Newcastle marrying fixtures with form after third successive win

Newcastle United continued their fine run of form with a win over Burnley on Monday evening, their third straight Premier League victory and a result that lifts them four points clear of the drop zone.

The match would have been of little interest to many Fantasy Premier League managers, with not one outfield player on show owned by more than 3.3% of FPL bosses – and even that was substitute Joselu.

The most popular Fantasy asset to line up at Turf Moor, Joe Hart, saw his clean sheet wiped out after three minutes, while Burnley’s two most-owned outfielders – James Tarkowski and Johann Berg Gudmundsson – were unavailable through injury and illness.

Not one of the three Newcastle players involved in their side’s two goals had an ownership greater than 0.5%, meanwhile.

We’ve got all the goals, assists, injury news, FPL talking points and manager quotes from the final match of Gameweek 13.

Burnley 1-2 Newcastle United

• Goals: Sam Vokes (£5.3m) | Ben Mee own-goal, Ciaran Clark (£4.4m)
• Assists: Ben Mee (£4.8m) | Federico Fernandez (£4.5m), Matt Ritchie (£5.8m)

Newcastle United have featured regularly in our most-recent Frisking the Fixtures articles, having had the “easiest” run of Premier League matches – according to our Season Ticker – from Gameweeks 9-18.

The Magpies have certainly capitalised on their favourable fixture swing since the defeat to Brighton in late-October, having gone four matches unbeaten and having racked up two clean sheets along the way.

Not many Fantasy managers will have prospered from Rafael Benitez’s side’s latest success, however, with their backline unable to register a fifth shut-out of 2018/19 and not one of United’s six players who could boast an FPL ownership of 1% or higher leaving with anything more than appearance points.

Benitez was deprived of the services of Paul Dummett (£4.4m) on Monday night, with the absence of their first-choice left-back perhaps the catalyst for the Newcastle manager’s decision to ditch a flat back four.

The Magpies instead lined up with DeAndre Yedlin (£4.5m) and Matt Ritchie (£5.8m) as wing-backs, rolling out a fluid 3-4-2-1 with the ball and retreating to a 5-4-1 when out of possession.

Kenedy (£4.9m) and Ayoze Perez (£6.1m) provided Salomon Rondon‘s (£5.7m) support up front, though the attacking trio failed to really catch the eye from a Fantasy perspective despite putting in industrious displays both with and without the ball.

Kenedy chanced his arm on five occasions but failed to hit the target with any of his efforts, a recurring theme for the budget Brazilian this season – of the FPL midfielders to have scored at least one Premier League goal in 2018/19, Kenedy has the worst conversion rate of all (3.8%), with 21 of his 26 shots not even forcing the opposition goalkeeper into a save.

It was Yedlin and Ritchie who particularly caught the eye, with the Scotland winger delivering more crosses than any other FPL midfielder in Gameweek 13 – one of which led to Ciaran Clark‘s (£4.4m) headed winner.

Ritchie should have been on the scoresheet himself and consequently accorded Yedlin an assist, but the former Bournemouth player astonishingly blazed wide with the goal gaping after his American team-mate had seen a shot saved by Joe Hart (£4.5m).

Yedlin would be an attractive proposition as an attacking wing-back in a side capable of collecting the odd clean sheet and with an excellent run of forthcoming fixtures, though it remains to be seen whether Benitez persists with a three-man backline or reverts to his more trusted 4-4-1-1 in the matches ahead.

Federico Fernandez (£4.5m) was perhaps United’s standout defender at the back, racking up the most clearances, blocks and interceptions (CBIs) of any player on show as Burnley peppered Newcastle’s centre-halves with long ball after long ball.

The former Swansea stopper played a big part in Newcastle’s opening goal, meanwhile, with his shot looping in via a telling deflection off Ben Mee (£4.8m).

Fabian Schar (£4.6m) had another solid game alongside Clark and Fernandez, and it certainly doesn’t appear that the Magpies are missing their injured captain Jamaal Lascelles (£4.7m) too much.

Indeed, Benitez said pre-match that even when fit, Lascelles has plenty to do to reclaim his starting berth:

I think it is important to have competition in each position.

When you have a player like Jamaal Lascelles who done so well last season, and he is available again, then he comes back in and has to compete [for his place].

That can only be good news for the team.

Benitez paid tribute to Schar, Clark and Fernandez in his post-match press conference:

It was a difficult game. We knew it could be tough, they are a strong team, very physical with the two strikers, wingers with pace. The three centre-backs did a great job.

