Greenwood boosts Gameweek 7 potential as Liverpool players rested

Four more Premier League teams were eliminated from the EFL Cup on Wednesday night.

Brighton, Bournemouth, West Ham and Sheffield United joined the list of nine sides who won’t have to worry about domestic cup competitions until 2020.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Wolves and Manchester United all booked their places in the fourth round.

However, most importantly, each match was able to hand us some clues for preparing for Gameweek 7 of Fantasy Premier League.

In this Scout Notes article, we have covered all the FPL talking points from Wednesday’s EFL Cup action.

Chelsea 7-1 Grimsby Town

Goals: Ross Barkley (£5.6m), Michy Batshuayi x2 (£6.6m), Pedro penalty (£7.0m), Kurt Zouma (£4.8m), Reece James (£5.0m), Callum Hudson-Odoi (£5.9m)

Assists: Pedro, R James x2, Christian Pulisic (£7.3m), Batshuayi

Despite making 11 changes to the side that lost to Liverpool, Chelsea were still comfortable winners over Grimsby on Wednesday night.

That should, of course, be no surprise considering the Mariners still ply their trade in League Two.

All the headlines focused on an impressive display from right-back Reece James (£5.0m) who scored and registered two assists.

However, it seems unlikely that the 19-year-old will be displacing Cesar Azpilicueta (£5.9m) any time soon.

“I think in end product you did because of his assists and his goal. I think he can get much better because he has been out for a long time and sort of played minimal minutes in the 23s. Yeah, Reece’s performance last year at Wigan and he was in Team of the Year in the Championship show the talent he has got. I think he is going to be a big player for this club, he has got a great player and person to look up to in Azpilicueta, who is in his position and as he improves and works hard, which he will do, he showed his real qualities on the ball today.” – Frank Lampard

Given Azpilicueta’s importance to the team, perhaps the more pertinent information from Chelsea’s 7-1 win centres around who didn’t play, rather than who did well.

Of interest to Fantasy managers looking for viable budget options in the Chelsea side, was the fact that Fikayo Tomori (£4.5m) remained an unused substitute against Grimsby.

Lampard opted to start Kurt Zouma (£4.8m) and Marc Guehi at centre-back, allowing Tomori to get a rest ahead of Gameweek 7. The £4.5m has now started each of the last three Premier League matches for Chelsea and the injury to Andreas Christensen (£5.0m) further strengthens his place in the team.

With Brighton, Newcastle and Crystal Palace the next three sides to come to Stamford Bridge in the Premier League, there are plenty of reasons to pull Tomori into a budget rotation.

Also missing for Chelsea midweek were Tammy Abraham (£7.5m) and Mason Mount (£6.6m), which is good news ahead of the Gameweek 7 visit of Brighton.

With Olivier Giroud (£6.7m) suffering from an illness of late, Michy Batshuayi (£6.6m) led the Chelsea attack, scoring twice and providing an assist as well.

“He has been ill and it took him out of Liverpool and he is still on the recovery.” – Frank Lampard

While the Belgian is unlikely to challenge Abraham for his position in Gameweek 7, it probably helps boost his potential if he knows there is some competition.

“(Working hard in training) is exactly what he has done. He has worked hard and trained well, he has come on against Wolves and created chances and made an impact. He came on against Liverpool and near;y made an impact. That’s great for me when you show that message and someone shows daily that they can improve because he has got talent. He can hold the ball up, got both feet and score goals and he is important for us. Training on the edge every day is the bare minimum and he is doing that. He gets his chance, scores goals and it’s good. We need options up-front.” – Frank Lampard

Attacking midfielders Pedro (£7.0m) and Christian Pulisic (£7.3m) were also involved in the goals, at number 10 and on the wing respectively, but neither of them has played a single minute in the last two Premier League matches for Chelsea.

Of interest was the fact that Pedro took the penalty awarded in the 43rd minute, despite Ross Barkley (£5.6m) being on the pitch. The England international has had involvement in spot-kicks this season but hit the crossbar with one in the Champions League last week.

“[Asked why Pedro took the penalty, not Barkley] The good thing about my job is that I can choose things and I chose Pedro to be captain and take the penalty tonight. He took it and he scored.” – Frank Lampard

Fantasy managers should also take note of Callum Hudson-Odoi‘s (£5.9m) first outing of the season.

The winger has been out of action since April but scored on his return to the team, in which he played the full 90 minutes.

Lampard has always been full of praise for Hudson-Odoi, who recently signed a new five-year contract, and we can probably anticipate more involvement in the Premier League at some point.

However, the Chelsea manager was not happy with all aspects of his performance against Grimsby so we may have to wait for the player to address some of the points he raised after the match before Hudson-Odoi features regularly as an FPL asset.

