Gameweek 9 of Fantasy Premier League got off to an absolutely flying start as Chelsea and Manchester United played out a full-blooded 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
The focus of the national media has been on the fracas at the end of the match when Jose Mourinho reacted to some poor sportsmanship from a Chelsea staff member.
We’ve taken the different approach of focussing on the FPL talking points in this latest Scout Notes article.
Chelsea 2-2 Manchester United
Goals: Antonio Rüdiger (£5.9m), Ross Barkley (£5.7m) | Anthony Martial (£7.2m)
Assists: Willian (£7.4m), Rüdiger | Marcus Rashford (£6.7m)
Eden Hazard (£11.4m) registered his first home blank of the season as Chelsea rescued a late point against Manchester United. However, there was little to suggest that the form in which he started the FPL season in would dry up any time soon. The Belgian midfielder had more goal attempts than any other player in the match and was clearly a target for hefty tackles in the Manchester United midfield.
Hazard demonstrated his durability under the pressure exerted by Nemanja Matic (£5.0m) and Ashley Young (£5.7m) in particular. Ander Herrera (£5.0m) was not in the starting line-up so could not reprise his famed shadowing exercise from last season, but United took that role on as a collective.
The Belgian may well be increasingly subjected to rough tackles to knock him off his game in the coming Gameweeks, but as the basic data already shows, it did not stop him from registering shots on goal at least.
The match itself was a pulsating affair with the advantage swinging from Chelsea to Manchester United and back again on several occasions.
The Blues were comfortably the better side in the first half and had the pundits purring about Maurizio Sarri’s tactics. Chelsea have been recording enviable possession statistics so far this season and they had a 62.4% share against Manchester United. In the opening 45 minutes, they completed almost double the number of passes too.
“I have spoken about my team of course. We played our football very well for 60 minutes. At 1-1 we stopped with our football and played other football. I don’t want the long ball and to go to the second ball. I want to play with short passes.” – Maurizio Sarri
That said, Antonio Rüdiger‘s (£5.9m) opening goal ended up coming from a piece of poor marking from Paul Pogba (£8.1m). The German centre-back, who passed a late fitness test to the start the match, was left unmarked in the box by Pogba and he rose highest to nod home Willian‘s (£7.4m) 21st-minute corner.
Manchester United, who had ventured forward several times by that point, were noticeably flat after going behind. Chelsea’s domination of possession did not help in that respect. It made for a frustrating end to the half for Romelu Lukaku (£10.9m) who has been starved of service of late. Not surprisingly, he now has no shots on target in his last four Premier League appearances.
Conversely, Anthony Martial (£7.2m) has thrust himself into the limelight after tripling his Premier League goal tally with a brace at Stamford Bridge. After scoring and assisting against Newcastle in Gameweek 8 he now has two double-figure hauls in a row.
A home match against Everton in Gameweek 10 and a trip to Bournemouth the following week may lead some Fantasy managers to sign the Frenchman. However, the jury may remain out until he can post more encouraging underlying statistics. In the last four Gameweeks, he has shot just three times, all of them ending up in the back of the net. Martial may need to increase his goal attempts tally in order to prove his form is sustainable.
At the opposite end of the FPL form charts is Marcos Alonso (£7.0m), now without an attacking return in five league matches. The clean sheet wipe-out also ensured he recorded his third blank in the last six Gameweeks. With Benjamin Mendy (£6.2m) back in action with a 10-point haul for Manchester City, there is fierce competition for Alonso’s place in our squads and the funds invested in him.
However, Alonso did show some attacking promise. He found himself in advanced zones often and, according to the FFS Members’ Area, his average position in the match was further forward than any other defender. The Spaniard also registered more touches in the penalty area than any other stopper too.
At one point, he beat the offside trap and was close to being one-on-one with De Gea on the penalty spot after an insightful ball forward, but he couldn’t quite bring it under control.
Ironically, his being out of position in that instance did cause Chelsea a problem. In trying to block a pass from deep, he deflected the ball into his vacant left-back zone with Marcus Rashford (£6.7m) running clear. To his credit, Hazard sprinted back to plug the gap and in trying to stop the United man brought him down illegally and earned a yellow card. Sarri may highlight this incident to Alonso as reason to stay back a bit more.
Jose Mourinho must take some credit for the way Man United performed in the second half. Even after their dramatic 3-2 win over Newcastle in Gameweek 8, it was suggested that they were not capable of coming from behind against one of the division’s better sides. The Red Devils made a mockery of those sentiments as their first period of sustained pressure on Chelsea’s backline saw them break through.
Juan Mata‘s (£6.2m) shot was saved by Kepa Arrizabalaga (£5.5m) before Ashley Young’s deflected effort came back to the Frenchman, who lashed home. His second goal was created by Rashford, who crossed from the right after a counter-attack driven on by Mata.
Rashford was taken off injured later in the match although there has been no update on how serious the knock is.
The match as a whole was somewhat overshadowed by the drama of its final climactic moments. Ross Barkley (£5.7m), overcoming a minor injury, came on late in the game and bundled home a 97th-minute equaliser. Tempers then flared on the touchline as one of Sarri’s backroom staff wildly celebrated the strike in Manchester United’s technical area. Unsurprisingly, Mourinho was not best pleased.
Luke Shaw (£5.1m) overcame his injury doubts to play in the match but Marouane Fellaini (£5.0m), Diogo Dalot (£5.3m), Jesse Lingard (£6.7m) and Scott McTominay (£4.3m) all missed out. Alexis Sánchez (£10.0m) was an 85th-minute substitute despite scoring the winner against Newcastle.
How much can be read into Mourinho’s selection choices was called into question by his pre-match quotes on the subject, where he explained that injuries and absences made most of the decisions for him.
“It is not a very specific plan, it is also about the players that you have available. We lost a lot of players in the national teams, especially in the Fellaini case where he was injured since Thursday last week, but we only realised he was injured Wednesday this week. Not easy with some players. Alexis came directly from Mexico to London, he didn’t even go to Manchester, we didn’t even know his condition. But that is the way it is, that is international football. Mata is Mata, he’s one of our team players, he’s always available for the team, thinks about the team, he’s not selfish or egocentric. Sometimes he starts, sometimes from the bench. He’s a proper professional.”
CHELSEA XI (4-3-3): Kepa; Alonso, Rudiger, David Luiz, Azpilicueta; Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic (Barkley 69′); Hazard, Morata (Giroud 79′), Willian (Pedro 73′).
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-2-3-1): De Gea; Shaw, Smalling, Lindelof, Young; Pogba, Matic; Martial (A Pereira 84′), Mata (Herrera 75′), Rashford (Sanchez 85′); Lukaku.
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