Scout Notes – Pre-Season

Sead Kolasinac catches the eye as Arsenal win the Community Shield on penalties, while Sandro scores his first Everton goal in a 2-2 draw with Sevilla.

Elsewhere, Brighton lose a five-goal thriller, Newcastle United ease to a comfortable win but have injury concerns over Dwight Gayle and Bournemouth manage a creditable draw with tough Italian opponents.

Here are the notes from the final pre-season Sunday.

Arsenal 1 Chelsea 1 (Arsenal win 4-1 on penalties)

It took a penalty shoot-out to separate Arsenal and Chelsea in a tight and occasionally ill-tempered Community Shield at Wembley.

New Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette hit the post in a cagey first-half before Chelsea wing-back Victor Moses opened the scoring after the break when the Gunners failed to clear a corner and the Nigerian reacted quickest to Gary Cahill’s header back into the area.

The match, however, probably turned on two decisions by Bobby Madley.

The referee turned down a penalty appeal when Willian tumbled in the Arsenal box, booking the Brazilian for diving when there looked to have been at least some contact with Hector Bellerin.

He then sent off Pedro for a poor challenge on Mohamed Elneny. The foul was clear to see, but the punishment seemed severe. The Spaniard, however, won’t face any domestic suspension due to his Sunday dismissal and is available to face Burnley next weekend.

From the resultant free-kick by the excellent Granit Xhaka, new signing Sead Kolasinac headed home at the far post.

Chelsea’s ten men held on until full-time but then made a horrible mess of the resultant shoot-out, the first to be held in England under an ABBA system designed to iron out the advantage of going first while, it would seem, handing sportswriters and broadcasters an irresistible chance to indulge in feeble Swedish pop puns.

Arsenal scored all their penalties, while only Cahill converted for the Blues, with notable misses from Thibaut Courtois and Alvaro Morata.

It was a dreadful end to a forgettable day for the striker. Coach Antonio Conte elected to start Michy Batshuayi ahead of the Spaniard, who is yet to score for Chelsea.

Some 9.3% of Fantasy Premier League managers have forked out 10.0 for Morata, (12.2m in the Sky game) – a premium price for what currently amounts to a low-impact sub. The 1.9% who’ve spent 8.5 on Batshuayi will be the slightly happier, although neither striker particularly troubled an Arsenal defence that absorbed the loss of Per Mertesacker to a head wound with relative ease.

The reason for that was Kolasinac. Arsene Wenger had understandably opted not to pick Laurent Koscielny in his three-man defence as the Frenchman is suspended for the first two matches of the season. Benching his new Serbian signing raised rather more eyebrows, however.

Instead, Rob Holding and Nacho Monreal lined up alongside Mertesacker, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Bellerin handed the wing-back roles.

When Kolasinac finally made it onto the pitch, his attacking threat was there for all to see. He produced a surging run into the Chelsea half before the break and then popped up to equalise after the interval.

Bellerin (13.9%) continues to be the most popular FPL pick from Arsenal’s backline, but the Spaniard often lacks an end product. Kolasinac (7.7%), with a goal and an assist from pre-season, offers the potential for excellent attacking returns as either a wing-back or even, as against Chelsea, from centre-half. That leveller will surely have strengthened his chances of a starting role for Friday’s clash with Leicester City.

Chelsea are clearly missing the creativity and dynamism of the injured Eden Hazard, and there’s a strong sense that they are one or two new faces short of a well-rounded squad.

Arsenal, however, could afford to rest Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanchez and still look competitive.

Yet Friday’s match with the Foxes might well come too early for at least two of that trio, with Arsene Wenger saying:

“I left them all out because some are short of preparation, like Alexis Sanchez. Mesut Ozil got a kick on his ankle, it’s swollen, couldn’t play or practice yesterday. Overall we will see, he has a little chance to play on Friday night. Ramsey has a chance to play, but I think he could be short as well with a little calf problem”.

