Our latest Scout Notes article focuses on the events of the final fixture of Gameweek 22.
Manchester City kept their first clean sheet since November as they strolled to victory over ten-man Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Etihad, with Willy Boly‘s 19th-minute red card effectively ending the contest as a spectacle.
An FPL points avalanche failed to ensue, however, with only Gabriel Jesus going on to break the ten-point barrier.
We round up the goals, assists, Fantasy talking points and relevant manager quotes after Pep Guardiola’s side kept up the pressure on Liverpool at the top of the Premier League.
Manchester City 3-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
- Goals: Gabriel Jesus (£10.1m) x2, Conor Coady (£4.5m) own-goal
- Assists: Leroy Sane (£9.6m), Raheem Sterling (£11.3m), Kevin De Bruyne (£9.7m)
While the effortless nature of Manchester City’s victory and a first clean sheet in nine league matches would have satisfied fans of the reigning champions, owners of the Citizens’ Fantasy assets would have been forgiven for feeling a little short-changed by the single-digit hauls that everyone bar Gabriel Jesus (£10.1m) – the 16th-most-popular City asset in FPL – picked up at the Etihad.
Those expecting the floodgates to open after the Brazilian’s well-worked ninth-minute goal and Willy Boly‘s (£4.6m) dismissal ten minutes later were to be disappointed, as Wolves, not for the first time this season, proved to be obdurate opponents in the face of relentless pressure.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s defensive 5-3-2 became a 5-2-2 and then a 5-3-1 after Boly’s sending off and the visitors were largely successful in their damage limitation exercise, content to soak up the pressure as their attacking ambition understandably evaporated and throw their bodies in the path of the shots that came their way.
In the end, Wolves’ resistance was only broken by a soft-looking penalty and an unfortunate own-goal: Jesus converting from the spot after Raheem Sterling (£11.3m) was adjudged to have been felled and Conor Coady (£4.5m) turning a deflected Kevin De Bruyne (£9.7m) cross past his own goalkeeper.
Interviewed after full-time, Pep Guardiola said that the recent pile-up of matches perhaps played as much of a part as Wolves’ rearguard effort:
We played a lot of time with ten against 11, we should attack a little bit more, especially the last 20-25 minutes when Kevin [De Bruyne] came in. We were more aggressive attacking the box.
The first half, a lot of passes but we didn’t have the intention to attack a little bit more fluently.
But we have a lot of games in our legs, in our minds and sometimes you drop a little bit our intensity, sometimes it’s normal.
Guardiola added in his press conference:
The game 11 v 11 was quite similar to 11 v 10. We made a fantastic first goal with the action – the movement and the pass.
After that [the first goal], we forgot to move the ball more into the box. We arrived in the final third quite easily but we didn’t make movements to attack the ball.
In that last few minutes, with Kevin De Bruyne and his special quality, we played the way we have to play. We have to keep doing it over and over, winning the second balls.
We didn’t concede many counter-attacks and Wolves put in incredible fast players for the last 20 minutes. They can punish you – we’ve seen it against Tottenham and Chelsea.
It’s so difficult to defend [against] our opponents. It’s so tough when they have five at the back but the quality [to break down the defence].
The goal that Guardiola referred to was brilliantly executed, with Leroy Sane (£9.6m) latching onto a superb Aymeric Laporte (£5.9m) through-ball that dissected the right-hand side of Wolves’ defence and squaring for Jesus to tap in.
Guardiola said in his post-match presser that there wasn’t enough of that type of movement thereafter but in reality, once Jesus put City 2-0 up from the spot on 38 minutes, there didn’t need to be.
Sterling ran into one-too-many cul-de-sacs in his countless bursts forward but still could have added two goals to his “Fantasy assist”, nodding a Danilo (£5.1m) cross straight at Rui Patricio (£4.5m) from the edge of the six-yard box and then having his attempted toe-poke smothered by the Wolves custodian when Sane had released him through on goal.
Sane oozed class on the left flank without breaking a sweat, laying on the assist for City’s opener and that “big chance” for Sterling and causing Matt Doherty (£5.2m) plenty of problems with his fleet-footed trickery.
Sane had more shots on goal than any player on show at the Etihad but didn’t particularly come close to scoring himself: three of his four efforts were blocked and the other was a horribly shanked effort on his right foot after a Bernardo Silva (£7.6m) cut-back.