Jonjo Shelvey (£5.3m) was an unused substitute on his return to fitness, meanwhile, with Ki Sung-yueng (£4.7m) and Mohamed Diame (£4.9m) now in pole position in central midfield.

Burnley defenders’ fall from grace as value-for-money budget options to overpriced Fantasy assets has been a feature of this season, with the Clarets conceding two goals (or more) in a match for the seventh time in 2018/19.

Sean Dyche’s side have shipped 27 goals after 13 Gameweeks of this campaign; they had conceded on only ten occasions at the same stage of 2017/18.

The margin of defeat could have been even bigger, too, given that Ritchie missed from point-blank range and Joselu (£4.9m) cracked the upright late on.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what the issue is, though Benitez offered up some interesting comments on Burnley’s backline when discussing his own counter-attacking approach.

They had the full-backs always high, making crosses, so as soon as we regain [possession] we have more space and then they have just the two centre-backs. They were always really, really high, so in some games maybe, if they keep organisation, you cannot play counter-attacking in the same way.

Dyche had his own take on his side’s defensive lapses:

We’ve conceded a lucky goal and a poor one, and that’s something we have tried to eradicate over the past few weeks, after a tough start.

We’ve given too many of them away this year, and we’re still trying to iron out those details.

The second [goal] is just something where we were attacking everything last season, but that comes with a bit of nerves, a bit of edge.

I think we’ve given a performance tonight, but we can’t concede soft goals, because it’s very difficult in the Premier League when you’re two-down.

James Tarkowski (£4.8m) didn’t feature after a hernia operation, so Kevin Long (£4.2m) was again called upon to partner Mee at the heart of the Burnley backline.

Ben Gibson (£4.8m), who has undergone his own surgery on a hernia this season, was fit enough for a place on the substitutes’ bench.

The Clarets were without Johann Berg Gudmundsson (£6.0m), who had seemingly recovered from a calf injury in the days leading up to Gameweek 13 but who apparently fell ill over the weekend.

Dyche said:

He’s had that bug that’s going around. He wasn’t even here, he wasn’t even on the bench. We kept him away for obvious reasons.

It’s been 48 hours [as of] today, obviously you can’t play if you’re under the weather.

The hosts were toothless in the first half until Sam Vokes (£5.3m) halved the deficit on 40 minutes, looping an excellent header over Martin Dubravka (£5.3m) after a long punt from Mee.

That set the scene for what followed, with Burnley pumping a succession of high crosses into the box as they chased an equaliser.

The Clarets’ attacks were one-dimensional and agricultural, but ultimately quite effective in carving out chances after the break – the battering rams of Vokes and Chris Wood (£6.2m) having 11 goal attempts and 18 penalty box touches between them without further success.

Wood had perhaps the better of the opportunities for much of the game, shooting straight at Dubravka, blazing over on the half-volley from 12 yards and having a goalbound shot blocked by Yedlin before Vokes headed an excellent chance over in the final seconds of the match.

Dyche was positive about his side’s attacking play, in particular, the dangerous-looking – if not clinical – partnership of Wood and Vokes:

Woody has played well, he had a couple of really good chances, and Vokesy as well, it’s frustrating beyond the result, because I think we’ve given a performance.

Woody’s had chances, Vokesey has, even in the dying seconds, so I think the character of the side is coming back, the energy of the side was very good, and some of the quality, some of the play was really good.

It was a high pass count for us, which often happens against a 5-4-1 playing on the counter, and at the end, still that final pass, that final moment of quality, but there was more of that tonight.

Burnley XI (4-4-2): Hart; Lowton, Long, Mee, Taylor; Lennon, Cork, Defour (Hendrick 83′), Brady (Barnes 83′); Vokes, Wood.

Newcastle United XI (3-4-2-1): Dubravka; Schar, Fernandez, Clark; Yedlin, Diame, Ki, Ritchie; Kenedy (Hayden 90′), Perez; Rondon (Joselu 70′).

Become a Member and access our data

Memberships for the 2018/19 campaign are now available for the price of just £15.

Join now to get the following:

• Plot your transfer strategies using the fully interactive Season Ticker.
• Get projections for every Premier League player provided by the Rate My Team statistical model.
• Use Rate My Team throughout the season to guide your selections and transfers.
• Get access to over 130+ exclusive members articles over the season.
• Analyse our OPTA-powered statistic tables specifically tailored for Fantasy Football Managers.
• Use our exclusive tool to build custom stats tables from over 100 OPTA player and team stats.
• View heatmaps and expected goals data for every player.
• Use our powerful comparison tool to analyse players head-to-head.

CLICK HERE TO BECOME A FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT MEMBER