We finish our round-up of Gameweek 20’s matches with a look at how both Manchester clubs got on.
Manchester City 2-0 Sheffield United
- Goals: Sergio Aguero (£11.7m), Kevin De Bruyne (£10.5m)
- Assists: De Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez (£8.3m)
- Bonus: De Bruyne x3, Aguero x2, Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.2m) x1
John Lundstram (£5.2m) missed his first Premier League match of the season as Sheffield United’s unbeaten away record came to an end at the Etihad.
In a Gameweek in which the Fantasy Premier League defender’s owners perhaps needed him most, with rotation kicking in elsewhere, Lundstram failed a late fitness test on a twisted ankle and wasn’t involved in Manchester.
Around 80,000 FPL managers have instantly shipped him out but the injury doesn’t sound too serious, with Chris Wilder saying after Sunday’s game:
We’re disappointed that John wasn’t available, he turned his ankle. He made it possibly a little bit worse than it would have been if he had come off against Watford. We’ll just assess him and give him every opportunity.
If the match at the Etihad was anything to go by, Sheffield United will, as they did in Gameweek 7, make life difficult for Liverpool on Thursday.
The Blades have defended stoutly all season and produced another solid defensive showing this weekend, restricting Pep Guardiola’s side to few clear-cut opportunities.
Ten of City’s 16 shots came from outside the box, with the reigning champions getting little change out of a side that was previously unbeaten away from home in 2019/20.
Indeed, it took a moment of controversy for the hosts to break the deadlock: referee Chris Kavanagh getting in the way of John Fleck (£4.9m) and the subsequent loss of possession resulting in Sergio Aguero‘s (£11.7m) 51st-minute opener.
Kevin De Bruyne‘s (£10.5m) game-clinching breakaway goal with ten minutes to go came only as a result of the Blades throwing bodies forward and in truth, the visitors had the better chances.
Lys Mousset (£4.9m) and John Egan (£4.5m) both nodded off-target from six yards out, while substitute Billy Sharp (£5.6m) saw a late header hit the post and roll along the goal-line.
Mousset also finished poorly when racing clear of the City defence in the first half and had a goal chalked off for a marginal offside call after VAR intervention.
Fleck – who provided the pass for Mousset’s disallowed goal – was exceptional and, although few will be transferring him in ahead of a tricky run of games for the Blades, the budget midfielder is a bench fodder option worthy of consideration for the fixture swing in Gameweek 25.
Wilder said of his side’s display after the game:
We believe that it could have been different. My team were excellent against fantastic players and a world-class manager.
The way we played out of possession was good. As always when you play the big teams when the chances come around you have to take them. And we haven’t.
The first goal was a game-changer. I’m not saying we would have gone on to win it. We felt comfortable, the shape of the team was good out of possession.
City, by contrast, were ponderous at times, perhaps no surprise given that they had lost to Wolves less than 48 hours earlier.
While rotation at the back saw Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.2m) and teenage centre-half Eric Garcia (£4.5m) brought in to the side, the same front six players who started at Molineux kept their places in Gameweek 20, and there was a lack of energy from Guardiola’s side throughout.
Riyad Mahrez (£8.3m) had a couple of efforts superbly blocked by Egan but Raheem Sterling (£11.8m) was ineffectual and Aguero almost anonymous before he popped up with the game’s opening goal.
As usual, it was De Bruyne who dragged City through the game, with the Belgian teeing up Aguero for his goal and then sealing the victory late on with a well-taken effort on the counter-attack.
This was De Bruyne’s sixth double-digit haul of the campaign and he now trails Jamie Vardy (£10.5m) only by five points at the top of the FPL standings.
The Belgian was one of a number of City players who looked shattered towards the end of the game but Fantasy managers will be hoping that the FA Cup third-round tie against Port Vale, rather than the Gameweek 21 match against Everton, will be a perfect time for De Bruyne to be handed a well-earned breather following his exertions over Christmas.
Reflecting on the match, Guardiola said:
Today was an incredibly tough game. For the opponent, for the fact we played again after less than 48 hours against one of the most physical teams in the Premier League. Big compliments to my team, again.
I understand why Sheffield United are in the position they are in the table and have lost one game away so far. In the first half, we had problems but in the second we were much better.
In these types of games, if the first goal was not offside, it would have been very difficult to beat them.
While David Silva (£7.4m) and John Stones (£5.3m) remained sidelined through injury, Gabriel Jesus (£9.5m) returned from illness on the bench.
Members Analysis
Burnley 0-2 Manchester United
- Goals: Anthony Martial (£7.9m), Marcus Rashford (£9.1m)
- Assists: Andreas Pereira (£4.9m), Daniel James (£6.1m)
- Bonus: Rashford x3, Harry Maguire (£5.2m) x2, Victor Lindelof (£5.2m) x1
Paul Pogba (£8.4m) was absent as Manchester United defeated Burnley to register their first Premier League clean sheet since Gameweek 5.
