Another pair of Premier League sides bowed out of the FA Cup on Saturday evening, with Everton and West Ham United the victims of giant-killings at the hands of two Football League clubs.
As has been widely publicised today on this site and beyond, the fact that neither Everton nor Manchester City will require an FA Cup fourth-round replay means that their postponed Gameweek 27 fixture – which clashes with the EFL Cup final – can now be brought forward to Wednesday 6 February (part of Gameweek 25).
Thirteen teams from the top-flight of English football have now exited the competition, after Tottenham Hotspur fell to Crystal Palace in an all-Premier League clash on Sunday.
Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton & Hove Albion face fourth-round replays after drawing on Saturday, meanwhile.
Palace, Watford, Manchester City and Manchester United are the only four Premier League teams to have definitely secured their passages to the round of 16 ahead of Chelsea’s meeting with Sheffield Wednesday.
All of this has ramifications for Fantasy Premier League managers, of course, given that Gameweeks 31 and 33 clash with the FA Cup quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.
Those “blank” Gameweeks may not quite be so decimated now, with four fixtures already confirmed in each:
Confirmed Gameweek 31 fixtures:
- Bournemouth v Newcastle United
- Burnley v Leicester City
- Fulham v Liverpool
- West Ham United v Huddersfield Town
Confirmed Gameweek 33 fixtures:
- Bournemouth v Burnley
- Everton v Arsenal
- Huddersfield Town v Leicester City
- Southampton v Liverpool
Bournemouth, Burnley, Huddersfield, Leicester and Liverpool are the five clubs we can now say will – weather-permitting – avoid blanks in Gameweeks 27, 31 and 33.
Wimbledon 4-2 West Ham United
- Goals: Lucas Perez, Felipe Anderson
- Assists: Michail Antonio, Robert Snodgrass
West Ham sought to deflect attention away from their humiliating FA Cup fourth-round defeat by announcing that Marko Arnautovic (£6.9m) had signed a new contract minutes after the final whistle blew at Kingsmeadow.
Speaking after penning the improved deal, Arnautovic said:
I want to say to the fans that I’m happy to stay, I glad to play again, show myself and score goals, to make assists, but also to say that the major point is Marko Arnautovic never refused [to play or train].
I want to stop all this noise and focus on my job, to play football, and the fans hopefully are going to support us in every game that we play and we keep on winning games.
Believe me, it was terrible for myself to sit at home and watch the team against Bournemouth because I couldn’t affect it. It was a very bad feeling for myself and I felt kind of mad, angry at myself because I couldn’t help the team.
But I’m back, and I will give everything now here. We go again on Tuesday, against Wolverhampton away, and I want to play and am hungry to score goals.
The Austrian was certainly missed on Saturday as several of his team-mates – including two understudies in his position – delivered woeful performances against a side currently sitting bottom of League One.
Andy Carroll (£5.4m) and Javier Hernandez (£6.1m) were given the nod to lead the line as Manuel Pellegrini deployed a 4-4-2 against their lower-league opponents but both strikers were ineffectual, save for a deflected effort from the Mexican that hit the post early in the first half.
The Hammers failed to register a single shot on target before the break and trailed 2-0 at the interval, prompting Manuel Pellegrini into a triple change: Carroll, central midfielder Pedro Obiang (£4.3m) and right-winger Grady Diangana (£4.5m) being replaced by Lucas Perez (£6.2m), Felipe Anderson (£7.3m) and the fit-again Ryan Fredericks (£4.5m).
Those substitutions saw Michail Antonio (£6.8m) moved up from right-back to the right of midfield, Anderson take up his usual position on the opposite flank and Perez join Hernandez in a two-man attack.
Robert Snodgrass (£5.1m), meanwhile, shifted inside from the left wing to central midfield.
Though they fell 3-0 down soon after the restart, the Hammers started to assert more of a threat and two of their substitutes – Perez and Anderson – reduced the arrears to set up a grandstand finish.
Perez lashed home on 57 minutes after Antonio’s effort had been blocked before Anderson curled home a superb free-kick with around 20 minutes to go.