“Firstly he has signed up, so that is good so that puts to bed everything else. In terms of his performance, I thought first half not so sure. I thought him and Christian as wingers, the message was to hurt the line and run behind and get into the box to take people on. It wasn’t happening and that message didn’t get across. It was reinforced pretty strongly and in the second half, he managed to get into better positions. Callum’s talent means that he absolutely work hard to run behind people, to get at people, to be inside, be outside and work off the ball, all those things. Where he needs to learn because if he wants to play week in and week out that is what he is going to have to do.” – Frank Lampard

Chelsea XI (4-2-3-1): Caballero; Alonso (Maatsen 66′), Guehi, Zouma, R James; Gilmour, Barkley; Hudson-Odoi, Pedro (Andjorin 67′), Pulisic; Batshuayi.

Manchester United 1-1 Rochdale
5-3 on penalties

Goals: Mason Greenwood (£4.4m)

Assists: Jesse Lingard (£6.4m)

Owners of Manchester United assets might be a little concerned by their EFL Cup action on Wednesday night.

Despite several first-team players starting the game, they were held to a 1-1 draw by League One Rochdale at Old Trafford and needed penalties to see them off.

Paul Pogba (£8.4m) made a return from injury in this match, playing alongside Fred (£5.3m) in defensive midfield.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£5.5m) played the whole 90 minutes at right-back too, although Harry Maguire (£5.5m) and Victor Lindelöf (£5.4m) were not involved at all.

The options at centre-back for matches outside Premier League matches were initially Phil Jones (£4.8m) and Axel Tuanzebe (£4.4m) but the former was replaced by Brandon Williams at half-time following a knock.

Jones has now come off at half-time in three of his last five starts, suggesting he is unlikely to break back into the first-team any time soon.

There was one positive to take away from this match though in the performance of Mason Greenwood (£4.4m).

The youngster has now scored in both of his last two starts leading the Manchester United line and may finally get the chance to do so against Arsenal in Gameweek 7.

With Anthony Martial (£7.7m) still an injury doubt, and Marcus Rashford (£8.4m) missing the Rochdale miss with the groin problem sustained against West Ham, Greenwood looks the most likely to start up-front on Sunday.

“(Rashford) is recovering, he is not very, very bad so we hope to see him before the international break.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Despite the promise he offers, Greenwood has dropped to £4.4m so could prove even more of a cost-effective option for those looking to snap him up this weekend.

Manchester United XI (4-2-3-1): Romero; Rojo, P Jones (Williams 46′), Tuanzebe, Wan-Bissaka; Pogba, Fred; Chong (D James 60′), Lingard (Mata 85′), A Pereira; Greenwood.

MK Dons 0-2 Liverpool

Goals: James Milner (£5.4m), Ki-Jana Hoever

Assists: Milner

Thankfully for Fantasy managers in possession of key Liverpool assets, none of them were involved in EFL Cup action midweek.

Jurgen Klopp made 11 changes from the side that beat Chelsea on Sunday.

James Milner (£5.4m) was at the heart of everything as Liverpool won 2-0, scoring the first goal and assisting the second.

“The team tonight was a team with a lack of rhythm and a lack of experience. The most experienced and the player with the most rhythm was the best player on the pitch – Millie was pretty obvious. But it’s so important that we still do these games, that we are brave enough to use the boys. We are not here with this line-up because we don’t respect the competition, we are here to win the game, no other reason.” – Jurgen Klopp

The only other Fantasy implication was the return of Naby Keita (£5.8m) following injury.

He started at stadium:mk and played 63 minutes before coming off. It may not be too long before he returns to the selection pool of players in central midfield.

“Obviously he looked good in moments, he looked really good in moments, but he has to adapt to the position again. You see it with Ox as well. Naturally, you move much more and stuff like this, you find each other much more, but that’s how it is. He was out for a while, but in moments you saw what an incredible player he is and how important he will be for us. We don’t have to rush it now hopefully, but we can use him now and that’s good, good for us. There’s a long season to go and everything will be fine.” – Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool XI (4-3-3): Kelleher; Milner, Lovren, Gomez, Hoever (van den Berg 90+2′); Keita (Chirivella 63′), Lallana, Oxlade-Chamberlain (H Kane 82′); C Jones, Brewster, Elliott.

Oxford United 4-0 West Ham

Goals: None

Assists: None

West Ham were brought back down to earth from their win over Manchester United by a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of League One side Oxford.

Admittedly, only two players started this match who are in first-team contention but there was still a high concentration of senior players responsible for such a humiliating defeat.

They were Issa Diop (£4.5m) and Arthur Masuaku (£4.5m), both of whom were guilty of conceding so many to such low-quality opposition.

