Experimental Arsenal and Chelsea sides rounded off their UEFA Europa League group campaigns on Thursday night, but there was plenty to interest Fantasy managers regarding team selection and injury news.
Alexandre Lacazette‘s owners wouldn’t have been too thrilled to see the Frenchman named in the line-up for Arsenal’s dead rubber against Qarabag, though a goal and an early withdrawal would have at least left them clinging onto hope for another start against Southampton on Sunday.
Chelsea fans and Eden Hazard owners will be monitoring the latest comments on Alvaro Morata‘s knee injury, which forced the striker’s withdrawal in the 2-2 draw with Vidi and could have the knock-on effect of seeing the Belgian leading the line more frequently over Christmas.
We’ve got all the goals, assists, injury updates, Fantasy talking points and manager quotes from the matches in north London and Hungary last night.
Arsenal 1-0 Qarabag
- Goal: Alexandre Lacazette (£9.6m)
- Assist: Mesut Ozil (£8.1m)
Unai Emery offered a glimmer of hope to Alexandre Lacazette‘s (£9.6m) Fantasy owners after Arsenal’s comfortable 1-0 win over Qarabag on Thursday, despite the premium striker being one of only two players – the other being Sokratis Papasthapoulos (£5.1m) – who started the narrow victory over Huddersfield Town on Saturday to not be handed a rest last night.
Lacazette was withdrawn after 63 minutes of this essentially meaningless Europa League encounter at the Emirates, with Emery having this to say after full-time:
First, we needed to have the mix of the first XI with young players. You can improve, you can play better if you have players who can help you on the pitch. For example Sokratis, he cannot play Sunday [through suspension] and he could play today.
Lacazette, I think he needs rhythm to play and it’s not bad for him to play today. We decided for this reason and because every player who played today can play Sunday.
Despite Emery’s reassuring words, Lacazette’s involvement on Thursday surely further increases Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang‘s (£11.5m) chances of starting against the Saints, with the Gabonese forward one of several high-profile names given the night off by his manager.
Lacazette scored the only goal of the match on 16 minutes, finishing expertly with a powerful low shot after being supplied a through-ball by the returning Mesut Ozil (£8.1m).
That was the France striker’s only real meaningful contribution of the evening, with the former Lyon forward not having another attempt on goal and registering fewer touches of the ball than any of Arsenal’s 11 starters.
There was little of note to be learned from this procession of a match, with the Gunners’ Azerbaijani opponents only briefly threatening early in the second half and not dirtying Emiliano Martinez‘s (£4.0m) gloves once in the home goal.
It was an undemanding first senior start of the season for Laurent Koscielny (£5.4m) in defence, with the veteran Frenchman’s return a timely one given the problems Emery has at centre-back currently.
Koscielny played 72 minutes of this encounter before being replaced by Nacho Monreal (£5.4m), and it could be that both thirtysomethings are needed on Sunday with Sokratis and Shkodran Mustafi (£5.4m) suspended, Rob Holding (£4.4m) ruled out for the season and Dinos Mavropanos (£4.7m) still not recovered from a groin injury.
Emery said of Koscielny: and his chances of featuring at St. Mary’s:
We are doing with him this process after the big injuries. He started training with us, playing with the under-23s, and today was another step for him. We need to know tomorrow and Saturday how he is going to feel after this match – if Sunday we can [play] him on the pitch.
I think for Koscielny it’s good that he’s recovered and I also think he recovered in a good time from his big injury. When he comes back like today with us, every supporter of Arsenal is happy, and also the player.
Then this process with him is to take confidence again, take rhythm for playing matches like today. We are going to continue this process maybe on Sunday. I want to wait tomorrow and Saturday for how he will feel after this match, for if he will play or not on Sunday.
Ozil was the only other player on show likely to be in the mix for Gameweek 17 and there was again little new learned from his display, with the German his usual mix of silky touches, excellent passing, half-paced jogs and borderline disinterest in an 83-minute showing.
Youngsters Eddie Nketiah (£5.0m) and Bukayo Sako impressed, with the former having an effort chalked off for offside and the latter denied a deserved goal by the visiting goalkeeper’s face, though both would appear some distance from Emery’s starting XI in the Premier League – and thus Fantasy managers’ thoughts – at the moment.
The Arsenal boss said:
Saka played with a good performance, with a very big personality.
Three weeks ago we played in Kiev and it was the same with Emile and Willock, who scored there. Nketiah played today also and gave a good performance.
We need one process with them, but in this process, they also need to show us their [development].
Arsenal XI (4-2-3-1):Â Martinez; Jenkinson, Sokratis, Koscielny (Monreal 72′), Maitland-Niles; Elneny, Willock; Nketiah, Ozil (Gilmour 83′), Saka; Lacazette (Medley 63′).
MOL Vidi 2-2 Chelsea
- Goals: Willian (£7.3m), Olivier Giroud (£7.7m)
- Assists: Cesc Fabregas (£6.3m)
Maurizio Sarri provided an update on Alvaro Morata‘s (£8.6m) injury after the Spanish forward was withdrawn just before half-time of Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with MOL Vidi on Thursday evening.
Morata fell awkwardly when taking a shot late in the first half and had to be replaced by Olivier Giroud (£7.7m), who may well now be the club’s only fit and available recognised centre-forward depending on the severity of Morata’s problem.
Sarri said:
The first reaction of the doctor is that maybe it’s not a very serious injury. In this kind of situation, we have to wait until tomorrow to be sure the injury is not serious.
Eden Hazard (£10.9m), one of several first-teamers who was given a breather and didn’t travel to Hungary, was deployed as a “false nine” in the win over Manchester City last weekend and should Morata be ruled out for a couple of weeks or so, we could see the Belgian job-sharing the striker role with Giroud over the festive period.
There were fewer academy products on show in Sarri’s starting XI in Budapest than there were in Arsenal’s youthful line-up, but this was very much a second-string team who participated in another Europa League dead rubber.
Willian (£7.3m) was the only player who started the win over Pep Guardiola’s side to keep his place for this encounter, with Sarri’s Thursday night selection again serving as a means of figuring out who won’t be featuring in the Premier League on Sunday.
Chelsea’s back-up back four were a mixed bag, with centre-half Ethan Ampadu (£4.4m) promising despite scoring an own-goal but the below-par Davide Zappacosta (£5.1m) again showing that Cesar Azpilicueta‘s (£6.3m) owners needn’t fear regular rotation any time soon.
Emerson Palmieri (£5.2m), meanwhile, didn’t suggest he’d offer anything particularly different (other than, perhaps, pace) from Marcos Alonso (£7.0m), with the deputy left-back promising going forward but suspect defensively and ultimately caught out for Vidi’s second goal.
The incisive Cesc Fabregas (£6.3m) was the pick of Chelsea’s midfield three, with Ross Barkley (£5.6m) and Ruben Loftus-Cheek (£5.2m) not enhancing their reputations or first-team credentials with ineffective showings.
It was Fabregas who won the free-kick for Chelsea’s second goal, brilliantly despatched into the top corner by Giroud on 75 minutes.
The French striker was more of a presence than Morata had been in the opening 45 minutes and should have done better with an Emerson cross before connecting well with a Fabregas free-kick to whistle a volley just over the hosts’ goal.
Willian had earlier won and converted a free-kick of his own before being replaced early in the second half by Pedro (£6.3m), while Callum Hudson-Odoi (£4.2m) was a man-of-the-match candidate on the other flank – though the youngster would still seem a considerable way from entering into Sarri’s Premier League plans.
The Chelsea boss said of his side’s performance and the contribution from his youth players:
We made a lot of mistakes from a tactical point of view, but I am very happy with the character, with our reaction to their second goal.
On the pitch, there were a lot of young players so it wasn’t easy to react. We made mistakes: we lost a lot of balls, we could have used the ball better, but at the end, I am satisfied with the performance, especially from the young players.
The goal was not the fault of Ampadu. We were zonal marking, and at no point did we touch the ball in advance of the first zone, which is really a very big problem, so it’s not the fault of Ampadu.
Ampadu played a very good match, especially in a team like this. We need to consider that if Ampadu played in the usual team, it would be easier for him. Today we changed 10 players. It’s not easy for the young players to play in a new team like the one in this match.
I am also very happy with Callum Hudson-Odoi. Of course, they need to improve, but they are on the right path.
Alonso, David Luiz (£5.7m) and Jorginho (£4.9m) were unused substitutes, while Hazard, Azpilicueta, Kepa Arrizabalaga (£5.5m), Antonio Rudiger (£6.0m) and N’Golo Kante (£4.9m) were handed a midweek rest ahead of the trip to Brighton on Sunday.
Chelsea XI (4-3-3): Caballero; Zappacosta, Christensen, Ampadu, Palmieri; Barkley, Fabregas, Loftus-Cheek; Willian (Pedro 56′), Morata (Giroud 45′), Hudson-Odoi.
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