That opens the door for Alex Iwobi, a consistent performer over the summer, to stake a claim, however temporary, for one of the two slots supporting the main striker in Wenger’s 3-4-2-1 system. Sanchez, only just back in training, is another obvious contender, although Wenger would only reiterate that the Chilean remains an Arsenal player when asked about his star man post-match.

Instead, the Frenchman sang the praises of Kolasinac.

“He came on well. He’s normally a wing-back or a full-back but he can also play at centre back. He had a very interesting performance last week and I had a hesitation over playing him from the start today. I thought maybe the pressure of Wembley… but when he came on, he was outstanding.”

Chelsea begin their title defence on Saturday at home to Burnley, although a Gameweek 2 trip to Spurs will probably be a stronger indicator of their form, and they will also have to face Arsenal (again) and Manchester City before Gameweek 7 is done.

The Gunners’ opening schedule is slightly easier and, on the evidence of yesterday, their squad currently looks stronger and more balanced, perhaps offering better potential for early Fantasy points than their London rivals.

Arsenal: Cech; Holding, Mertesacker (Kolasinac 32), Monreal; Bellerin, Elneny, Xhaka, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Welbeck (Nelson 87), Iwobi (Walcott 67); Lacazette (Giroud 66).

Chelsea: Courtois; Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Cahill; Moses, Fabregas, Kante, Alonso (Rudiger 79); Willian (Musonda 82), Batshuayi (Morata 74), Pedro.

Everton 2 Sevilla 2

New signing Sandro opened his Everton account with a goal after just 30 seconds as the Toffees had to come from behind to secure a draw against an impressive Sevilla.

The Spanish striker latched onto a Tom Davies through ball to round the keeper and finish before their opponents had touched the ball.

Sevilla then rallied and scored twice in three second-half minutes, only for Kevin Mirallas to level from the penalty spot after he’d been hauled to the floor in the area.

Manager Ronald Koeman ran the rule over much of his squad, starting with a flat back four in which Mason Holgate started at right-back. Davies, used as a wing-back in the Europa League tie on Thursday, returned to midfield duties in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Jordan Pickford again started in goal and produced a fine performance, while Cuco Martina came on in the second-half as a left-back and considerably improved on his nervy debut from a week ago.

Koeman declared post-match that his squad was ready for their Premier League opener at home to Stoke City. For Fantasy managers there are still question marks over Koeman’s likely formation and the starters at right-back or right wing-back.

But given Everton’s daunting opening fixtures, we have time to assess Koeman’s first choice XI before considering investment.

Everton XI: Pickford; Holgate (Kenny 61), Keane (Besic 61), Jagielka (Williams 46), Baines (Martina 46); Schneiderlin (Gueye 50), Davies; Klaassen (Barry 50), Rooney (Mirallas 50), Sandro (Lookman 61); Calvert-Lewin.

Bournemouth 2 Napoli 2

Benik Afobe scored his fourth goal in three pre-season matches as Bournemouth battled to a 2-2 draw against tough opposition.

The striker deputised for Jermain Defoe, who was left out of the squad as a precaution having picked up a knock, and he made his mark when he fired home after a Max Gradel ball caused confusion in the Italian defence.

Simon Francis looked to have won the match in the second-half when he capitalised on a defensive error to round the keeper and score, but Napoli deservedly equalised late on.

Defender Steve Cook came off in some discomfort just after half-time. He was replaced by Jack Simpson, with coach Eddie Howe giving updates on the fitness of a number of players post-match.

“Nathan Ake’s fine, he played against Yeovil in midweek. Jermain felt his groin slightly so we didn’t risk him but we anticipate he’ll be fine for West Brom. We took Steve Cook off as a precaution so we’ll wait and see.”

Bournemouth’s first six Gameweeks are a mixed bag, and FPL interest has mainly focused on Defoe (13.5%) and Charlie Daniels (21.8%).

Both are proven performers, but the lack of a pre-season goal from Defoe will be of some concern.

