The meeting between the team with the best home record in 2017/18 and the division’s worst travellers in that same campaign failed to result in the expected goal avalanche, though Sergio Aguero (£11.4m) did at least deliver an eight-point haul for the two million-plus Fantasy Premier League managers who handed him the armband.
Across the Pennines, Harry Kane (£12.4m) was in ominous form as he scored a brace in Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town. With Cardiff City next up for Spurs in the Premier League, many Fantasy managers will perhaps be considering moves to bring in the England striker for this plum home fixture at Wembley.
There was more worrying news for injury-hit Spurs, however, with Mousa Dembele (£4.9m) and Jan Vertonghen (£6.0m) being substituted at half-time through injury.
This latest Scout Notes article looks at the main FPL headlines from two of Saturday’s 3pm kick-offs.
Manchester City 2-0 Brighton and Hove Albion
- Goals: Raheem Sterling (£11.0m), Sergio Aguero (£11.4m)
- Assists: Leroy Sane (£9.2m), Raheem Sterling
Not for the first time this season, owners of Sergio Aguero were perhaps left feeling a little short-changed by the premium forward’s attacking returns from a hugely appealing fixture against limited opposition.
In the end, the hordes of Fantasy managers who owned and/or captained the Argentinean striker were just grateful of a goal before his seemingly inevitable early substitution, with this being the third successive league match in which Aguero has been hauled off on or around the hour mark.
Goal aside, Aguero was excellent, linking up superbly with Raheem Sterling (£11.0m) for City’s second strike and indeed playing an integral role in the game’s opener.
Despite regularly dropping deep, Aguero managed seven shots on goal – all from within the Brighton area – and 11 penalty box touches in his 66 minutes on the pitch, with not a single FPL forward matching him for either statistic in Gameweek 7 so far.
With such excellent key performance indicators and attacking returns in five of his seven league appearances this season, it seems incongruous to be anything other than positive about the ever-present Aguero’s contributions in 2018/19.
And yet, Aguero has returned only one double-digit haul this season and is perhaps still dining out on that hat-trick and assist in the Gameweek 2 encounter against Huddersfield Town. Moreover, the Argentinean striker’s goal conversion rate is significantly inferior to what it was in 2017/18: down to 13.2% from 22.3%. Only one of Aguero’s seven shots against the Seagulls on Saturday was on target, meanwhile.
With in-form Harry Kane enjoying a home fixture against Cardiff City on the same weekend Pep Guardiola’s side visit Liverpool, there will be a few FPL managers with itchy fingers contemplating a trade between the two premium forwards.
Guardiola’s quotes after the match about Aguero’s fitness add to the debate:
Sergio is struggling a bit with some problems in his foot. He is not 100 per cent. He has not recovered from what happened against Newcastle and we spoke about playing about 60 minutes and we were lucky he scored at the right moment.
It is a problem but he needs time. Now we have two games left before the international break and hopefully, he can do these two and then make a final recovery.
But he’s not in his best condition right now physically because of the problem in his foot.
Sterling, still only owned by 4.1% of Fantasy managers and indeed a less popular FPL option than five other City midfielders, once again shone on the right flank and is seemingly indirectly benefitting from Benjamin Mendy‘s (£6.3m) absence.
With Leroy Sane (£9.2m) brought in on the left wing from Gameweek 5 onwards (offering natural width in Mendy’s absence), Sterling has switched over to his usual right flank.
Sterling has registered 38 penalty box touches (way more than any other FPL midfielder) and eight shots in the area since then, compared to 26 and five respectively before Mendy’s injury.
City’s first goal was reminiscent of the combination play of last season, with Sane crossing low from the left and Sterling following in at the far post.
No City player created more chances than Sterling yesterday, either.
A by-product of – or an approach that has been catalysed by – Kevin De Bruyne‘s (£9.7m) absence has been the evolving role of City’s right-back. Kyle Walker (£6.6m) is notably less prominent on the overlap, instead tucking in alongside Fernandinho (£5.4m) as City resembled a 2-3-5 in attack.
Guardiola, indeed, made mention of this tactical tweak in his post-match interview:
Most of the time, we are playing as well [as we do with De Bruyne]. In some situations, we are even better. Kyle Walker is learning a lot how to play inside.
That may be of some concern to Walker’s 15.1% of owners, but the England right-back still managed to create three chances and fire over five crosses yesterday afternoon despite the slight adjustment to his role.
City’s defence kept a third straight clean sheet in the league and Guardiola was also gushing in his praise of his defence:
We only conceded one shot on target. We cannot forget they beat United and they played so good at Anfield, so that team is a serious team.
Every time we lost the ball, we recovered and we attacked with ten players at the edge of their box. That is a dream for us.
It is important that we had 80% of possession and conceded only one or two counter-attacks.