The centre-back’s positioning was all over the place at the Kassam Stadium, while Masuaku was out of station for the second goal and it was his slip that led to the third.

That may open the door for Aaron Cresswell (£4.9m) to reclaim the left-back postition from Masuaku in Gameweek 7.

The DR Congo international had seemingly ousted his English colleague in that position, starting the first five Premier League matches in a row and impressing too.

However, his red card at Aston Villa led to Cresswell coming back for the win over Manchester United, in which he starred. Crucially, the former Ipswich man was not involved against Oxford.

Diop seems likely to be the only member of Wednesday’s back-four to keep his place for the trip to Bournemouth, so perhaps we should not be too concerned about their clean sheet potential moving forward based on this one match.

Having deployed reserve troops in midfield and attack, Manuel Pellegrini was forced to bring on some big guns in the second half to chase the game.

Albian Ajeti (£5.8m) had been deployed up-front on his own but clearly struggled with the responsibility of operating as a lone centre-forward.

Sébastien Haller (£7.4m) had to replace Nathan Holland in the 57th minute to support Ajeti in a front-two, while Felipe Anderson (£6.9m) came on for a sluggish Jack Wilshere (£4.8m) shortly after.

Ultimately, this was a match that proved that West Ham may have a slight issue with strength in depth amid claims they can challenge for a top-six spot this season.

“During the season in England, if you want to play in every competition then you need to use your whole squad. I think that we must demand of them more performance when they have the chance to demonstrate why they are not playing. Tonight the performance was not good.” – Manuel Pellegrini

West Ham United XI (4-1-4-1): Roberto; Masuaku, Diop, Balbuena, Zabaleta; C Sánchez; Holland (Haller 57′), Fornals, Wilshere (Anderson 66′), Snodgrass (Noble 74′); Ajeti.

Brighton 1-3 Aston Villa

Goals: Hayden Roberts | Jota (£5.9m), Conor Hourihane (£5.7m), Jack Grealish (£5.9m)

Assists: Peter Gwargis | Keinan Davis (£4.5m)

There was very little of Fantasy concern at the Amex Stadium on Wednesday night as Aston Villa beat Brighton 3-1.

The hosts fielded mostly a youth side, just four of those who started the match priced up by FPL and seven of them making their senior debuts for the Seagulls.

They were goalkeeper David Button (£4.0m), defender Gaëtan Bong (£4.4m), Shane Duffy (£4.9m) and forward Aaron Connolly (£4.5m).

Of those two, only Button and Bong played the full 90 minutes while Duffy and Connolly were substituted each.

The centre-back was forced off with an impact injury in the 72nd minute and is now a doubt for Gameweek 7.

That said, he was benched for the trip to Newcastle on Saturday, with Dan Burn (£4.5m), Adam Webster (£4.4m) and Lewis Dunk (£4.6m) getting the nod over him.

“It sounds like he has had either a kick or something in his calf. Obviously, it is a concern for us. We will see how it settles down in the next 24 or 48 hours.” – Graham Potter

Meanwhile, amid Neal Maupay (£6.0m) sustaining a cut to the knee at Newcastle and Glenn Murray (£5.7m) rolling his ankle in training before that match, it makes sense that Potter preferred to manage the minutes of Connolly, who was replaced by Ryan Longman after 58 minutes.

“Not really (I couldn’t field a more experienced side), not with the situation we’ve got – a couple of injuries, a couple of lads sick as well. So we’re just going through that little phase at the moment.” – Graham Potter

Aston Villa opted to play considerably more of their senior players, so it is no surprise that they won out quite comfortably against a side that had an average age of just over 21.

That said, Dean Smith still made nine changes that should help us identify who will start against Burnley in Gameweek 7.

John McGinn (£5.7m) and Trézéguet (£5.3m) were the only two to retain their starting berths from the Arsenal game, the latter playing just 68 minutes.

Owners of McGinn, who scored his second league goal of the season in Gameweek 6, might be a little bit concerned by his start, but he was withdrawn after 66 minutes.

His involvement seems to have stemmed from Dean Smith being a little short on alternative options for the Scottish international’s role.

Henri Lansbury (£4.4m) is currently injured, while Conor Hourihane (£5.7m) played 90 minutes against Brighton and Jack Grealish (£5.9m) scored as McGinn’s replacement.

“(Lansbury) came on against Arsenal on Sunday and went over on his ankle slightly, so was struggling to walk Monday when we came back into training. We decided that he needed four or five days to rest on that now.” – Dean Smith

There are several defensive-minded midfield options but it seems unlikely that any of them would be considered as ready to start ahead of McGinn in Gameweek 7.