Jesus scored his sixth and seventh goals of the calendar year on another promising showing and Guardiola said after the match that his inclusion in the starting XI over Sergio Aguero (£11.2m) was nothing to do with the illness that had blighted the Argentinean striker in the ten days preceding this match.
Asked about whether Aguero and De Bruyne’s omissions were because of injuries/illness, Guardiola said:
No, I have an incredible squad. Kevin deserved to play. [Ilkay] Gundo[gan] made six or seven assists in the last two games but didn’t play today. Both deserve to play but Bernardo also deserves to play for what he has done so far and Fernandinho for what they have done against Liverpool.
Today, one of my favourite players, Phil [Foden], was not in the 18 but there are a lot of games and maybe next game, new players are going to come in.
They have to be ready and they have to know they need to play good in all the details because if they don’t another is going to play. I’m unfair for many players. They know that but today I decided for the fresh players like Aymer[ic Laporte], like John [Stones], like Bernardo and Fernandinho.
Aguero came on for the dreaded “one-pointer” in this match, while De Bruyne grabbed his first assist of the season – and 50th in FPL since joining City – and provided some much-needed impetus for the last half-hour with a couple of rasping efforts and incisive passes.
It remains to be seen just how prominent a role Jesus plays in the final 16 league matches of the season but his start and brace on Monday night may just plant a seed of doubt in the minds of those Fantasy managers who were considering executing a straight swap from the injured Harry Kane (£12.6m) to Aguero ahead of Gameweek 23.
City broke their run of eight matches without a clean sheet – the longest in the division before kick-off – but there will seldom be easier evenings for Ederson (£5.6m) and co, with a Boly header on three minutes the only attempt on goal the visitors had all evening aside from two late blocked efforts.
That said, Wolves spurned a fantastic opportunity to level the scores up at 1-1 when Jonny (£4.3m) overhit a pass to Diogo Jota (£5.9m) at the end of a three-on-two break.
Jota and his strike partner Raul Jimenez (£6.4m) both had their minutes managed as Santo effectively acknowledged that the contest was over – the Mexican striker being withdrawn for the rapid Adama Traore (£5.2m) at the interval in what Santo confirmed was a tactical switch:
We were trying to make another approach. We wanted the speed of Adama. Every time we recovered the ball we tried to find him.
We were trying something, always keeping the shape of the team knowing it was hard to defend. We didn’t achieve it but we stayed in the game.
Doherty had a tricky night up against Sane but it seems that no matter the fixture or scenario, the Irish wing-back will always pop up at least once in a dangerous position to threaten an attacking return.
Doherty’s “moment” this time came early in the match when he received the ball in an excellent position near the byline but his attempted cross was wildly overhit and with that delivery went his prospects of mildly punishing the 830,000+ FPL bosses who benched him this week.
Santo reflected on a difficult evening in Manchester:
We are in shape, we are organised, then it’s a 30-yard pass that breaks us. There’s no doubt about it, Man City controlled the game and had chances, but we had a plan and it was about our defensive organisation to try and stay in the game, so with the goal and red card, everything went down.
It’s difficult to stop them but you try to avoid certain situations, knowing that they will break. Then we have to balance ourselves, but I must see better. We must improve.
One of the things Man City have is their possession, we had to trap them in the right places, but we had one man less, so the midfield was short and it started falling apart.
We showed character, we were brave to stay in the game, always working hard, but we can’t stop all the chances for Man City.
We tried to have speed and to maintain the organisation, then play clearly on the counter-attack.
You have to stay compact, knowing the result is going to be difficult. You have to work yourself until the end and my boys did it, so we must look ahead to the next challenge at home.
Boly will now be missing for two Premier League matches and the FA Cup fourth-round tie against Shrewsbury Town, so Leander Dendoncker (£4.3m) – who dropped back into defence from central midfield after Boly’s dismissal – may be deputising at centre-half for the visit of Leicester City and West Ham United in Gameweeks 23 and 24.
Manchester City XI (4-3-3): Ederson; Walker, Stones, Laporte, Danilo; Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, David Silva (De Bruyne 61′); Sterling, Gabriel Jesus (Aguero 76′), Sane (Gundogan 74′).
Wolverhampton Wanderers XI (5-3-2): Rui Patricio; Doherty, Bennett, Coady, Boly, Jonny; Dendoncker, Neves, Moutinho (Gibbs-White 72′); Jimenez (Traore 46′), Jota (Saiss 59′).
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