It’s easy to defend and run. It is more difficult to attack players there and create enough chances to win the game, and not concede.
David Silva (£8.6m) and Bernardo Silva (£7.6m), City’s two most-owned midfielders in FPL, passed the first test of being named in Guardiola’s starting XI but both emerged from the match with only three points to their names.
The City boss also revealed that his Spanish schemer had a more withdrawn role yesterday:
David Silva dropped a little bit and we could take risks. Attacking against ten players, we did really well.
While Silva’s move back to a central role in a 4-3-3 from the advanced position he took up against Newcastle in Gameweek 4 has lessened his goal threat somewhat (only three shots in his last two appearances), his creativity remains undiminished: no player supplied more chances or delivered more successful crosses than Silva at the Etihad yesterday.
For Brighton, there was some solace in that they reduced City to just two goals after the hosts racked up 28 shots.
Chris Hughton, however, was critical of his side’s defending for those two strikes:
It’s always very difficult, as they’re going to have the bulk of possession and you know the quality they have. If you give them space and time, they can hurt you.
But I thought we were in the game for long periods. There isn’t a team outside of the top six that comes here without having a defensive strategy.
The two goals that we conceded were poor goals. The first one was a really good counter-attack and that can happen.
People will look at the quality of the second goal, but it was defendable. If I’m looking from a midfield position, we should have done far better to stop that ball getting into the final stages.
I’m more disappointed with the second goal. At 1-0 we were in the game and you never know what can happen.
Two familiar names stood out, though: Anthony Knockaert (£5.5m), who we have discussed frequently in the past few weeks, recorded more shots on goal, penalty box touches and key passes than any of his team-mates at the Etihad.
Shane Duffy (£4.5m), who has two goals and as many assists to his name this season already, demonstrated his aerial threat by registering Brighton’s only attempt on target with a header from a Knockaert corner in the first minute of the match.
Those two players are perhaps the stand-out candidates for the Seagulls for their forthcoming run of excellent fixtures in which they don’t meet any of the “big six” in the coming nine Gameweeks.
Glenn Murray (£6.5m) was dropped to the bench and replaced by Jurgen Locadia (£5.4m) up front, a warning of the increased rotation the veteran forward perhaps faces this season from both Locadia and Florin Andone (£5.0m) – though Hughton may well just have been saving Murray’s legs for the more “winnable” fixtures ahead.
Jose Izquierdo (£5.9m) returned from injury as a substitute, meanwhile, so will increase the competition on the flanks.
Manchester City XI (4-3-3): Ederson; Walker, Laporte, Otamendi, Zinchenko; Fernandinho, Bernardo, David Silva (Foden 88′); Sterling, Aguero (Jesus 66′), Sane (Mahrez 71′)
Brighton XI (4-4-1-1): Ryan; Montoya, Duffy, Dunk, Bong; Knockaert (Jahanbakhsh 78′), Propper, Kayal, March (Izquierdo 83′); Bissouma; Locadia (Murray 73′)
Huddersfield Town 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur
- Goals: Harry Kane (£12.4m) x2
- Assists: Kieran Trippier (£6.1m), Danny Rose (£5.9m)
A Spurs side missing the injured Dele Alli (£9.0m), Christian Eriksen (£9.2m) and Hugo Lloris (£5.4m) were still too good for Huddersfield Town at the John Smith’s Stadium, though Mauricio Pochettino’s side were made to work for their clean sheet by their combative hosts.
The win came at a cost, however, with Mousa Dembele and Jan Vertonghen being substituted at the break with injury problems.
Speaking of the crocked pair, Pochettino said:
We need to assess tomorrow and after tomorrow, we’ll see. I cannot say whether they’ll be available for Wednesday. I don’t know.
The players feel some muscle problem. But they don’t know if they got a knock or they feel something different. That is why it is so difficult now to tell you what is going on.
While Spurs are hopeful of having Eriksen back for the visit of Barcelona in midweek, Alli’s absence could be more prolonged. Asked to provide an update on the former MK Dons midfielder after confirming Alli would miss the Champions League match in midweek, Pochettino said:
I don’t know, because he re-injured the same muscle that he got with England against Spain. That is the problem that is now so important to be relaxed and calm.
Pochettino also warned that those teams who had players involved at the World Cup – of which Spurs are one – may face injury problems throughout the season as the fixtures mount up:
I think for us it’s a little bit unlucky that we have the risk in different players for different reasons. It’s higher or lower, but I think all the teams that had players in the World Cup are going to have a problem with this type of thing, now and in the future of course.
The players finish the World Cup and rest for a few weeks and then start the Premier League. Then the first international game they play again, two games, but not friendly games. They play for the UEFA Nations League. It’s normal all the national teams want the best players to play. Who cares about the players? It’s so difficult.
