Rodgers praises Iheanacho/Daka pairing and provides Leicester injury latest

Our third and final round-up of the weekend pre-season friendly action summarises the goal, assist, injury and line-up information from six matches involving Fantasy Premier League (FPL) players.

Part one of our recap featured fitness updates on key Brighton and Hove Albion, Leeds United and Burnley assets.

We then turned our attention to Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Brentford and West Ham United in our second summary, with news of knocks for Emiliano Buendia (£6.5m) and Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m).

Now we switch attention to Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester City, Manchester City, Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Don’t forget to check out our comprehensive pre-season page for more information on the warm-up matches taking place ahead of Gameweek 1.

QUEENS PARK RANGERS 3-3 LEICESTER CITY

• Goals: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Patson Daka (£7.5m), Kelechi Iheanacho (£7.5m) pen
• Assists: Daka x2, Marc Albrighton (£5.5m)

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Patson Daka (£7.5m) kickstarted his Leicester City career at Loftus Road, with the Zambian striker playing a part in all three of the Foxes’ goals.

An on-song Daka is probably not what owners of Kelechi Iheanacho (£7.5m) need going into Gameweek 1, given the uncertainty over rotation that it would bring.

Daka had laboured in his first two outings for his new club but came off the bench to play alongside Iheanacho in west London and was fouled for the late penalty that the Nigerian converted.

The summer signing from Salzburg had earlier played a part in Kieran Dewsbury-Hall‘s effort and had opened his Leicester account in confident manner from a Marc Albrighton (£5.5m) through-ball.

Speaking after the game, Brendan Rodgers said of his new striker:

As soon as he’s in that goalscoring position, he’s so calm and not even thinking, even though he’s right footed, he just slots it away with his left foot.

You see that natural goalscoring instinct and then his speed to get to the ball for the penalty, I never thought he was going to get there, but he showed great pace. He won the penalty, so it was a good performance by him.

I think that’s what he is, he’s a goalscorer. I thought him and Kels combined very, very well. They were looking for each other and some of their play was exceptional. The goalscorers, I think when it hits the back of the net, it gives them confidence and gives them that energy.

Neither player started the match, just to confuse matters, with Jamie Vardy (£10.5m) instead preferred as the lone spearhead in a 4-3-3/4-1-4-1 and flanked by the fit-again Harvey Barnes (£7.0m) and Ayoze Perez (£6.0m).

Barnes’ return further complicates the situation up top but the young winger is short of match-sharpness and may start the season as an impact substitute, with Rodgers saying:

You can see he’s not quite at his physical best yet. But some of his touches and some of the runs that he made, he’s such a threat for us, so we’re delighted to have him back.

The Leicester boss also gave updates on a quartet of injured Foxes:

James [Justin] is progressing really well. He’s doing a lot of strength-based work on his leg. He looks great. He just needs that little bit of time. There was maybe talk of around October or November for him, so we’ll see how that goes.

Papy, he had an injury away on international duty with Senegal. He came back with an issue around his groin. So the diagnosis was three to six weeks at the time of when he came back so he’s not training at the moment.

[Evans’ injury] is ongoing. He’s felt more comfort with it, but it’s one of those injuries that takes that little bit of time. We have to assess it, if it’s not going to get much better, it’s something we need to look at and if we need to go into the market then to get another centre-half.

At this moment in time, he’s progressing well, he’s putting more weight on it, and we’ll see over the next week where we’re at with him. [Evans starting the season] will be questionable, because he hasn’t trained with the squad yet and he’ll take a wee bit of time to get up to speed.

[Castagne is] getting on very well. His cardio and everything else is at a very high level, we’re just waiting on a mask. He’ll wear a mask, certainly initially. We have to wait on that before he goes into contact training. But he’s back, he’s with the squad training, working well, but separate to the rest of the group at the moment.

QPR’s opener was a well-worked team goal but Leicester’s Achilles heel struck again thereafter, with two strikes conceded from set-piece situations.

Leicester City XI: Jakupovic, Pereira (Benkovic 62), Soyuncu (Nelson 62), Fofana (Amartey 62), Bertrand (Thomas 62), Ndidi (Choudhury 62), Perez (Daka 62), Soumare (Sowah 62), Tielemans (Dewsbury-Hall 62), Barnes (Albrighton 46), Vardy (Iheanacho 62).

ARSENAL 1-2 CHELSEA

• Goals: Granit Xhaka (£5.0m) | Kai Havertz (£8.5m), Tammy Abraham (£6.5m)
• Assists: Nicolas Pepe (£7.5m) | Timo Werner (£9.0m)

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Ben White (£4.5m) made his first appearance as an Arsenal player on Sunday and there was a sense of irony that the ball-playing centre-half’s debut was marked by the Gunners, not for the first time, conceding a goal when trying to overplay in defence.

