The key stats behind Anderson’s poor form as Lanzini catches the eye

West Ham United made it five Premier League matches unbeaten at the London Stadium with a 2-0 win over Newcastle United on Saturday evening, as the Magpies extended their winless run on the road to six games.

Budget differentials did the damage in east London, with all four of the players who delivered attacking returns sitting in fewer than 3% of Fantasy Premier League squads before kick-off.

The Hammers’ two most-owned outfield assets, Felipe Anderson and Marko Arnautovic, again disappointed their owners for different reasons, though there was at least a fifth clean sheet of the campaign for Lukasz Fabianski.

We recap the main Fantasy talking points in our final Scout Notes of Gameweek 29 below.

West Ham United 2-0 Newcastle United

• Goals: Declan Rice (£4.6m), Mark Noble (£4.8m)
• Assists: Robert Snodgrass (£5.0m), Javier Hernandez (£6.1m)

Felipe Anderson (£7.2m) recorded his ninth blank in ten Gameweeks on Saturday evening as his side saw off in-form Newcastle.

A solitary assist in the 1-1 draw with Liverpool in Gameweek 25 represents the sum total of his attacking returns in that time and the Brazilian hasn’t found the back of the net since late-December.

Anderson sits in over 15% of Fantasy squads and there won’t be too many of his owners jumping ship given how attractive West Ham’s fixtures are over the next three Gameweeks (Saturday’s match against a leaky Cardiff defence represents an excellent chance to end that lean spell), though anyone thinking of drafting in the mid-price midfielder would have understandable reservations based on his current form.

Anderson has recorded only one shot in the last four Gameweeks and just three over his last six Premier League starts.

The Brazil international has a modest rate of key passes in the last four Gameweeks, too, creating only five chances – fewer than 23 other FPL midfielders.

Anderson, indeed, didn’t register a single shot or key pass against the Magpies and only touched the ball once in the opposition area.

While far from his best on Saturday, Anderson at least showed promising signs that he could link up well with Manuel Lanzini (£6.4m).

The fit-again Argentina international caught the eye in the number ten role in Manuel Pellegrini’s 4-2-3-1, producing some slick touches and finding space in between Newcastle’s defence and midfield.

There wasn’t much to cheer in terms of goal threat, with one blocked free-kick attempt and an 89th-minute effort that Martin Dubravka (£5.0m) pushed away representing his only two efforts, but the 0.1%-owned mid-price FPL midfielder certainly showed more promise than the more popular Anderson.

No player on show at the London Stadium made more passes in the opposition half than Lanzini, with his 97% pass completion rate being some 20% more than Anderson’s.

Pellegrini said of the Argentinean playmaker’s display:

If you tell me that Lanzini was injured for eight months, you would not believe it.

He is a player that has returned, he is not afraid of playing. When you have such a bad injury maybe you are not so comfortable in the first games, you are worried, you don’t trust too much in yourself to tackle or make good passes.

But Manu changed our game, he is a player giving good assistance to the forwards, always receiving the all, always asking for the ball and I don’t remember him losing one pass tonight.

Lanzini himself discussed how he felt after full-time, saying:

I am feeling good now, I am feeling happy.

It was a long injury, it was eight months and it was difficult at the time, but now I am feeling good and I am close to being 100 per cent, so I am happy about that.

The knee is strong. I don’t have any swelling which is good and, of course, I do feel nervous to play again as it has been a long time. The first 90 minutes and I was nervous but now I am feeling happy.

Lanzini is a potentially interesting differential for Blank Gameweek 31 but, while he reported no ill-effects after this 90-minute run-out, there is always the chance that Pellegrini could decide to carefully manage the Argentinean’s pitch-time over the coming month after such a long period on the sidelines.

While Lanzini and Anderson blanked, Robert Snodgrass (£5.0m) picked up an assist for his corner-kick delivery that Declan Rice (£4.6m) headed in after just six minutes.

Snodgrass was chiefly operating on the right flank on Saturday but security of starts is an issue with the Scotsman, with Lanzini, Michail Antonio (£6.8m) and Samir Nasri (£5.3m) now fit and available options to Pellegrini across the frontline.

There may be further bad news for Snodgrass’s owners, with the former Hull City midfielder facing a possible one-match ban (possibly in Blank Gameweek 31) after being hit with an FA charge for using “abusive and/or insulting words towards UK anti-doping officials”.

