham, placing his faith in young Connor Wickham. The Uruguayan has generally remained faithful to his 4-1-4-1 system but the striker situation at the Stadium of Light appears to have put the Black Cats’ formation up for review.

“I think Connor was one of – if not the best – player. He was very good holding the ball up, he was strong, good technically. The only thing he was missing was the goal. He played there because he deserved to play there, not because of me. He’s showed he has the perfect ability to play up front and he’s responded very well. He’s a very important player for our future. It was tough and I’m sure Fletch will react well and make sure someone else is left off the bench next week… Playing with two strikers is an option even if it is not the right one for me right now. It depends on the next couple of games, my team is comfortable now because every player has a role and they know it but, at the same time I’m not happy with Connor playing wide. I need him in the middle. We are more dangerous when we play with two strikers and I love 4-4-2. But to play that way you need an understanding of how to cover the pitch and I didn’t think this team had that last season.”