Giroud injury increases likelihood of further Hazard starts up front

We’ve got the Fantasy talking points, salient manager quotes and headline injury news from two more Gameweek 20 matches, both of which were contested on Sunday.

Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea

• Goal: N’Golo Kante (£4.9m)
• Assist: David Luiz (£5.8m)

Chelsea’s injury problems continue to mount, with Olivier Giroud (£7.7m) the latest casualty of the festive fixture programme.

Already without the sidelined Pedro (£6.3m) and Callum Hudson-Odoi (£4.2m), Maurizio Sarri revealed that the Blues also lost three players to injury ahead of the trip to Selhurst Park and then watched on as Giroud succumbed to an ankle problem in the second half of Sunday’s victory.

The French forward was seen leaving south London on crutches and looks to be a serious doubt for the visit of Southampton in Gameweek 21 and beyond, though no official prognosis has been given yet.

After full-time, the Chelsea boss said of Giroud:

The problem is his ankle. I don’t know the extent at the moment. We have to wait until tomorrow. Later this evening I will see the doctor for the first result.

In the last two days we were a bit unlucky. Yesterday in 10 minutes we had three injuries: Fabregas, Loftus-Cheek and Drinkwater. Now today Giroud, and we were already without Pedro and Hudson-Odoi, so now we are in trouble because in January we have to play every three days.

Fabregas has a neck injury. I don’t know how long he will be out for. I don’t know if he has to rest for two days or for ten days.

Giroud’s injury could have ramifications for Eden Hazard (£11.1m), who was back on the left wing for this match but who had started the previous four Premier League games as a “false nine”.

The unavailability of Pedro, Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus Cheek (£5.2m), all of whom have played on the right flank this season, essentially forced Sarri into switching Hazard back out wide, with Giroud starting up top for the first time since Gameweek 14.

Sarri is a fan of Hazard in a central role, though, and a medium-term injury to Giroud would surely only reinforce the Italian manager’s position.

Alvaro Morata (£8.4m) returned from his own layoff in this fixture as Giroud’s 76th-minute replacement and is another option in attack, though the Spaniard was declared fit for the Boxing Day win over Watford and wasn’t considered by Sarri for that 18-man squad so would appear to have fallen from favour somewhat.

At this point, it seems likely that as soon as Pedro recovers from a hamstring problem in early January we will see more of Hazard in a central role.

The Belgian, as feared would happen if moved back over to the left flank for this encounter, didn’t enjoy the best of afternoons in south London.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.4m) has made a habit out of taming in-form wingers this season and Hazard was his latest conquest, with the talismanic Belgian’s goal threat restricted to one blocked shot from distance in the first half.

Hazard buzzed around across the final third as he attempted to inject some urgency into proceedings and though he registered more key passes than anyone on show, this was as quiet a performance as he has delivered in some time. Easier tests likely await in the forthcoming double-header at Stamford Bridge, however.

Wan-Bissaka and the Crystal Palace defence produced an admirable rearguard effort for much of this encounter, with the Eagles showing precious little ambition in attack and content to soak up a lot of Chelsea possession.

Palace, indeed, didn’t register a single effort on target all game and their first real attempt of note came in the final ten minutes when they belatedly exerted some pressure on a hitherto untroubled Chelsea defence.

This was the Blues’ ninth clean sheet of the season (only Liverpool have more), but there will seldom be easier afternoons for their back four.

Asked if his side could have shown more ambition, Roy Hodgson said:

If we’d have wanted to be beaten 4-0 or 5-0, possibly, yes.

They were very,very good. Our first half was disciplined and focused, and we limited their goalscoring chances. They had that offside goal, but apart from that, I thought we did quite well.

When they score the goal there are two possibilities, either you are not getting the ball well enough or they are keeping it from you. We were not able to get the ball from them. But if you open yourselves up, you can see them exploit the spaces. Or you can try and keep the game tight and under some sort of control, until maybe 20 minutes from then, and then hope to take your chances.

It didn’t work, because we didn’t score. We weren’t at our best by any stretch of the imagination, technically. They were very, very good on the ball, and in terms of their organisational structure. It was going to be a tight game if we could keep it tight. That’s why we lost the game 1-0 and not by more.

Willian (£7.2m) and Ross Barkley (£5.3m) both struck the woodwork but Vicente Guaita (£4.2m) – still preferred over the fit-again Wayne Hennessey (£4.5m) – wasn’t really extended too much before N’Golo Kante (£4.9m) burst forward to latch onto a David Luiz (£5.8m) through ball to put Chelsea in front.

Kante is now the highest-scoring FPL midfielder available for under £5.0m, after scoring his third league goal of the campaign – as many as he had managed in the previous three seasons combined.

Sarri still, however, seems less than 100% convinced by Kante in his role on the outside of Jorginho (£4.8m) and equally dubious about the other midfield options available.

Sarri said of Kante:

He has to think about the defence first of all. Then he is improving, especially in movements without the ball. His movement today was really very good and was done with the right timing.

When we have to play against opponents who are very low, it’s difficult for the striker and wingers to find space. So for us the midfielders’ movement without the ball is very important.

Now we have to work on Loftus-Cheek and on Barkley. Loftus-Cheek especially is a great player with the ball, but he can improve a lot in his movement without the ball.

Marcos Alonso (£6.8m), who was booked for a petulant punch of the ball early on, got forward a lot to support his colleagues in attack but like many of his team-mates found a dogged Palace defence difficult to penetrate.

