Arsenal beat West Ham with all the wrong players getting involved in the goals, as far as Fantasy Premier League managers are concerned anyway.
Meanwhile, the FPL community will have to find a replacement for Richarlison (£6.8m) after his red card at Bournemouth, and Huddersfield and Cardiff are starting to look more and more like clean sheet fodder with each Gameweek.
We’ve got all the talking points from another three of Saturday’s matches in this latest Scout Notes article.
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ARSENAL 3-1 WEST HAM UNITED
Goals: Nacho Monreal, Issa Diop own-goal (£4.5m), Danny Welbeck (£6.5m) | Marko Arnautovic (£7.0m)
Assists: Alex Iwobi (£5.5m), Alexandre Lacazette (£9.4m), Hector Bellerin (£5.5m) | Felipe Anderson (£7.0m)
The 16 percent of Fantasy managers currently in possession of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m) may have their patience tested between now and Gameweek 4. It was another blank for the Arsenal striker in this match and he posted further discouraging numbers. Three penalty box touches in two matches against Manchester City and Chelsea was forgivable, but just two in a home meeting with West Ham will cause Aubameyang’s owners to ask some serious questions over the money invested in him. Furthermore, he shot just three times and was substituted in the 75th minute too. Although, the former Borussia Dortmund forward can consider himself unlucky not to have ended up on the scoresheet as Issa Diop (£4.5m) deflected an Alexandre Lacazette (£9.4m) effort into the West Ham net in his stead. Aubameyang also created more chances than any other Gunner on Saturday afternoon.
With Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£7.1m) the most popular Arsenal man in the transfer market for Gameweek 3, there was a disappointing blank there too. Coming into the match as the Gunners’ chief creator, he played no key passes in the match. In fact he was the so-called ‘assister for the assister’ on two occasions. The under-performance in terms of FPL points of both Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan will have Fantasy managers questioning whether they and their Arsenal team-mates are really worth trusting with their favourable run of matches, but a trip to Cardiff City in Gameweek 4 should give them a chance for reprieve.
There was a second successive start for Alex Iwobi (£5.5m) and he pulled in a second goal involvement too. However, while he looks a popular player with manager Uani Emery, he has only managed two shots on goal this season and needs to show improvement in his underlying numbers before being considered someone with sustainable output.
Given his FPL pedigree, there will be increased interest in Aaron Ramsey (£7.4m) who started the game in Mesut Özil’s (£8.4m) absence. Emery spoke highly of the Welshman after the match, even though he was not directly involved in any of the goals.
“He worked 90 minutes. Each moment he played when the team needed him. His speed and experience is very important for us. They can give him the ball in a difficult moment because he plays with high personality.” – Unai Emery
Özil missed the game reportedly due to an illness but there were rumours he had a training ground bust-up with Emery. The Arsenal boss put that chatter to bed in his post-match press conference, meaning that Ramsey’s starting berth and Özil’s place remain uncertain. Either one of them could be involved in Gameweek 4.
“It isn’t true, that information. I don’t know who started it. If you ask me, the doctor, or the club. He was sick. He left training because he was going home. He was sick. Today he was here. I said come if you feel better and he felt better. Before the match he was with the team and with me. No problem with the player. Ask the doctor, he can explain better.”
Arsenal’s defence definitely does not look worth trusting, that’s for sure. The team was so committed to attack for large portions of the game that it was easy for West Ham to hit them on the counter-attack. In three matches Unai Emery’s men have allowed more shots on their goal than any side other than Huddersfield. While that may prove less of a problem at a Cardiff side yet to score in the Premier League next week, many of the sides they face before Liverpool in Gameweek 11 are capable of hurting them. Everton, Watford and Leicester all look like potential banana-skins.
However, there is still potential for attacking returns among Arsenal’s defensive players. Nacho Monreal (£5.5m) scored the equaliser in the first-half and Hector Bellerin (£5.5m) put in more crosses than any of his colleagues in the match and collected an assist.
Marko Arnautovic (£7.0m) made it two goals in as many matches with his first-half strike, but it may be worth avoiding signing him in the coming days. In his favour, he was handed the advantage of a more advanced role this time with Javier Hernandez (£6.5m) named only on the bench, while Sergio Aguero and Callum Wilson (£6.1m) are the only forwards with more total shots than him after three matches. However, he was replaced by the Mexican in the 58th minute with an injury.
