Crystal Palace 1-1 Brighton and Hove Albion
- Goals: Wilfried Zaha (£6.8m) | Neal Maupay (£5.8m)
- Assists: James Tomkins (£5.0m) | Pascal Gross (£6.4m)
- Bonus: Gross, Vicente Guaita (£5.1m) x3, Zaha x1
Vicente Guaita‘s (£5.1m) purple patch of Fantasy Premier League form continued against Brighton and Hove Albion on Monday evening.
The Crystal Palace custodian was denied a fourth straight clean sheet by Neal Maupay‘s (£5.8m) 53rd-minute strike but compensated by racking up three save points and maximum bonus and is now third among FPL goalkeepers in the overall standings, only one point behind co-leaders Aaron Ramsdale (£4.6m) and Kasper Schmeichel (£5.4m).
Almost half (34) of Guaita’s 69 FPL points have come in the last four Gameweeks alone.
The fixtures remain relatively strong for Palace, with the Eagles second-top of our Season Ticker between now and New Year’s Day.
Guaita’s ownership is steadily creeping up as the hauls continue to arrive but, while the fixture schedule remains favourable, Palace’s lengthening injury list does dent the goalkeeper’s appeal – and that of popular budget FPL defender Martin Kelly (£4.4m) – to an extent.
Roy Hodgson has of course proved to be adept at organising a solid back four with limited resources, with the Eagles (six) trailing only Leicester City (seven) for clean sheets this season.
In 2018/19, Palace more registered more shut-outs (12) than all bar five top-flight teams.
Even Hodgson will have his work cut out over the Christmas period, however, with the injuries mounting.
Going into the M23 derby, Palace were already without first-choice right-back Joel Ward (£4.4m), left-back options Patrick van Aanholt (£5.5m) and Jeffrey Schlupp (£5.5m), and suspended centre-half Mamadou Sakho (£5.0m).
Hodgson had ominously hinted at further fitness problems in his pre-match press conference and more bad news was confirmed upon the release of the teamsheets, with Gary Cahill (£4.5m) and winger Andros Townsend (£5.6m) sidelined.
To cap off the misery, the Eagles lost their latest makeshift left-back, Jairo Riedewald (£4.5m), to injury after an unconvincing first 45 minutes.
Palace ended up with James McArthur (£5.2m) in that position after half-time and the central midfielder may be asked to do a job there at St. James’ Park on Saturday, although youngster Tyrick Mitchell (£4.0m) – who made the bench on Monday – would be an alternative in his natural position.
Hodgson said after the 1-1 draw with Brighton:
I am very happy with a point given the fact that our team was virtually decimated after the Watford game.
We’ve been lacking a left-back really since the van Aanholt injury and then to lose Jeffrey Schlupp and then to lose Jairo Riedewald at half-time and have to finish the game with a central midfielder playing at left-back.
To have no Gary Cahill, to have no Sakho, to have no Jeffrey Schlupp, to have no Andros Townsend, our situation going into this game was looking relatively bleak.
I thought Brighton played well in the first half of the game. I think we were guilty, as a coaching team, of encouraging the players to attack too high up the field and really getting into their faces because we know how they like to play out from the back but they succeeded in playing around us which made it hard for us.
We rectified that to some extent in the second half and I thought we finished the game very strongly.
Asked about the latest on those aforementioned sidelined players, Hodgson said:
Patrick van Aanholt, because it was a muscle injury, he’s working at it and we’re hoping that might not be quite so long. But with Jeffrey Schlupp it’s a long-term injury, with Andros Townsend it’s a long-term injury. Gary Cahill has had a minor operation and that will be a relatively long-term injury. Mamadou Sakho has got one more game of his suspension to serve.
Brighton had a lot of joy against Riedewald down the Palace left and the initial thought was that the Dutch defender was hooked because of his torrid first half, but Hodgson highlighted a hip injury that the player was carrying into the game.
Hodgson added:
He was injured before the game. It was touch and go whether he could take part. He was due to play from the start of the week after the Watford game. He was our chosen alternative to play at left-back, so we had been working during the week towards that.
In yesterday’s training, which is a very light training the day before the game, he some how contrived to get a slight knock on his hip, which until the warm-up today, looked like it was going to keep him out of the game entirely. He came through the warm-up, he said he was prepared and able to play, but then only lasted until half-time.