Brighton and Hove Albion XI (3-4-2-1): Button; Bong, H Roberts, Duffy (Yapi 72′); Cochrane, Jenks (Spong 82′), Baluta, A Davies; Richards, Gwargis; Connolly (Longman 58′).

Aston Villa XI (4-3-3): Steer; Targett, Hause, Konsa, El Mohamady; Hourihane, Douglas Luiz, McGinn (Grealish 66′); Trézéguet (Ramsey 80′), Davis, Jota.

Burton Albion 2-0 Bournemouth

Goals: None

Assists: None

In a disappointing defeat to Burton Albion, the Bournemouth defender situation was complicated somewhat for Fantasy managers.

Eddie Howe used this opportunity to hand first starts of the season to Simon Francis (£4.4m) and Lloyd Kelly (£4.4m) who both recently recovered from injury by playing in the Hampshire Senior Cup against Basingstoke Town.

Admittedly, the Cherries performed pretty poorly in this match but Howe insisted he did not regret his team selection, indicating that those involved would not be discounted from inclusion in the first team.

“I think we lacked everything. We lacked quality on the ball, we lacked intensity off the ball, we lacked our usual swagger. Certainly, we will have a lot of reflection.” – Eddie Howe

“I back the players we have. I back the squad we have. We have to see these young players play. There were some experienced players coming back from injury. For me, it was a no-brainer to play and pick the team that I did. I was just very disappointed with the outcome.” – Eddie Howe

Therefore, the return of Francis and Kelly into contention for selection may make it more difficult to predict Bournemouth’s starting line-ups moving forward.

Perhaps most at risk by this development is Diego Rico (£4.1m) who has started three matches at left-back in Kelly’s absence. Despite recording an assist in the last two of those, Howe may still be keen to get the former Bristol City man into the starting line-up given the fee paid for him this summer.

Meanwhile, Francis remains a versatile defensive option capable of playing both at right-back or centre-back.

Other key players involved for Bournemouth in this disappointing performance, interrupted by three floodlight stoppages, were Ryan Fraser (£7.3m) and Dominic Solanke (£5.4m) who both featured from the beginning.

Meanwhile, Harry Wilson (£6.1m) and Callum Wilson (£7.8m) came on in the second half but were unable to have an impact on the game.

Bournemouth XI (4-2-3-1): Travers; L Kelly, Simpson, Mepham, Francis (C Wilson 61′); Surman, L Cook; Fraser, Ibe, Kilkenny (H Wilson 46′); Solanke (Groeneveld 61′).

Sheffield United 0-1 Sunderland

Goals: None

Assists: None

Callum Robinson (£5.3m) was the only Sheffield United player to keep his place in the starting line-up from the Gameweek 6 win over Everton.

He started up-front alongside Lys Mousset (£4.9m) against Sunderland and only played 57 minutes before being replaced by Leon Clarke.

It is possible Robinson had to be used for this one with David McGoldrick (£5.5m) now considered a major doubt to play in Gameweek 7 with a groin injury.

Other Fantasy assets such as John Lundstram (£4.4m) and Oliver Norwood (£4.9m) did not play a single minute as Sunderland left Bramall Lane the winners.

Sheffield United XI (3-5-2): Moore; Bryan (Fleck 70′), Stearman, Jagielka; Osborn, Morrison, Bešić, L Freeman, K Freeman; Mousset (McBurnie 57′), Robinson (Clarke 57′).

Wolves 1-1 Reading
4-2 on penalties

Goals: Bruno Jordão

Assists: Patrick Cutrone (£5.8m)

Wolves were another team to rotate heavily in the EFL Cup midweek but they had a slightly higher concentration of FPL assets than most.

Matt Doherty (£6.0m) played the full 90 minutes at right wing-back while Adama Traoré (£5.0m)was not involved at all.

Ruben Vinagre (£4.4m) also lasted all game with Jonny (£5.4m), like Traoré, not in the matchday squad either.

Rúben Neves (£5.5m) and Ryan Bennett (£5.0m) also played 90 minutes, but Raúl Jiménez (£7.3m) and Diogo Jota (£6.2m) were both absent.

Wolverhampton Wanderers XI (3-4-2-1): Ruddy; Kilman, Bennett, Vallejo; Vinagre, Neves, Jordão (Perry 42′), Doherty; Gibbs-White (Shabani 74′), Neto (Cundle 83′); Cutrone.

Lessons learned from Gameweek 6:

• Southampton 1-3 Bournemouth
• Leicester City 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
• Burnley 2-0 Norwich City
• Everton 0-2 Sheffield United
• Manchester City 8-0 Watford
• Newcastle United 0-0 Brighton and Hove Albion
• Crystal Palace 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
• West Ham United 2-0 Manchester United
• Arsenal 3-2 Aston Villa
• Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool