Fantasy Premier League managers are about to be treated to a £4.0m starting goalkeeper from Gameweek 20 onwards.

Brighton shot-stopper Mathew Ryan (£4.5m) is heading to the Asian Cup with Australia, leaving a vacancy open in Sussex.

That and many other Fantasy talking points are included in this latest Scout Notes article.

Brighton 1-1 Arsenal

Goals: Jürgen Locadia (£5.3m) | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.5m)

Assists: Alexandre Lacazette (£9.5m)

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.5m) continued to deliver on his promising expected goals score from recent weeks. He came into Gameweek 19 top of the pile for expected goals in the four matches prior to Boxing Day and found the net once again against Brighton. It was something of a surprise to see him in the starting line-up yet again, despite playing 90 minutes in his seven previous Premier League appearances and lasting the duration in the recent EFL Cup quarter-final defeat to Spurs. However, he completed another match and seems to be largely unaffected by the busy festive schedule. After all, it seems completely improbable that Unai Emery would now rest him for the Gameweek 20 trip to Liverpool.

It was Alexandre Lacazette (£9.5m) alongside Aubameyang up front once again and he was limited to just an assist for the third match in a row. Emery seems very keen to manage the Frenchman’s minutes more than others around him as he was substituted in the 61st minute. Lacazette is now without a 90-minute Premier League outing since Gameweek 12, and without a goal since Gameweek 14. Not surprisingly, he did not look best pleased about being substituted again.

It was another match in which Arsenal were not leading at half-time, their Gameweek 18 win over Burnley still the only occasion where that happened this season. Emery made yet another change at the interval with Mesut Özil (£8.0m) replaced by Alex Iwobi (£5.5m), Emery confirming it was tactical and not injury related.

“No. It was only tactically. We did before, in other matches also change the idea from the first half with other players. And today I did it with Mesut, that is only tactically, not another problem. Tactically some matches I did that. I wanted to control better the positioning on the pitch, but in the second half, we couldn’t do our ideas on the pitch to impose. We created less chances in the second half.” – Unai Emery

Arsenal were indeed a lot flatter in the second half, almost looking happy to take a point in the closing stages. Laurent Koscielny (£5.4m) needed to be substituted with a knock in the 70th minute and now needs assessing for Gameweek 20.

“Saturday is another match. We will recover the players, we are going to look at how Koscielny is and if Mustafi is OK. While we are close to top four, I can have big motivation.” – Unai Emery

Brighton were the side that looked more like winning the clash in the second half with striker Jürgen Locadia (£5.3m) a key threat for the Seagulls. He started a second consecutive match on the left flank of midfield, at the expense of Anthony Knockaert (£5.4m), who appears to have been reduced to the role of an impact sub. It was Locadia who was able to capitalise on Stephan Lichtsteiner‘s (£4.5m) mistake and equalise for Brighton. Chris Hughton was very pleased with him, and his performance could suggest further involvement in the team.

“I’m really pleased that he played well, even more pleased that he got the goal.” – Chris Hughton

One of the main reasons why Aubameyang wasn’t able to add to his solitary goal at the Amex Stadium was an outstanding performance from goalkeeper Ryan. However, Brighton will now have to do without him as Hughton confirmed that he joined Australia for their training camp ahead of the Asian Cup on Monday morning.

“Maty will go in the morning. We will miss him because he has been very good for us but we’ve also got two other, I think, very good goalkeepers (David Button and Jason Steele). It’s an opportunity now for one of them.” – Chris Hughton

As you can see from Hughton’s post-match quotes, the goalkeeper jersey is still up for grabs with one of either David Button (£4.0m) or Jason Steele (£4.0m) to fill in for Ryan while he is away. Thankfully, it won’t matter which one is chosen because their prices mean we are guaranteed a starting £4.0m goalkeeper for as long as Australia, one of the pre-tournament favourites, are still at the Asian Cup.

Button was the clear favourite in pre-season having played more minutes than any other Brighton shot-stopper other than Ryan, while Steel was not involved at all. Button was also on the substitutes’ bench for the first nine Premier League Gameweeks and started August’s EFL Cup defeat to Southampton. However, he was injured in November and was replaced by Steele on the Brighton bench ever since. That said, the Gameweek 19 draw with Arsenal was Button’s first appearance as the understudy to Ryan since Gameweek 9.

Brighton XI (4-5-1): Ryan; Bernardo, Balogun, Dunk, Montoya; Locadia (Knockaert 86′), Pröpper, Stephens, Groß, March; Murray (Andone 79′).

Arsenal XI (4-3-1-2): Leno; Kolasinac, Koscielny (Maitland-Niles 70′), Sokratis, Lichtsteiner; Guendouzi, Xhaka, Torreira; Özil (Iwobi 45′); Lacazette (Ramsey 62′), Aubameyang.

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