Spurs’ goals came from familiar sources, with Harry Kane finding the net on both occasions. The Lilywhites’ four full-backs racked up 18 league assists between them last season and that trend continued yesterday afternoon, with Danny Rose (£5.9m) and Kieran Trippier (£6.1m) bolstering their clean sheet returns with an assist apiece for Kane’s goals.
Kane had less than half the number of attempts on goal (three) as Aguero yesterday and fewer penalty box touches to boot, but the England striker could well have come away from West Yorkshire with a hat-trick after spurning a one-on-one chance with Jonas Lossl (£4.4m) early in the match.
His goals were vintage Kane, though.
Spurs’ opening strike came from a Trippier cross that Kane hung in the air to head home, while his second goal – a spot-kick after Rose had been felled – was emphatically despatched from 12 yards.
Another encouraging sign was Kane’s average position, which was well in advance of Lucas Moura (£7.4m) and Son Heung-min (£8.3m) – the two players charged with providing his support in Pochettino’s 3-4-2-1 set-up. In matches against Liverpool, Watford and Manchester United, for example, Kane’s average position was behind Moura and/or Alli and closer to the halfway line.
Kane’s minutes-per-chance average is also moving in the right direction, albeit still short of his mean in 2017/18: in the first five Gameweeks of this season, Kane averaged a chance every 37.3 minutes. In the fixtures against Brighton and Huddersfield, that average has dropped to 22.5.
Trippier also furthered his case as a Benjamin Mendy replacement, benefitting from Serge Aurier‘s (£5.8m) injury-enforced absence to start his sixth league match on the spin.
While the question of rotation at full-back is “when” and not “if”, Trippier registered his fourth attacking return of the season, a second clean sheet and with it two bonus points. Only Jose Holebas (£4.9m) has recorded more crosses and key passes than Trippier among FPL defenders in 2018/19.
Spurs adopting the wing-back system also boosts Trippier’s attacking potential: only Moura and Kane had more touches in the final third yesterday.
Aurier’s availability for Barcelona on Wednesday is a situation to monitor, as Trippier might be pressed into action against the Catalan giants too – an eventuality that may put his start against Cardiff City in some doubt.
Moura spurned a “big chance” in the second half and has now failed to find the target in the last four league matches. With Eriksen’s return imminent, Alli possibly back after the international break and the fit-again Erik Lamela (£6.4m) in decent form, the Brazilian midfielder could well be on borrowed time as a regular in Pochettino’s starting XI after starting the first seven matches of this campaign.
Lloris might be back for Barcelona too, but Paulo Gazzaniga (£4.5m) did all that was asked of him in the Spurs goal in his stead, saving five Huddersfield attempts on goal en route to a clean sheet.
The Terriers were plucky in defeat and came within inches of scoring when Laurent Depoitre (£5.3m), impressing in the lone striker’s role, crashed an effort off the underside of Gazzaniga’s crossbar.
Like Spurs, Huddersfield were left counting the cost of the defeat on the injury front.
Terence Kongolo and Christopher Schindler (both £4.4m) were substituted either side of half-time, with David Wagner having this to say on his two crocked centre-halves:
My biggest concern is with Terence Kongolo. It looks like a serious hamstring injury from a stretch.
Christopher Schindler had a twist and it was too painful to play on. There was no fluid on the knee, but we need to make further investigations.
Chris Lowe (£4.4m) filled in adeptly at centre-back on Kongolo’s early withdrawal, but injuries to two key centre-halves might force Wagner into a rethink in shape from the effective 3-5-1-1 that gave Spurs a real test on Saturday.
If Schindler and Kongolo’s injuries prove to be long-term ones, then budget defender Jon Stankovic (£4.0m) may well be called into action at centre-back in their absence.
Wagner was right to praise his side who, whilst sitting bottom of the Premier League, now face a run of fixtures in which they play only one of the “big six” in the coming eight Gameweeks:
The players have done everything asked and battled them. The atmosphere spoke for itself today; so not only credit to my players, but to the supporters too.
We tried to press them high, get in their faces and be on the front foot. Against this Spurs team, we thought it would be the right thing to surprise them and we thought it would reap rewards. It worked well apart from we didn’t score.
How the players stick together, how they work and stick together, is top class. We are able to create opportunities, and we are unlucky.
Huddersfield Town XI (3-5-1-1): Lossl; Jorgensen, Schindler (Mbenza 72′), Kongolo (Hadergjonaj 30′); Durm, Mooy, Hogg, Billing, Lowe; Pritchard (Mounie 84′); Depoitre
Tottenham Hotspur XI (3-4-2-1): Gazzaniga; Alderweireld, Sanchez, Vertonghen (Wanyama 46′); Trippier, Dembele (Winks 46′), Dier, Rose; Moura, Son (Sissoko 89′); Kane
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