Javier Hernandez (£6.1m) was once again chosen to lead the line for the Hammers and did a decent enough job with limited service, winning the 41st-minute penalty that Mark Noble (£4.8m) converted and having a couple of efforts of his own from inside the six-yard box that he couldn’t quite redirect from narrow angles.

Chicharito’s inclusion meant that Marko Arnautovic (£6.8m) was reduced to another cameo off the bench – the Austrian hasn’t started a Premier League match since Gameweek 24.

While Rice’s “out of position” tag is barely merited given that he sits just in front of the back four, the youngster has nevertheless registered more attempts on goal this season than any other West Ham defender.

Eleven of Rice’s 17 efforts in 2018/19 came have come from set plays and the 6’1″ defender-turned-midfielder exploited Newcastle’s weaknesses at dead-ball situations to nod the Hammers in front on Saturday.

Rice may not get another attacking return this season but the erstwhile Ireland international at least offers security of starts: the 20-year-old has played every minute in the league since returning to the side in Gameweek 5.

West Ham’s defence made more blocks from shots than any other team in Gameweek 29 as they largely handled Newcastle’s limited attacking threat.

Issa Diop (£4.3m) and Angelo Ogbonna (£4.2m) have been the settled partnership at centre-back now and impressed on Saturday but Fabian Balbuena (£4.2m) is nearing a return, having appeared for the under-23s on Monday evening.

West Ham’s woes continued at left-back as Aaron Cresswell (£5.0m), returning from (and indeed playing with) a broken toe, was forced off after only 33 minutes of the victory over the Magpies.

Newcastle lost one of their own players to injury, too, as budget FPL midfielder Sean Longstaff (£4.5m) was forced off at half-time with a knee problem and was seen leaving the ground on crutches.

Rafael Benitez said of the youngster:

We will see. I think he has an injury but we have to assess him in the next couple of days.

I think for anyone to have an injury is bad news. But for a young player who was doing so well, it’s even worse.

But hopefully, it will be fine.

While Newcastle had produced battling performances in their last two away matches (Spurs and Wolves) and won four in a row at St. James’ Park, this appeared to be one fixture too many for the Magpies.

While Pellegrini made changes at Manchester City in midweek with one eye on this encounter, Benitez named the same starting XI that defeated Burnley on Tuesday and his side – as a consequence or otherwise – looked flat.

Indeed, over the last seven Gameweeks, Benitez had only made two alterations to his starting XIs in total.

There were some uncharacteristically sloppy displays at the back, too, following the strong performances in recent weeks.

Florian Lejeune (£4.4m) dived in recklessly for West Ham’s penalty, while Fabian Schar (£4.7m) lost Rice for the Hammers’ opener and had a torrid evening before being substituted on 64 minutes as the visitors changed shape.

Schar also picked up his ninth booking in 17 Premier League appearances and is now just one caution away from a two-match ban.

Newcastle’s continued weakness at set pieces, meanwhile, will interest Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.2m) and Lucas Digne‘s (£5.2m) owners ahead of Everton’s trip to Newcastle.

Miguel Almiron (£6.0m), Ayoze Perez (£5.9m) and Salomon Rondon (£6.1m) were well dealt with by West Ham’s defence, though Perez screwed an excellent opportunity across goal and Rondon was involved in ten (five attempts, five key passes) of Newcastle’s chances – one of which was a free-kick from the Venezuelan striker that hit the woodwork.

Benitez downplayed the “fatigue” factor after the match, citing a loss of concentration instead:

We had plenty of time to recover from the last game, but what we did was make too many mistakes in terms of concentration.

At the beginning, we had to do things in a different way, we didn’t do it and then, after, we conceded two goals that we could have avoided and then we were under pressure because we put ourselves under pressure. That’s it.

We made our own mistakes: we started with a lack of concentration and we conceded two goals from set-pieces against a good team. It was the same situation that we had at home.

We had to take the risks when we are losing and we were open. But still, we had 17 attempts and I think they were lucky in some of the situations. They were blocking some shots.

West Ham United XI (4-2-3-1): Fabianski; Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell (Masuaku 33′); Rice, Noble (Obiang 80′); Snodgrass, Lanzini, Anderson; Hernandez (Arnautovic 68′)

Newcastle United XI (3-4-2-1): Dubravka; Lascelles, Lejeune, Schar (Dummett 65′); Manquillo, Hayden (Atsu 79′), Longstaff (Diame 45′), Ritchie; Almiron, Perez; Rondon.