What Liverpool win at Leicester means for FPL assets involved

Leicester 0-4 Liverpool

Goals: Roberto Firmino x2 (£9.2m), James Milner (£5.3m), Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.3m)

Assists: Alexander-Arnold x3, Sadio Mané (£12.2m)

Bonus Points: Alexander-Arnold x3, Firmino x2, Andrew Robertson x1 (£7.0m)

Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.3m) exploded with a 24-point haul in Liverpool’s crushing 4-0 win over Leicester on Boxing Day.

The right-back, who kept a clean sheet, was involved in every single goal the Reds’ scored, chalking up three Fantasy assists and scored himself in the 78th minute.

His second-half strike was just his second goal of the season but a hat-trick of assists was nothing less than Alexander-Arnold deserved given the potential he has shown in 2019/20.

Across all matches this season, only Kevin de Bruyne (£10.5m) has played more key passes than the Englishman, who also sits second for big chances created too, despite missing out on Gameweek 18.

Alexander-Arnold went on something of a dry spell between Gameweeks 8 and 13, causing some concern over his long-term use to Fantasy managers.

The fact that Liverpool did not have a fixture in Gameweek 18 saw his ownership figures fall by 25,780 ahead of the Blank and it turns out that over 180,000 managers left Alexander-Arnold on their bench for the trip to Leicester.

Such a move certainly had its merits considering that Liverpool were preparing to go up against the in-form Jamie Vardy (£10.1m).

However, in perhaps very unforeseen circumstances, Leicester’s potent attack was professionally contained by an arguably world-class Liverpool display.

Despite Kasper Schmeichel‘s (£5.4m) controversial comments after the full-time whistle, Leicester were never really in this game.

Liverpool maintained complete control throughout, even when the Foxes were enjoying long spells of possession.

There were only two occasions where Vardy threatened to get in behind the Reds’ defence which, all night long, operated deep enough to restrict the in-form forward.

Furthermore, impressive performances from Naby Keïta (£5.8m) and Jordan Henderson (£5.4m) in central midfield ensured that Vardy’s supply lines were cut off.

Harvey Barnes (£5.9m) and Çaglar Söyüncü (£5.1m) were the only Leicester players to create chances (one each), James Maddison (£7.7m) didn’t play a single key pass and nobody from the home side mustered a shot on target either.

Such a defensive display bodes well for Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson (£7.0m) owners ahead of upcoming meetings with Wolves and Sheffield United.

By contrast, for the second match in a row, Leicester’s defence, which has performed very well this season, was humbled by superior opposition.

Riyad Mahrez (£8.3m) and de Bruyne caused real problems for left-back Ben Chilwell (£5.8m) in Gameweek 18, which clearly inspired Liverpool to exploit that side of the pitch.

Not only was Alexander-Arnold a constant thorn in Leicester’s side, but Mohamed Salah (£12.3m) was also a huge threat and his owners and captainers can feel very unfortunate that he did not register any attacking returns.

It was clear from the early exchanges that the Egyptian would have joy against Chilwell, making light work of cutting inside onto his right and cross for Sadio Mané (£12.2m), who arguably should have scored.

Shortly after, a Jonny Evans (£5.2m) error gave the ball to Georginio Wijnaldum, who teed up Salah, only for the former Roma winger to blast over the bar.

Salah then got through the middle on the counter-attack in the 10th minute and found himself one-on-one with Schmeichel. He did well to get around the goalkeeper but admittedly ended up wider than he would have wanted.

Rather than gather himself and try to find a team-mate, Salah opted to shoot from a wide-angle, perhaps trying to emulate his goal against Salzburg in the Champions League, but on this occasion, he lashed into the side-netting.

Salah was then stopped from putting Liverpool in the lead by Roberto Firmino (£9.2m). Alexander-Arnold’s 25th-minute cross was aimed at the Egyptian, who was ready to pounce on the back-post but it was Firmino who jumped highest, to beat Salah and the Leicester defence and head past Schmeichel.

The same also goes for Mané. As already mentioned, he should have scored in the early moments and further indecision in the Leicester defence allowed him to get one-on-one with Schmeichel in the 33rd minute – but he blasted his shot at the goalkeeper.

Despite relatively small scores from both of Liverpool’s premium midfielders, owners of each can feel confident of their prospects moving forward considering how they made light work of Leicester’s defence and made it look decidedly ordinary.

Meanwhile, a blank for Vardy may cause some discouragement for his owners but a favourable trip to West Ham in Gameweek 20 could be the perfect opportunity for him to bounce back – if he’s not rested, of course.

Finally, Henderson was taken off with a knock in the final 10 minutes after a knock to the shin but Jurgen Klopp is not too concerned about his fitness.

“Yes (Henderson is okay). It was a kick on the shin. It was bleeding but he told me afterwards ‘I could have carried on!’, so obviously it is not so bad this time.” – Jurgen Klopp

Leicester City XI (4-1-4-1): Schmeichel; Chilwell, Söyüncü, Evans, R Pereira; Ndidi; Maddison (Choudhury 76′), Tielemans, Praet (Pérez 72′), H Barnes (Albrighton 58′); Vardy.

Liverpool XI (4-3-3): Alisson; Robertson, van Dijk, Gomez, Alexander-Arnold; Wijnaldum, J Henderson (Lallana 82′), Keïta; Mané, Firmino, Salah (Origi 70′).