He’s another injury we can add to our growing list. The worst thing about the list… it’s so unusual that they are all virtually in the same position. We had three players who could play left-back; we’ve lost all three. We’re now we’re looking for a fourth and that’s a hard task.
It was perhaps no surprise that Brighton bossed the game against a patched-up Palace side, who are content at counter-attacking at the best of times.
Guaita was kept busy throughout and was forced into nine saves, a total that only two Premier League goalkeepers have beaten in a single Gameweek this season.
It wasn’t a goalkeeping masterclass by any means – a handful of those stops were comfortable in nature while two separate ‘double-saves’ came about because Guaita had spilled an initial effort.
The pick of the Palace goalkeeper’s saves came from a Martin Montoya (£4.5m) shot in the 19th minute, with the Eagles surviving a penalty shout in the same incident.
The fact that Palace didn’t have a single shot on goal until after the hour-mark said much about their attacking efforts, with Jordan Ayew (£5.1m) playing out wide in Townsend’s absence and Christian Benteke (£5.7m) drafted in up front.
Mathew Ryan (£4.8m) was a spectator until the final quarter of the game, with an overhit Benteke cross that struck the woodwork the closest the hosts came to scoring until that point.
It was left to talisman Wilfried Zaha (£6.8m) to rescue a point for the Eagles, with the Ivory Coast international belatedly rewarding the 300,000+ FPL managers who had bought him in the two preceding Gameweeks with a well-taken goal that beat Ryan at his near post.
Plenty of Fantasy managers will be either keeping or acquiring Zaha ahead of Blank Gameweek 18 but the same concerns about Palace’s attack are still valid, with the equaliser pretty much coming out of nowhere.
Not for the first time this season, Brighton weren’t rewarded for their dominance.
The Seagulls enjoyed almost two-thirds of the possession at Selhurst Park and are in an impressive joint-fifth place for that statistic over the course of 2019/20, level with Arsenal and ahead of Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United.
Again, a lack of conviction in front of goal was to cost them, but Maupay did at least extend his scoring streak, notching his third strike in as many Gameweeks.
The budget striker has, at times, been profligate in front of goal this season, but has looked more clinical of late.
His 53rd-minute opener was expertly taken, with the former Brentford forward firing high into the net after a Leandro Trossard (£5.8m) cross had taken a touch off Pascal Gross (£6.4m).
Maupay later came close to doubling his tally when Guaita made one of his double-saves, denying the striker from point-blank range.
Potter commented on Maupay after the game:
He works hard for the team. He’s a top personality who tries every day. He’s adapted well to the Premier League and we’re delighted with him.
While the Seagulls’ remaining fixtures over Christmas and New Year are a mixed bag, Brighton’s match schedule looks very appealing from Gameweek 22 onwards and Maupay may well firmly re-enter the FPL radar from that point – if not sooner, given his form.
That may well be a good time to target Brighton’s defence, too, with clean sheets having been predictably thin on the ground over the last six Gameweeks with the Seagulls exclusively facing top-half sides.
Ryan’s propensity for collecting bonus points (Brighton’s possession-based approach aiding him no end) particularly ought to mark him out as a key goalkeeping target in the New Year.
Potter said of his side’s display after full-time:
I thought the performance was really good. Apart from five to ten minutes in the second half, we were in control and played well. We put a lot into the game – not enough to get three points, but there was a lot of good stuff from us.
We limited them to just a few chances but overall I don’t think you can control a game too much more in the Premier League than we did. We had chances – shots on goal, perhaps a penalty – but in terms of what we put into it, we are happy with a point and the performance.
Aaron Connolly (£4.6m) missed out with a dead leg, meanwhile, but could return for Gameweek 18.
Crystal Palace XI (4-3-3): Guaita; Kelly, Tomkins, Dann, Riedewald (McCarthy 46′); McArthur, Milivojevic, Kouyate (Meyer 66‘); Ayew, Benteke, Zaha.
Brighton and Hove Albion XI (4-3-3): Ryan; Montoya, Dunk, Webster, Burn; Bissouma (Duffy 85′), Propper, Mooy; Gross (Bernard 90′), Maupay, Trossard (Alzate 84′).
