Newcastle 2-1 Everton
- Goals: Callum Wilson (£6.5m) x2 | Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£7.7m)
- Assists: Ryan Fraser (£5.7m) | Alex Iwobi (£5.9m)
- Bonus Points: Wilson x3, Calvert-Lewin x2, Federico Fernandez x1 (£4.9m)
Callum Wilson (£6.5m) leapt to second spot among Fantasy Premier League strikers with both goals in Newcastle’s unnecessarily narrow win over Everton.
Much of the pre-match talk centred on Toffees boss Carlo Ancelotti’s decision to drop England keeper Jordan Pickford (£5.0m), with Robin Olsen (£4.5m) handed his debut.
The fact that the same subject was still high on the agenda by half-time spoke volumes as to how poor the first half was.
Wilson then scored from a penalty and a tap-in to finally liven things up, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin‘s (£7.7m) late strike making the scoreline more respectable than his side’s pedestrian performance merited.
Allan Or Nothing
Olsen did make one fine save from Allan Saint-Maximin (£5.3m), which was the high point of both the awful first period and, for the Frenchman, the entire match.
Handed a central, and fairly free, role by Newcastle boss Steve Bruce for the second match running, the 7.2%-owned midfielder offered little after squandering that big chance.
He’s now blanked for three straight Gameweeks and, with an in-form Southampton and a newly watertight Chelsea to come next, his Fantasy following will be hoping for a return to the flank to get his misfiring season back on track. That, or they’ll be selling him.
There are no such worries over Wilson.
Only he, with 12.8%, and Calvert-Lewin (56.4%) had double-digit ownership among Sunday’s starters, and the former Bournemouth forward’s 12-point haul took him ahead of his opposite number in the striker standings.
It also took him to six goals for the season – no Newcastle player could better that total across the entirety of last season.
At his price point, only Leeds frontman Patrick Bamford (£5.9m) gets anywhere near his output so far this season.
No James, No Guile
The testicular travails of James Rodríguez (£7.9m) hurt the team almost as much as the man himself.
Darlow made three saves, but all were regulation efforts as Everton missed the Colombian’s creativity.
Calvert-Lewin was considerably better served by his team-mates compared to his shot-less Gameweek 6, during which he managed just two penalty area touches.
He had a match-leading 11 touches in the box against Newcastle, but only one involved a decent chance.
In fact, the only big chance created on the day came from his opposite number, Wilson.
Ancelotti was in no doubt as to the effect of James’ absence – and that of other key men.
“Important players were missing. When you don’t have these players you have to play differently, maybe with less quality but with more focus. We have to recover some players who are injured in this moment. We have back Digne (from suspension), maybe Coleman, maybe James. But we have to be focused because Manchester United are doing well.” – Carlo Ancelotti
The 32% of FPL managers who own Rodriguez will be hoping ‘definitely’ replaces ‘maybe’ come Saturday’s visit from United.
Meanwhile, the 2,464 managers who joined the Niels Nkounkou (£4.0m) bandwagon – a very modest 0.2% affair – as a cheap replacement for Lucas Digne (£6.1m) won’t have been encouraged by Ancelotti’s rather more certain words regarding the return of the French defender.
The Rule Of Five
Before Wilson’s penalty, awarded for a foul on him by Andre Gomes (£5.5m), the match was a turgid affair.
Everton’s set-up lacked width, while Bruce again opted for three centre-halves and wing-backs.
The two sides mostly cancelled each other out, but even though it was a sixth straight league match without a clean sheet for his team, Bruce could well continue with his new system as it has helped to address a major defensive problem.
Across the campaign to date, Newcastle have allowed 43 attempts on target, which is the worst record in the league.
But over the last two Gameweeks, the Magpies have conceded just seven shots on target. Eight teams have allowed more, and three teams who could surpass that figure are yet to play.
Then again, systems are only as good as the players within them, and Federico Fernandez (£4.9m) was outstanding against Everton, with his 14 clearances, blocks and interceptions (CBI) a massive nine clear of his nearest challenger.
That earned him a bonus point, and his CBI total for the season (57) is a league-leading figure. If Newcastle can start keeping clean sheets again, his bonus point prospects look very healthy indeed.
Newcastle United XI (3-5-1-1): Darlow; Schar, Lascelles, Fernandez; Murphy, Lewis, Hendrick, S Longstaff, Almiron (Hayden 83’); Saint-Maximin (Fraser 74′); Wilson (Carroll 87’).
Everton XI (4-3-2-1): Olsen; Kenny (Iwobi 77’), Keane, Mina, Nkounkou (Tosun 69’); Allan, Delph, Doucoure; Gomes (Bernard 60′), Sigurdsson; Calvert-Lewin.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM FPL GAMEWEEK 7
- Wolves 2-0 Crystal Palace
- Sheffield United 0-1 Manchester City
- Burnley 0-3 Chelsea
- Liverpool 2-1 West Ham United
- Aston Villa 3-4 Southampton
- Newcastle United 2-1 Everton
- Manchester United 0-1 Arsenal
- Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Brighton and Hove Albion
- Fulham 2-0 West Bromwich Albion
- Leeds United 1-4 Leicester City