“He had some pain in his muscle behind his knee. We will see during the week.” – Manuel Pellegrini
Despite heavy investment in the wings this summer, Robert Snodgrass (£5.5m) appears to be winning Pellegrini’s favour in that position so far. The Scottish midfielder has started the last two matches in a row while Andriy Yarmolenko (£6.9m) is yet to feature from the beginning. Snodgrass should continue to keep his place now that Felipe Anderson (£7.0m) was utilised in a central attacking role today, reducing the competition for his place. Furthermore, he has now taken more corners than any of his team-mates too.
West Ham’s defensive woes continued though, with the Hammers now having shipped nine goals in their first three matches of the season. There does not seem to be an end in sight for their problems either with Wolves, Everton, Chelsea and Manchester United their next four opponents. West Ham have allowed more shots than any side other than Arsenal, Huddersfield and Brighton so far and are bottom of the league for expected goals conceded.
Interest in Lukasz Fabianski (£4.5m) should remain though. He made nine saves against Arsenal, has averaged 5.33 per match and has picked up additional points in every match so far. His efforts at the Emirates Stadium also saw him earn a bonus point too, but at stages in the game looked on for all three.
ARSENAL XI (4-3-3): Cech; Monreal, Mustafi, Sokratis, Bellerin; Guendouzi (Torreira 56’), Xhaka, Ramsey; Iwobi (Lacazette 45’), Aubameyang (Welbeck 75’), Mkhitaryan
WEST HAM XI (4-2-3-1): Fabianski; Masuaku, Balbuena, Diop, Fredericks; Sanchez, Wilshere; Snodgrass (Yarmolenko 75’), Anderson, Antonio (Perez 63’); Arnautovic (Chicharito 58’)
BOURNEMOUTH 2-2 EVERTON
Goals: Nathan Aké (£5.0m), Josh King (£6.4m) | Michael Keane (£5.0m), Theo Walcott (£6.5m)
Assists: Callum Wilson x2 (£6.1m) | Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.4m), Cenk Tosun (£7.0m)
Callum Wilson continued his remarkable start to the season by adding two more assists to his tally for 2018/19. In three matches the Bournemouth striker now has five goal involvements. Those returns have come from the fact that he now tops the charts among forwards for touches in the penalty box and sits second for shots. While Wilson has been accused of lacking consistency in the past, he already looks to be the key Bournemouth attacking asset this season.
However, it was made clear by today’s match that Josh King (£6.4m) has indeed reclaimed penalties from his English colleague. Following the miss in Gameweek 1, the Norwegian took the spot kick earned by Wilson and slotted it into the bottom corner of Jordan Pickford’s (£5.0m) net. It was another clean sheet wipeout for Everton who are without a shut-out under Marco Silva and have conceded five goals in three matches.
The most wide-reaching Fantasy event of the match was a straight red card for violent conduct shown to Richarlison (£6.8m) in the first-half. The Everton man flicked his head towards Adam Smith (£4.5m) and was given his marching orders. He will now miss two FPL Gameweeks, with the EFL Cup still able to absorb one of his three suspended matches. The rule change at the start of this season simply removed a cross-over between yellow card counts, it did not entirely separate league from cup entirely on matters of discipline. Richarlison should return for Gameweek 6 when Everton travel to Arsenal. Manager Marco Silva was not best pleased with the 21-year-old.
“To be clear, it’s [the red card] something Richarlison or the other players in our squad cannot do. It’s something I don’t like to see, and at this level even if you’re 18, 19, 20, 33 you have to keep your emotional balance there, keep your mentality as well. If someone provokes you or not, if the fans are against you or not you have to keep that. It looks minimum the contact, I’m not one to talk about the referee’s decision. What I can tell you is about my players and I don’t like them to do that.”
With the former Watford man in 37 percent of teams and likely to lose value between now and his September 23 comeback, we can probably expect a swathe of transfers before Gameweek 4 – not least from the 740,000+ unlucky managers who signed Richarlison for this very match. The in-form Pedro (£6.6m) could be a straight switch for anyone looking to offload or his team-mate Theo Walcott (£6.5m) who now has more FPL points than him. However, he has struggled to match Richarlison’s underlying numbers, trailing him for total shots, efforts in the box and accuracy so far.
Later in the match Bournemouth defender Smith was dismissed for a last-man foul on Walcott. However, his one-match suspension will be used up by Tuesday night’s EFL Cup second round match with MK Dons.
Set piece specialist Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.4m) finally delivered on his creative potential providing the assist for centre-back Michael Keane’s (£5.0m) second-half goal. After three matches, only Mohamed Salah (£13.0m), Ryan Fraser (£5.5m) and David Silva (£8.4m) have created more chances than the Icelandic international. Bernard (£6.0m) was introduced with five minutes remaining but it remains unclear whether or not he is considered match-fit yet.