The France international had featured as a substitute in United’s two previous matches but failed to make the matchday squad at Turf Moor, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer saying the midfielder “didn’t feel right”.
Speaking first to MUTV ahead of kick-off, Solskjaer said:
Paul has played in two games now and been out for a while. We didn’t feel it was right to bring him today.
Asked again about the Frenchman after the game, the United boss added:
He had 45 minutes [v Newcastle] but he’s been out for a while and he didn’t feel right. He reacted to that one so we’ll just have to take our time and get him ready for next time. When you’ve been out for such a while, it’s always going to take time to be 100 per cent. He just needed another day probably of recovery.
While Pogba’s prognosis appears to be fairly positive, United looked to have lost Scott McTominay (£5.1m) to injury for several weeks.
Solskjaer said of the Scotland international after full-time:
I wouldn’t expect Scott to be back within a few weeks, no. Not the next couple of weeks, I don’t think we’ll see him. So it’ll be more than that. But he’s always proved before that give him three weeks and he’s back in two. I don’t know, if it’s three or four weeks. It might be something like this, but we’ve just got to find a way through it.
United were scarcely troubled in the absence of their two influential midfielders, with Burnley’s only shot on target being a Phil Bardsley (£4.3m) piledriver from distance that David de Gea (£5.4m) palmed away.
At the other end, United were a bit more threatening.
We have made a lot of the Red Devils’ struggles against the Premier League also-rans this season and their dominance of the ball on Saturday evening didn’t really translate into a glut of chances, with Solskjaer’s troops having just six shots in the box (only half a dozen clubs had fewer in Gameweek 20).
Indeed, it was an error from Charlie Taylor (£4.2m) that led to United’s opener, with Andreas Pereira (£4.9m) dispossessing the Burnley left-back and supplying Anthony Martial (£7.9m) with the chance to break the deadlock.
While it wasn’t vintage football from Solskjaer’s troops, Martial and Marcus Rashford (£9.1m) underscored their Fantasy appeal with a goal apiece.
A blank beckoned for Rashford until injury time, with the England international latching onto a Daniel James (£6.1m) pass to race clear of the Burnley defence and clinch all three points for the visitors.
Encouragingly for owners of United’s two goalscorers, there were further chances beyond that.
Rashford tested Nick Pope (£4.7m) with one of his trademark free-kicks and struck the post from open play shortly after that, while Martial had a 33rd-minute effort hacked off the line and was close to converting a dangerous whipped ball from Brandon Williams (£4.0m) on the left flank.
Martial also had a second-half effort chalked off for a push on James Tarkowski (£5.1m) and dallied when presented with a one-on-one chance in the final ten minutes.
Rashford has been a consistent threat ever since his move back to the left wing in Gameweek 10 (eight goals and three assists since then) but it’s fair to say Martial has blown hot and cold, with his displays veering from the very dangerous (Norwich away) to the uninterested (Everton at home).
The feast-or-famine nature of his game will be offputting to some FPL bosses but the out-of-position midfielder, available for £1.2m cheaper than Rashford, is still worthy of attention, especially considering that no player in his Fantasy position has as many goals (four) over the last five Gameweeks.
With trips to Arsenal and Liverpool to come in the next three Gameweeks, we Fantasy managers will likely not be getting too carried away by United’s first shut-out since September.
Williams’ positive performance at left-back was worthy of note, however, particularly as Luke Shaw (£5.4m) has been far from convincing of late; it remains to be seen how much game-time Solskjaer affords the teenage full-back in the second half of the season, with competition stiff in that position.
Ashley Barnes (£6.2m) returned to the starting XI after his Boxing Day breather but he and Chris Wood (£6.2m) got little change out of the United defence, with the Clarets’ main opportunities coming from elsewhere – Dwight McNeil (£6.0m) flashing a shot wide and substitute Johann Berg Gudmundsson (£5.9m) whipping a free-kick just over as the hosts exerted a little more pressure in the second half.
Reflecting on the game, Dyche said:
In the first half, they had a good foothold in the game, without opening us up too much, and I was quite pleased with that aspect of it. It’s hard to contain these sides, as a starting point, but we looked to build into the game and the mistake changed the feel.
In the second half, I was super pleased. The reaction as good and we took the game on. We needed that goal, obviously, to see what that could then generate but we couldn’t get that breakthrough.
We did ask questions and mixed our play better and the mentality was good, as was the level of fitness.
An appealing New Year’s Day fixture against out-of-form Aston Villa follows next for Burnley but there are stiffer tests beyond that, with Chelsea, Leicester, United (again) and Arsenal to follow.
Nick Pope (£4.7m) may be relying mostly on save points in Gameweeks 22-25, then, but his owners will be pleased just to see him on the pitch, with the Burnley custodian having recovered from an apparent ankle injury to see out the game at Turf Moor.
