There were 12 players on show at Stamford Bridge last night who were owned by more than 10% of Fantasy Premier League managers – but only Eden Hazard (£11.1m) of that dozen emerged from the 1-1 draw between Chelsea and Liverpool with something other than appearance points.
The result of the Saturday evening encounter between the two title rivals was perhaps close to the worst-case scenario for the legions of Fantasy managers who owned and played a handful of assets from either side, with no clean sheets banked and the other attacking returns coming from Mateo Kovacic (£5.9m), Xherdan Shaqiri (£7.1m) and Daniel Sturridge (£5.8m) – all of whom were owned by 2% or fewer of FPL bosses.
Mohamed Salah‘s (£12.9m) popularity continues to plummet, meanwhile, with the Egyptian midfielder currently the most-sold player of this round after blanking away from home for the fourth successive time this season.
It was a particularly frustrating night for owners of Salah, Roberto Firmino (£9.4m), Sadio Mane (£10.0m) and Andrew Robertson (£6.3m), all of whom came close to registering a goal or assist, while Marcos Alonso (£6.9m) and the Chelsea backline were within a few minutes of a fourth shut-out of 2018/19 before Sturridge’s stupendous strike from distance.
In this latest Scout Notes article, we’ve got all the FPL talking points from last night’s clash in west London.
Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool
- Goals: Eden Hazard (£11.1m) | Daniel Sturridge (£5.8m)
- Assists: Mateo Kovacic (£5.9m) | Xherdan Shaqiri (£7.1m)
No player in any position can match Eden Hazard’s goals (six) or FPL points (60) tallies in 2018/19 so far after the Belgian international registered his third double-digit haul of the campaign at Stamford Bridge yesterday.
Sitting in 38.8% of FPL squads at the time of writing, the Chelsea winger will surely overtake both Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane this week to become the most widely owned midfielder in FPL having already been snapped up by over 114,000 new managers.
The portents are ominous: Hazard has delivered attacking returns in six of the first seven Gameweeks of the season and has already scored exactly half of the number of goals he managed in the whole of 2017/18. The Belgian star has, indeed, beaten his tally of goals (five) from 2015/16 before we have even reached October.
Underlying attacking statistics are something we tend to pay particular attention to in the Fantasy world, but they are, of course, not the be all and end all, especially in fixtures of this magnitude – Hazard had only two shots at Stamford Bridge yesterday, one of which opened the scoring on 24 minutes, but he passed the “eye test” with flying colours and caused Liverpool plenty of anxiety in defence whenever given time on the ball.
The Chelsea number 10 should have really had a brace, having been set free by N’Golo Kante (£5.0m) from a quickly taken free-kick in the second half – Alisson (£5.6m) this time getting the better of Hazard in a one-on-one after perhaps being caught a tad flat-footed for the game’s opening goal.
His manager, Maurizio Sarri, expects goals from Hazard and plenty of them this season:
I think he’s able to score 40 goals, so he has to score to another 33. He’s trying to do it. I’m really very happy with the defensive performance today, especially in the second half.
Hazard came close to registering an assist, too, when his stoppage-time corner was nodded over by Marcos Alonso. No Chelsea player made more key passes at Stamford Bridge than the Belgian.
Sarri was later asked if he would consider using Hazard – or another of his wide-men – as a false nine, a possibility that on paper sounds good for the Belgian’s goal prospects but didn’t really pay dividends last season: Hazard scored just two goals in the seven matches in which he started as a “centre-forward”, one of which came from the penalty spot and the other after he had dropped back into a supporting role following the introduction of Olivier Giroud (£7.8m).
Sarri said:
At this moment I want to use Giroud and Morata because I think it is right to use them in the first part of the season. They have the characteristics. Giroud is very important. Morata in the last 25 minutes was more aggressive than usual. I am not really worried about it because we have wingers that are able to score. I’m not really worried.
In Pedro‘s (£6.6m) injury-enforced absence, Willian (£7.4m) again lined up on the right of a front three and wasted a glorious chance in the first half when sent clear by the excellent David Luiz (£5.5m).
Giroud and Alvaro Morata (£8.8m), meanwhile, didn’t manage a single shot on target between them.
Sarri was asked about Chelsea’s reliance on Hazard’s threat, with only the Belgian winger and his sidelined Spanish team-mate having scored more than one league goal this season:
I think at the end of the season we can have four of five players over 10 goals. It’s not only Hazard. Of course Hazard is the first, but I think Pedro, Willian and Morata will be able to score more than 10 goals in a season. Pedro is on three goals.
Alonso played a more disciplined role at left-back as Chelsea attempted to stifle Liverpool’s attack, only really featuring prominently in the Reds’ area after Sturridge had brought the scores level late on.
