Scout Notes – Key Duo Get Unwanted Minutes

West Ham and Leicester City do just enough to see off their League One foes as key midfielders have to put in bigger FA Cup shifts than their Fantasy ownership would have liked.

VAR grabbed the headlines, Kelechi Iheanacho the goals and Riyad Mahrez most of our attention as Leicester beat Fleetwood Town 2-0 in their FA Cup third round replay.

The Nigerian striker scored in each half, with assists from Islam Slimani and Mahrez, to set up a tie at Peterborough United.

The match took a long time to warm up, but finally delivered its moment in the sun when Iheanacho became the first player to score a goal awarded by a video assistant referee, who overturned the initial on-field ruling of offside.

Foxes boss Claude Puel had made eight changes from the side that drew with Chelsea at the weekend.

But Mahrez, owned by 12.1% of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers, was one of the three to survive the cull, setting up an anxious evening for his backers.

The Algerian’s fine form – he’s scored five goals and produced four assists across the last ten Gameweeks – and Leicester’s fixtures (WAT eve SWA mci STK BOU wba) have helped his ownership triple over that period.

The fact that his assist kept his run of form going and he left the pitch unscathed after 81 minutes kept everyone happy enough.

The team’s two other popular players, Harry Maguire (11.5%) and Jamie Vardy (15.2%), were given the night off and a nine-minute appearance from the bench respectively.

Should Leicester progress against Peterborough at the end of the month, they’ll have a fifth round tie on the weekend of February 17, sandwiched between a trip to Man City and a visit from Stoke City.

Although Puel’s selections are yet to reflect it, the FA Cup represents mid-table Leicester with their one chance of silverware this season, so rotation might well become an issue should they go further in the competition.

Sub role for Arnautovic

While Mahrez has added a relatively modest 46,000+ to his ownership base ahead of Gameweek 24, West Ham midfielder Marko Arnautovic’s popularity has increased prodigiously.

His 16-point haul in the 4-1 win at Huddersfield – part of an eight-match run in which he’s scored six and set up a further three goals – has prompted more than 160,000 managers to make him FPL’s most purchased player this week.

Eight Gameweeks ago, he was in fewer than 30,000 teams. He now sits in 10.6% of squads and those managers would have been hoping that their man might enjoy a night off as West Ham sought to see off Shrewsbury Town at the second time of asking.

Those hopes were dashed when Arnautovic was brought on after 69 minutes as the Shrews refused to be tamed at the London Stadium.

It took an extra time goal from Reece Burke to finally settle the tie, meaning Arnautovic had to play over 50 minutes of unwanted action ahead of a schedule (BOU cry bha WAT liv swa BUR) that has strong potential for more excellent returns from the in-form Austrian.

However, that’s tempered by the fact that he missed the second match of double Gameweek 22 and the Hammers’ initial goalless draw against Shrewsbury that followed.

Manager David Moyes made seven changes to the side that had thumped the Terriers, with Angelo Ogbonna (6.2%), Manuel Lanzini (2.6%), who has seen his ownership jump by 32,000+ this week, Arthur Masuaku (2.3%) and Pedro Obiang (1.5%) all obliged to play the full 120 minutes last night.

The reward for their 1-0 win is a fourth round tie with either Bournemouth or Wigan.

If that ends up being an all-Premier League affair, it will mean a fifth round match for either West Ham, who will host Watford and then travel to Liverpool in between, or the Cherries, who are due at Huddersfield before, and entertain Newcastle after, the cup tie over the weekend of February 17.