Meanwhile, Cook’s knock could open the way for Francis to cement a starting role at The Hawthorns in Gameweek 1. Notably, Adam Smith was one of those left out of the matchday squad by Howe without explanation. Smith would have been expected to push for a starting role against West Brom but has had just 67 minutes over the summer.

On the flanks, both Jordan Ibe and Gradel have built a case for pitch-time, though Ryan Fraser would seem an assured starter, with Gradel perhaps most likely to claim the other wing role; he’s now started the last three pre-season matches.

Bournemouth XI: Begovic (Boruc 46); Francis, Mings, Steve Cook (Simpson 47), Daniels; Ibe, Lewis Cook, Gosling; Gradel, King, Afobe (Mahoney 70).

Brighton 2 Atletico Madrid 3

It took a late strike for La Liga big guns Atletico to finally beat battling Brighton.

Chris Hughton’s men conceded two-thirds of the possession to their Spanish visitors but still carried a threat going forward, with a Pascal Gross free-kick and a Steve Sidwell header twice pegging Madrid back. At 5.5 in FPL, Gross has now scored three times over the summer.

Assists came from Tomer Hemed and Solly March.

The goals and resilience were major plus points for Hughton, as was the return from injury of Anthony Knockaert, who played the final 20 minutes.

Yet his manager admitted he will continue to monitor the fitness of last term’s Championship Player of the Year:

“You never say never, but Anthony has done about four-days training now. What he had done, the reason why we were in a position to give him some minutes today was because he had done the first two weeks in pre-season. We were confident, he has done a good four days and the injury is no problem. We will assess him this week, but we are conscious he has played only 20 minutes from a tough pre-season game, apart from training.”

A negative was a mistake by record signing Mat Ryan, the goalkeeper letting a long-range shot through his grasp to gift Atletico the lead.

Ryan, however, might not remain the club’s most expensive transfer for long, with reports suggesting that Dutch midfielder Davy Propper is close to signing in time for the Seagulls’ Premier League opener at home to Manchester City on Saturday.

Brighton:Ryan; Bruno (Rosenior 72), Duffy, Dunk, Suttner (Bong 46); Murphy (March 46 (Skalak 90)), Stephens, Kayal (Sidwell 46), Brown (LuaLua 90+1); Gross, Hemed (Knockaert 72).

Newcastle 2 Hellas Verona 0

Early goals from Ayoze Perez and the in-form Christian Atsu secured the victory to round off a satisfactory pe-season for Newcastle.

Perez opened the scoring from a Javier Manqullio cross before Atsu, who ended the summer with two goals and four assists, doubled the lead from a Jonjo Shelvey pass.

Rob Elliot started in goal once again – comforting news for the 14.8% of FPL managers banking on the 4.0-priced budget keeper, who is available for 6.1m in the Sky Sports game.

But last season’s top scorer Dwight Gayle was sidelined with what was reportedly a hamstring problem.

Manager Rafa Benitez talked in detail about the issue post-match.

“Dwight is training with the fitness coach, so hopefully he can carry on training this week. If everything is fine, I think he will be OK for Sunday. It’s not his hamstring – it’s more the feeling that he has. He’s not comfortable, and we don’t want to take any risks.”

With 6.5% ownership, Gayle is the second most popular Newcastle player, behind only Elliot, in FPL squads.

His fitness is, therefore, the major Fantasy concern as the Magpies prepare to host Spurs at the weekend. His potential absence could allow Aleksandar Mitrovic – at 5.0 – to lead the line, having netted three goals over the summer.

Newcastle: Elliot (Darlow 64); Manquillo (Gamez 64), Lejeune (Lascelles 64), Clark (Mbemba 64), Dummett (Merino 64); Ritchie, Shelvey (Aarons 64), Hayden, Atsu (Murphy 64), Perez (De Jong 72); Mitrovic (Diame 64).

All the summer details are available in our Pre-Season Guide.