Manchester City breeze past West Ham, while Leicester City huff and puff to a rare victory of their own. Elsewhere, Huddersfield Town conclude their pre-season with a spirited draw against Torino.
Here are the notes from Friday’s matches.
Manchester City 3 West Ham United 0
Manchester City’s pre-season ended with another convincing win, which meant their latest victims, West Ham, managed just one victory from their own summer schedule.
Pep Guardiola’s side lost their first friendly, back on July 20, to city rivals United and haven’t looked back since.
They made short work of the Hammers to make it three straight wins, during which they’ve scored ten times and conceded just the once.
Guardiola again opted for a 3-5-2 formation, giving the previously under-used but impressive Leroy Sane just under an hour at wing-back and fielding both Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero up front.
And it was the Brazilian who opened the scoring from an assist by City’s stand-out summer performer Kevin De Bruyne.
Aguero made it two after the break when he finished from a David Silva cut back before Raheem Sterling rounded things off after a Phil Foden shot was deflected into his path.
New signing Danilo again impressed – this time in the right wing-back role – and midfielder Bernardo Silva made his debut off the bench in the second half.
From a Fantasy perspective, City have now built up such a head of steam – seeing off Real Madrid, Spurs and now West Ham with ease – that their key attacking players appear very difficult to ignore.
The problem remains which of the abundance of talent the manager has at his disposal will he consistently use.
Guardiola’s post-match comments merely clouded the issue further – by suggesting his squad will be even bigger by the end of the transfer window.
“With respect to the players last season, we were one of the oldest teams in the Premier League. Danilo, Bernardo, Mendy, Ederson – we’ve bought young players. I think we need something a little bit more. The transfer window finishes 31 August, we will see.”
Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus continue to look the most assured, particularly if Guardiola continues with a two-man strikeforce. The three centre-halves Vincent Kompany, Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones also seem to be forming an understanding and appear obvious first choice selections.
But the rest? Sane was a popular pick last year, but looks destined for bit-part roles in the 3-5-2, perhaps even at wing-back. Sterling has caught the eye but will struggle for pitch-time while Guardiola fields two strikers. And David Silva has started the last two matches but could eventually lose out to his namesake Bernardo or even a fit-again Ilkay Gundogan.
Meanwhile, Walker, Danilo and Benjamin Mendy look set to be caught in a perpetual cycle of rotation, with Sane now added to the mix as an option on the left-side when Guardiola is operating wing-backs.
Things are rather clearer with West Ham – they’re offering very little for Fantasy managers to get excited about at present.
Marko Arnautovic’s withdrawal after half-time was one of the more interesting aspects of a generally forgettable West Ham display, only for Slaven Bilic to pour cold water on even that nugget of note.
“He’s not bad, because it was just like a cramp so it doesn’t look too bad. From that point of view it was good because no new players got injured in the game, so it was one more training for them before the season. The situation with Marko is basically nothing.”
Javier Hernandez played the second half and failed to trouble City’s defence over-much, while one of the few positives Bilic could drag from the match was the fact that a number of senior squad members didn’t play.
Manuel Lanzini missed out with a knee injury once again and, although he is apparently “one week” away from a return according to Bilic, he remains a doubt for the season opener at Manchester United. Aaron Creswell also missed Friday’s encounter and, like the Argentine, is said to be a week away from a return.
Three straight away matches tempers what is otherwise a reasonable first ten matches for the Hammers, but it is no surprise that only Hernandez (19.3%) and Joe Hart (13.2%) are in double figures for Fantasy Premier League ownership.
The fact that Man City have just one more player in the same boat is testament to the doubt raised by Guardiola’s proven taste for rotation.
But with an attractive opening schedule that involves only two fixtures – Liverpool at home and Chelsea away – of any real difficulty, the time is fast approaching when we need to decide whether to stick or twist on City’s highly potent players.
Man City XI: Ederson; Kompany (Adarabioyo 72), Stones (Mangala 59), Otamendi Roberts 72); Toure (Bernardo 59), De Bruyne (Foden 59), Sane (Fernandinho 59), Silva (Diaz 71), Danilo (Walker 59); Jesus (Sterling 59), Aguero (Zinchenko 59).