His underlying attacking statistics on Saturday evening mirrored his performances over the past fortnight, with the hitherto gung-ho left-back having recorded only three penalty box touches (23 defenders have registered more) and two attempts on goal (12 players in his position have attempted more shots) in the last three Gameweeks.
The average number of touches and passes received by Alonso in the final third has also dropped off in the last three fixtures, along with his take-ons and big chances created.
Whether this deterioration in numbers is by design and due to a specific instruction from Sarri is unclear, though those figures will need further monitoring in the coming weeks given the significant outlay needed for Alonso’s services in FPL.
Luiz was the pick of Chelsea’s defenders, clearing a Roberto Firmino header off the goal-line, bossing the clearances, blocks and interceptions (CBIs) statistics, and creating that aforementioned big chance for Willian en route to a deserved bonus point.
That wasn’t the first instance of a Chelsea defender saving a goal from inside their own six-yard-box, with the fit-again Antonio Rudiger (£5.9m) denying Salah in the first half after the Egyptian had rounded Kepa Arrizabalaga (£5.5m).
Once again, there was little wrong with Salah’s underlying attacking statistics, with last season’s Golden Boot winner having more shots on goal than any player on show at Stamford Bridge and only trailing Firmino for penalty box touches.
Commentator Peter Drury summed up the Egyptian’s display, saying it was far from the worst performance in the world but “just missing that X”.
Twice Salah created space for himself on the edge of the Chelsea box and cut in onto his favoured left foot, but where those shots were finding the back of the net in 2017/18, the Liverpool winger’s efforts were this time either sent straight down Kepa’s throat or high into the stands.
Indeed, two of Salah’s three goals this season have been tap-ins from close range and 17 of his other 18 shots from within the opposition box have failed to find the net.
Salah is actually averaging more penalty box touches and attempts on goal per game than he was in 2017/18, but his goal conversion rate of 10.3% this season – compared to 22.2% in the previous campaign – is perhaps the telling statistic.
Klopp, who hauled the Egyptian off on 66 minutes, acknowledged his talisman’s current struggles after the game but backed the player to return to form:
Changes, when nobody’s injured, are always tactical. He was not injured. It was not Mo’s best game of his career, 100 per cent.
In a game like this, constantly in situations, he comes in, that makes you a world-class player. You fail, you miss, whatever, that happens.
He wants to be decisive, he wants to score in these situations. The first ball he missed it was not the right position. The next one he passed. Why? He could’ve finished again.
It’s like riding a bike. It’s not like you wake up in the morning and you cannot finish any more or cannot ride a bike any more.
Salah was from alone in toiling up top, with Sadio Mane far from his best and returning a third successive blank for his owners.
The Senegalese midfielder’s ability to coast through periods of matches and then still pop up with a goal-scoring opportunity remains undiminished, though, with only a superb low Kepa save denying Mane a fifth league strike of the season.
Firmino was perhaps the pick of Liverpool’s front three, creating more chances than any other player on show in west London and only being denied a goal by that intervention from Luiz.
Sturridge’s sensational long-range effort underscored his own excellent form of late, and the England striker is surely putting more pressure on that established front three than any of his fellow understudies in attack.
Klopp said of Sturridge:
Four days ago he had a really similar situation and hit the crossbar. He is a fantastic footballer and he had a full pre-season. He’s in the best shape since I’ve known him.
It’s really cool. I’m really happy for him.
When he came in the dressing room it was pretty loud. The boys were really happy for him because he’s in a good moment.
While not at his best, Andrew Robertson highlighted his potential to pick up attacking returns no matter what the fixture with a glorious cross for substitute Xherdan Shaqiri in the second half – the unmarked Swiss winger screwing wide when he really ought to have brought the scores level.
That Liverpool next face Manchester City will perhaps deter some of Robertson’s Fantasy owners from starting the Scottish international, but as he demonstrated last night, the Liverpool full-back is a potent threat from the left flank in almost any game.
Virgil van Dijk (£5.9m) recovered from a rib injury to take his place in the starting XI, while Jordan Henderson (£5.3m) was preferred to Naby Keita (£7.3m) in the centre of the park.
Chelsea XI (4-3-3): Kepa; Azpilicueta, Luiz, Rudiger, Alonso; Kovacic (Barkley 80′), Kante, Jorginho; Willian (Moses 73′), Giroud (Morata 65′), Hazard
Liverpool XI (4-3-3): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, van Dijk, Gomez, Robertson; Henderson (Keita 78′), Wijnaldum, Milner (Sturridge 86′); Salah (Shaqiri 66′), Firmino, Mane
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