There were positives and negatives in equal measure for Fantasy Premier League managers on Thursday night.
Plenty of popular Fantasy assets went unused for their respective clubs in the Europa League.
However, one manage rin particular was not as forthcoming as many had hoped about a certain yellow flag…
Chelsea 3-1 BATE Borisov
Goals: Ruben Loftus-Cheek x3 (£5.2m)
Assists: Davide Zappacosta (£5.1m), Willian (£7.4m)
Chelsea dispatched BATE Borisov in the Europa League without the services of either Eden Hazard (£11.4m) or Marcos Alonso (£7.0m). While Fantasy managers can take comfort in the fact that their pair were given the night off, they would have wanted much more information on Hazard’s current back problem.
The Belgian is in exceptional form this season and would probably receive more backing in the latest captain poll if he was not an injury doubt for Gameweek 10. However, Maurizio Sarri did not mention Hazard’s name once in his post-match audience with the written media after the Europa League win, which also doubled-up as his pre-match press conference ahead of the trip to Burnley. His 50% ownership will be hoping that an official update reaches us at some point today ahead of Saturday’s 2pm Gameweek 10 deadline.
Very few of Sarri’s first-choice options featured in the starting XI with just Kepa Arrizabalaga (£5.5m), Mateo Kovačić (£5.9m) and Willian (£7.4m) keeping their places from the side that drew with Manchester United on Saturday. Perhaps of some slight concern for Hazard owners is the fact that both Willian and fellow wide midfielder Pedro (£6.4m) were substituted around the hour mark. That could suggest that Sarri is preparing to start both of them instead of the Belgian at Turf Moor this weekend. Either that or it could have simply been a luxury of racing into a 3-0 lead courtesy of Ruben Loftus-Cheek (£5.2m).
The 22-year-old midfielder put in an incredible performance, scoring Chelsea’s first European hat-trick since Didier Drogba in 2006 and the first Englishman to do that since 1971. Sarri has admitted that Loftus-Cheek is now pushing for a place in the first team for league matches but explained that he needs to improve other areas of his game before he becomes harder to ignore. There are limited spaces in the midfield trio with N’Golo Kanté (£4.9m) and Jorginho (£5.1m) having played every Premier League minute so far and Kovačić also heavily involved (476 minutes).
“He played very, very well. In the offensive phase wonderful. I told him at the beginning of the season I thought he was really a very good player. Now I think the same, but now he’s now more suitable to my football. He’s improving. He needs to improve in the defensive phase, but it’s not only Loftus. At the moment we have four midfielders for two positions, three of them with the same characteristics. Only Kante is a defensive midfielder. It’s very difficult for me to put in the starting XI two so offensive midfielders at the same time. I hope to be able to do it in the future. I need the cooperation of the players of course. I need an improvement in the defensive phase.” – Maurizio Sarri
Chelsea’s back four for the trip to Burnley is now fairly easy to predict as no obvious first-choice options were involved on Thursday night. Antonio Rüdiger (£5.9m) should be paired with David Luiz (£5.5m) at centre-back once again, the former an unused subtitute against Borisov. Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta (£6.4m) were not in the matchday squad.
Meanwhile, it looks as if Álvaro Morata (£8.7m) has reclaimed the first-choice striker position from Olivier Giroud (£7.8m). The Spanish international was left on the bench for the Europa League tie with former Arsenal man Giroud racking up 90 minutes. Given that Morata started against Man United in Gameweek 9, he looks set for another start at Burnley and goes into the game having registered more big chances than Hazard in the last four Gameweeks and a goal in his last away league trip (Southampton).
Chelsea XI (4-3-3): Kepa; Emerson, Christensen, Cahill, Zappacosta; Loftus-Cheek, Fábregas, Kovačić (Kanté 77′); Willian (Moses 57′), Giroud, Pedro (Hudson-Odoi 60′).
Sporting CP 0-1 Arsenal
Goals: Danny Welbeck (£6.5m)
Assists: None
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.8m) could be set for another Premier League benching in Gameweek 10 as he played 86 minutes in Arsenal’s Europa League win in Portugal. Meanwhile, fellow forward options Alexandre Lacazette (£9.7m) and Mesut Özil (£8.4m) were named as substitutes, with only the former coming on in the closing stages.
It was an interesting line-up deployed by Unai Emery who is currently struggling in the left-back area. Nacho Monreal (£5.5m) and Sead Kolasinac (£4.9m) were both unavailable for the fixture so defensive midfielder Granit Xhaka (£5.3m) was used in their position instead.
“We have now two left-backs injuries. We can use maybe (Stephan) Lichtsteiner as a left-back or another thing we are trying is playing with Xhaka. They have quality with the left foot to progress with the passes and I want to try this option.” – Unai Emery
Stephan Lichtsteiner (£4.6m) was deployed in his more traditional position of right-back after playing on the left against Leicester. Rob Holding (£4.4m) kept his place though with Sokratis Papastathopoulous (£5.2m) coming in for Shkodran Mustafi (£5.4m), as has been common in the Europa League this season.
Despite the changes the enforced alterations to Arsenal’s defence they kept just their fourth clean sheet in 13 matches. That may count in good stead as the Gunners travel to Crystal Palace in Gameweek 10, one of two sides yet to score at home in 2018/19.
The roles of Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£6.9m) and Danny Welbeck (£6.5m) were further reinforced by this particular outing. Both options have been used extensively in the Europa League in recent weeks but are clearly not favoured for Premier League meetings. The latter may still be worth considering if either one of Aubameyang or Lacazette were to pick up an injury or suspension. He has now scored four goals in four appearances outside the Premier League this season.
Arsenal XI (4-3-3): Leno; Xhaka, Holding, Sokratis, Lichtsteiner; Elneny (Torreira 58′), Guendouzi, Ramsey; Welbeck (Lacazette 81′), Aubameyang (Iwobi 86′), Mkhitaryan.
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