West Ham XI: Hart; Zabaleta (Byram 46), Fonte, Ogbonna, Masuaku; Noble (Rice 46), Obiang, Fernandes (Makasi 85), Arnautovic (Snodgrass 62); Ayew (Holland 85), Martinez (Hernandez) 46).
Leicester City 2 Borussia Monchengladbach 1
Leicester City finally got their pre-season act together, and not a moment too soon, as a Jamie Vardy brace finished their summer in a style so painfully missing from their previous four dire outings.
New signing Kelechi Iheanacho started on the bench but came on after the break and made a real impact as he set up Vardy for the winning goal, only to last just 17 minutes before going off with a foot injury.
Manager Craig Shakespeare was relatively unconcerned about Iheanacho’s plight post-match.
“I am still looking to find out. I don’t know whether it is ankle or Achilles. He was up on his feet, and the first thing is for me is the physios are not showing a great concern, which is a good sign. We’re really just making sure that was more of a precaution.”
Shakespeare spoke pre-match of the need for his side to put in a performance, although that was conspicuous by its absence in a goalless first half controlled by the Germans.
Monchendgladbach took the lead shortly after the interval, which seemed to galvanise the Foxes, who equalised when Vardy was put clean through by a ball over the top from Matty James and the striker slotted the ball home.
Shakespeare picked what looked like his strongest side – with the exception of new boy Iheanacho and wantaway Riyad Mahrez – with only regular midfielder Danny Drinkwater missing out with a thigh strain.
Shinji Okazaki lined up as support for Vardy up front in a 4-4-2 formation, but Iheanacho’s immediate impact when linking up with the England international suggests the former Man City man will be the preferred pick sooner rather than later – if he’s fit, that is.
“We’ve had a look at him in training. He hasn’t trained very often so far – he hasn’t been able to because of circumstances. But the more minutes we can get him on the pitch the more that he’ll be liable to last 90 minutes.”
Not that Fantasy managers will be in a hurry to invest in many Foxes. Leicester’s opening schedule is brutal, with Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea and Liverpool all to face before Gameweek 6.
Leicester fans have had to wait a long time for their players to spark this summer. Fantasy bosses will be happy to wait to make a move a while longer than that.
Leicester City XI: Schmeichel; Simpson (Amartey , Morgan, Maguire, Fuchs; Albrighton (Mahrez 65), James, Ndidi (Iborra 71), Gray (Lawrence 80); Vardy, Okazaki (Iheanacho 66 (Ulloa 83)).
Huddersfield Town 2 Torino 2
Huddersfield Town ended their pre-season tour of Austria with a 2-2 draw against Serie A side Torino.
Elias Kachunga and Steve Mounie, with his fourth goal of the summer, were the scorers, with assists coming from Rajiv van La Parra and Chris Lowe.
Boss David Wagner selected the strongest side available to him. An ankle injury to Jonathan Hogg meant Philip Billing joined Aaron Mooy in central midfield, while Christopher Schindler returned in defence after recovering from illness.
He lined up alongside new signing Mathias Zanka who has now started three successive friendlies and looks a certain starter in central defence.
Van La Parra, Tom Ince and Kachunga supported Mounie up front in Wagner’s standard 4-2-3-1 formation.
But Wagner was without Martin Cranie (hip flexor) and Dimitri Cavare (knock). Cranie is thought to be sidelined for six to eight weeks, while midfielder Hogg also looks very unlikely to be considered for the Gameweek 1 trip to Crystal Palace.
The Terriers have enjoyed a reasonable pre-season and now face a relatively gentle introduction to Premier League life.
Mounie and Ince have been their stand-out summer performers, but the FPL jury remains out on the entire squad – budget striker Collin Quaner is the club’s most popular pick with 2.9% ownership – until the season begins in earnest at Palace.
Huddersfield XI: Lossl; Lowe (Malone, 64), Schindler, Zanka (Hefele, 45), Smith (Scannell, 64); Mooy (Whitehead, 64), Billing (Williams, 45); van La Parra (Palmer, 45), Ince (Lolley, 64), Kachunga (Quaner, 64); Mounie (Depoitre, 64).
Keep on top of all the summer’s matches with our Pre-Season Guide.