Keane was another player we pointed out as a key set piece target in the build-up to Gameweek 3. Unfortunately for the player he was badly hurt after clashing heads with team-mate Idrissa Gueye (£5.0m) late in the second-half. Keane was on the ground for some time and left the pitch with the aid of a stretcher. As yet, Silva could offer no update other than the fact that he was taken to hospital. Kurt Zouma (£5.0m) replaced the former Burnley centre-back, suggesting he would be first in line to come in for Gameweek 4 if he is not declared fit enough.
“Firstly and most importantly, he went to the hospital and I don’t have more information about the situation yet. In the moment he went to the hospital he looked in a bit better condition. I hope everything is ok, but now we wait.” – Marco Silva.
BOURNEMOUTH XI (4-4-2): Begovic; Daniels, S Cook, Aké, A Smith; Fraser, Surman (L Cook 76’), Gosling, Brooks (Ibe 64’); King (Mousset 90+12’), Wilson.
EVERTON XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Baines, Keane (Zouma 90+6’), Holgate, Coleman; Gueye, Davies; Richarlison, Sigurdsson, Walcott (Bernard 85’); Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 84’).
HUDDERSFIELD 0-0 CARDIFF CITY
Goals: None
Assists: None
This match at the John Smith’s Stadium predictably finished 0-0 and re-affirmed within the FPL community that Huddersfield and Cardiff are the stuff clean sheets are made of. The visiting Bluebirds looked the more likely to score with their 14 efforts on goal, but are still goalless in three matches. In fact the two sides combine for just one strike between them in six Premier League matches. Huddersfield currently sit bottom of the pile for expected goals while Cardiff have a bigger negative difference between their actual and expected goals tally than any other side. Arsenal and Everton defensive assets look to play a big part in Gameweek 4 with those the respective opponents of Cardiff and Huddersfield.
Bluebirds manager Neil Warnock has addressed his side’s lack of goals acknowledging that they have a real problem in that department.
“We just didn’t have that quality in the final third. I didn’t think Huddersfield could do better but we could. So I thought ‘let’s have a go, we’re in the Premier League!’. We played a lot better against the 10-men. We dominated that last period and should have won really, I’m disappointed we didn’t win… but we’ll score eventually.”
Cardiff will have some personnel issues in wide areas going into Gameweek 4. Junior Hoilett (£5.4m) was ruled out of the game late-on after being taken off with an injury at Newcastle in Gameweek 2. Then in the match itself, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing (£5.0m) was taken off after nine minutes following a collision with Ben Hamer (£4.0m) and is an early doubt for Arsenal’s trip to south Wales.
“(The Mendez-Laing injury) is disappointing. We won’t know for a few days as it’s swollen so we can’t even scan it until the middle of next week probably unless it goes down before then. He was brave and got to it before the goalkeeper. It makes you think what is he supposed to do in that situation. (Hoilett) will be touch and go. After the international break he’ll be ok. So we’re a little bit emergency ward 10 for you older people.” – Neil Warnock
Kadeem Harris should be in contention for next week, although he is yet to be added to FPL.
“With Junior Hoilett out we didn’t really have anything on the bench in that area. We needed another wideman. Yes (I would have used Harris). If I’d have known, but you don’t know until during the game that somebody will get injured.” – Neil Warnock.
Mendez-Laing’s collision with Hamer certainly caused plenty of problems for Fantasy managers. The Huddersfield stopper was the only active £4.0m goalkeeper going into Gameweek 3, which had him owned by 6.5 percent of teams. His withdrawal in the 13th minute, after attempting to play through his injury, made for just one Fantasy point and no clean sheet. There was no update on the goalkeeper from David Wagner after the match.
Jonathan Hogg (£4.5m) saw red in the second-half after an incident with Harry Arter (£5.0m). He, like Richarlison, will miss two league games and one League Cup round due to his suspension being for violent conduct. His absence should mean a recall for Alex Pritchard (£5.0m).
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN XI (4-5-1): Hamer (Lössl 13’), Kongolo, Zanka, Schindler, Haderjonaj; Diahkaby (Mbenza 68’), Hogg, Billing, Mooy, Van La Parra; Mounie (Depoitre 80’).
CARDIFF CITY XI (4-3-3): Etheridge; Bennett, Bamba, Morrison, Manga; Ralls, Camarasa (Reid 75’), Arter; Murphy, Zohore (Ward 59’), Mendez-Laing (Paterson 9’).
READ NEXT: All the FPL talking points from Wolves 1-1 Man City
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