Fredericks caught the eye on his first appearance after returning from injury, linking up well with Antonio on the right flank, though Arthur Masuaku (£4.3m) and Adrian’s dismal displays will surely only serve to consolidate Aaron Cresswell (£5.0m) and Lukasz Fabianski‘s (£4.8m) hold on their positions in the Premier League.
It should be noted that the regular centre-back pairing of Issa Diop (£4.3m) and Angelo Ogbonna (£4.2m) were selected for this cup tie and the fact that they were at the heart of a defence that shipped four goals to a struggling League One outfit will encourage Fantasy managers who own Wolves assets ahead of the Hammers’ trip to Molineux on Tuesday.
Pellegrini was seething about his side’s first-half showing in particular:
Was I angry at half-time? Yes, of course, I was ashamed of them.
It’s very easy to explain what happened: it was one team who wanted to win and another team who played without any desire or any ambition to win or continue in this cup.
Maybe we thought we were going to win because we are a Premier League team and they are in League One, but Wimbledon played with the desire to compete in this cup. In the first 45 minutes, we didn’t fight.
It’s very frustrating because you can be eliminated, but not in the way we were. It’s a disaster.
West Ham United XI (4-4-2): Adrian; Antonio, Diop, Ogbonna, Masuaku; Diangana (Anderson 45′), Noble, Obiang (Fredericks 45′), Snodgrass; Carroll (Perez 45′), Hernandez.
Millwall 3-2 Everton
- Goals: Richarlison, Cenk Tosun
- Assists: Andre Gomes, Gylfi Sigurdsson
Marco Silva fumed at the lack of VAR usage in Everton’s defeat to Millwall on Saturday evening, with the Lions’ second goal having been handled into the net by Jake Cooper.
The Toffees’ boss said:
If we are to be fair with all the clubs you have to be fair with the competition and also you have to do it for all the games.
It doesn’t make sense. Now we go home with big frustration. I am not here just to be angry with the referee but it is true.
You have to be fair with the competition and not just Everton Football Club because we play here with the competition.
It was a clear handball in the moment. The players they saw and went to speak with the assistant and afterwards thousands of people saw on the big screen.
I think they look also [at the screen] and the referee looks also. We have to be fair with all the clubs and put VAR in all the stadiums.
The controversy over the Lions’ second equaliser masked familiar failings in Everton’s game, however: a weakness at dead-ball situations and a lack of inspiration in attack.
All three of Millwall’s goals stemmed from set plays, while Everton only managed three shots on target all game: goals from Richarlison (£6.8m) and Cenk Tosun (£6.5m) plus an innocuous long-distance effort from Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.3m) in stoppage time.
With Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.3m) given the nod to lead the line, Richarlison was back on the left flank but the Brazilian did little of note to impress in a 90-minute showing – save for his goal that owed more to a deflection and
Sigurdsson also banked an attacking return with an assist for Tosun’s 72nd-minute strike but the Icelandic midfielder was just as below-par in a static front four, with Ademola Lookman (£5.1m) also unable to influence proceedings on the right flank.
Everton’s defence
No Premier League side has conceded more chances from dead-ball situations in the last six Gameweeks, however, and the Toffees’ frailties at corners and free-kicks were again in evidence at the Den.
Shaun Hutchinson had a header cleared off the line even before Millwall scored a hat-trick of goals from free-kicks, with two of those situations arising from senseless fouls by Lucas Digne (£5.3m).
The Toffees lost Yerry Mina (£5.4m) to injury at the break, with the
Fantasy managers now face a dilemma over whether to lump on Everton’s underperforming assets ahead of Double Gameweek 25 with a blank just around the corner.
On the evidence of the Toffees’ defeat in south London on Saturday, very few of their players are making a case for inclusion in our squads.
Everton XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Coleman, Keane, Mina (Zouma 45′), Digne; Gueye, Gomes; Calvert-Lewin (Tosun 65′), Sigurdsson, Lookman (Walcott 79′); Richarlison.
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