A lack of goals is something Palace have struggled with all season but Hodgson confirmed after the match that the club were interested in Dominic Solanke (£4.7m), who would be an intriguing addition to the budget striker debate if afforded a run in the team.

Hodgson said:

He would provide the attacking threat that a good centre-forward should provide. He’s very much a proven goalscorer through all the age groups with Chelsea and with England.

If he comes here, it’ll be up to him to show he can do that and transfer that into Premier League football. He’s someone with the profile we’re looking for, and the ability we are looking for, which once again today I thought we were sadly lacking.

Crystal Palace XI (4-5-1): Guaita; Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Sakho, Van Aanholt; Milivojevic, McArthur, Kouyate (Meyer 78′); Townsend, Schlupp (Wickham 69′); Zaha.

Chelsea XI (4-3-3): Kepa; Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso; Kante, Jorginho, Barkley (Kovacic 88′); Willian (Emerson 82′), Giroud (Morata 76′), Hazard.

Burnley 2-0 West Ham United

• Goals: Chris Wood (£6.2m), Dwight McNeil (£4.4m)
• Assists: Ashley Barnes (£5.6m), Ashley Westwood (£4.5m)

West Ham United trod in the footsteps of Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City and Everton in following up a fine Gameweek 19 performance with a limp showing this weekend.

It was a thoroughly deserved victory for Sean Dyche’s side, which came four days after their 5-1 pasting at the hands of the Toffees on the same ground.

The Hammers deserve to be cut some slack after five victories in their previous six Premier League outings but they were abject on Sunday, with only some profligate finishing from Chris Wood (£6.2m) and Ashley Barnes (£5.6m) keeping the scoreline respectable.

The Burnley strike pair had combined early on to give the Clarets the lead but were guilty of squandering several glaring opportunities, with Barnes denied by Lukasz Fabianski (£4.8m) from point-blank range and firing wide in the first minute when unmarked eight yards out. Wood meanwhile produced an air-kick when the ball was squared to him by Barnes and later screwed a shot past the post when one on one with the Polish shot-stopper.

While Fabianski is a popular set-and-forget option in goal for many FPL managers, it’s his save points that keeps him competitive in the goalkeeper’s market: only Fulham and Manchester United have registered fewer clean sheets than the Hammers (three) this season.

West Ham look particularly susceptible on the flanks, ranking 17th for chances conceded from the wide areas and joint-16th for headed opportunities allowed in 2018/19. Only Burnley themselves have conceded more big chances.

That, of course, played right into the hands of Dyche, who deployed Johann Berg Gudmundsson (£5.6m) and Dwight McNeil (£4.4m) as orthodox wingers in this contest and reverted to a 4-4-2.

McNeil was excellent on the left flank and scored his first Burnley goal when sliding to meet an Ashley Westwood (£4.5m) cross on 33 minutes.

Dyche said of the teenager:

We were debating it [playing McNeil] because we know he can offer us something, but we weren’t sure when.

We’ve been waiting to get out of this position and get a few wins to give him a bit of a chance because we think he’s a real player, but in the end I thought ‘no, I’m going to play him’.

He delivered and he and his family can be very proud tonight.

The Burnley boss made a big call in goal in recalling Tom Heaton (£4.8m) for his first start since September 2017 and seemed to suggest the goalkeeper’s jersey was his to lose now:

I had to make a tough decision today because Joe (Hart) has been very good for us on numerous occasions this season, but the facts are the facts.

We’ve conceded a lot of goals and I’ve looked at changing shape and personnel and eventually, unfortunately, you have to look at the keeper too.

I must say, great credit to Joe because he was the first one to jump off the bench when Tom made an important save at the end, so there is a great respect and a great professionalism there.

Equally, Tom’s professionalism because he hasn’t played for a while, but he keeps himself sharp and he got his payback today.

I’ve got three England goalkeepers to choose from because Nick Pope isn’t far away, and I knew this moment would come.

Manuel Pellegrini blamed the festive fixture schedule for his side’s showing and may have had a valid point, particularly with his squad stretched through injury:

Well normally I don’t like to give excuses for when you lose a game but I think that today it was very clear, from the first minute of the game that the physical was so different between one team and the other.

We arrived in London at 2am in the morning on Friday and we are playing at 2.15pm on a Sunday, 48 hours, against a team that are physical and recovered better than our team, without any doubt. They had 35 hours more to recover than we did.

Felipe Anderson (£7.4m) produced a surly display as he was bullied out of the game by Phil Bardsley (£4.2m), Robert Snodgrass (£5.4m) was hooked at half-time after being booked, and Lucas Perez (£6.2m) turned in another poor performance up front before also being withdrawn at the interval.

Substitute Andy Carroll (£5.4m) was West Ham’s only real threat and he forced a stupendous save from Heaton in the Burnley goal with a second-half header.

Marko Arnautovic (£6.9m) also made his first start since early December after returning from a hamstring injury, with Pellegrini saying there was no risk attached to his quicker-than-anticipated comeback:

Marko worked for the whole week with us and I think that more than just Marko, we had ten other players who were out injured. The same players have played seven games in December.

Days like today they can happen, but we need to bounce back, recover well and go again on Wednesday and use the players who are in the best moment.

Burnley XI (4-4-2): Heaton; Bardsley, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor; Gudmundsson, Westwood, Cork, McNeil; Wood (Vokes 90′), Barnes.

West Ham United XI (4-4-2): Fabianski; Antonio, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Rice, Noble, Snodgrass (Diangana 46′), Anderson; Perez (Carroll 46′), Arnautovic (Silva 73′).

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