Tammy Abraham (£6.5m) was the grateful recipient of a sloppy Hector Bellerin (£5.0m) pass to give Chelsea a 2-1 win although, by that point, both sides had mostly second-string XIs on the pitch.

Arsenal had begun the game with what appeared to be a near-full strength side, save for White and Bukayo Saka (£6.5m), so alarm bells may be ringing at the space afforded to Timo Werner (£9.0m) and the lively Kai Havertz (£8.5m) for Chelsea’s opener.

Werner, Hakim Ziyech (£7.5m) and Abraham all had further chances to boost the Blues’ advantage, too.

While Chelsea’s frontline was strong, it was a more experimental affair further back, with Christian Pulisic (£8.0m) appearing at wing-back; many of Thomas Tuchel’s first-choice defenders not returning to training until Monday.

While pre-season results can be brushed off, injuries can’t be so easily forgotten about.

Arsenal lost Thomas Partey (£5.0m) to an early fitness issue, with Mikel Arteta giving an update on the midfielder – plus Gabriel (£5.0m) and Saka – after full-time:

I just had a talk with the doctor. [Partey]’s going to have a scan tomorrow and at the moment it’s not looking good because he was in pain and he could not continue which, for Thomas, is pretty unusual.

We don’t know [whether Gabrel will be available for Brentford]. He’s still injured. He picked up an injury while he was doing the preparation for the Olympics with Brazil and at the moment he’s not been able to train with us. That seems unlikely at the moment but hopefully, he can recover quickly.

[Bukayo Saka] is back very soon. He needed some holidays, he needed to be away. He had an incredibly busy year and he will be back with us in the next few days. We’re looking forward to seeing him.

Tuchel, who opted to start Werner as a central striker over Havertz, said of Chelsea’s display:

We suffered in some minutes against the quality and speed of Arsenal but they have already played four games this pre-season so that was normal,’ reflected the boss afterwards.

I was very happy with the performance in the first half and we won it deservedly because we could have scored a second or third goal. The second half was a bit wild where we conceded some big chances and also had some big chances, especially to go 2-0 up with Hakim [Ziyech].

In the end, it was a good test because it was physically very demanding and we have a good result, which is always nice to keep the momentum going and have a good spirit.

Granit Xhaka (£5.0m) grabbed Arsenal’s only strike from a Nicolas Pepe (£7.5m) corner, although Joe Willock’s (£6.0m) late effort look distinctly over the line; the lack of goalline technology and VAR depriving the Gunners of a second goal.

Chelsea XI: Mendy (Kepa 64), Zouma (Sterling 46), Chalobah (Clarke-Salter 86), Rudiger (Sarr 46), Pulisic (Kante 64), Loftus-Cheek (Barkley 64), Kovacic (Drinkwater 46), Hudson-Odoi (Baba 64), Ziyech (Batshuayi 64), Havertz (Abraham 46), Werner (Zappacosta 46).

Arsenal XI: Leno, Chambers (Bellerin 71), Holding (White 46), Mari (Kolasinac 71), Tierney (Taveres 71), Elneny (Lokonga 71), Partey (Xhaka 40), Pepe, Smith Rowe (Willock 71), Aubameyang, Lacazette (Nketiah 71).

MANCHESTER CITY 4-0 BARNSLEY

• Goals: Samuel Edozie, Ben Knight, Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m), Nathan Ake (£5.0m)
• Assists: Mahrez, Joao Cancelo (£6.0m), Benjamin Mendy (£5.5m), Pablo Moreno

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Yet another youthful Manchester City side was sent out by Pep Guardiola for a warm-up game on Saturday, although two more seniors made their first appearances of pre-season and another cluster rejoined training today.

Ilkay Gundogan (£7.0m) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.5m) were handed half an hour by Guardiola in the 4-0 win over Barnsley, a match in which Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m) had again been the sole starting attacking asset with an FPL price.

The City boss said after full-time:

We have loan players, young players. We tried to give minutes as much as possible to our players because in seven days we play the Community Shield. 

Half an hour for Alex and Gundo today – this is good. We are far away still, but this is normal. We have a lot to improve. Tomorrow training, Tuesday game and then prepare the final.

It’s just pre-season, we can’t take many conclusions about that but the important thing is there are no injuries.

Kevin De Bruyne (£12.0m) was watching on from the sidelines against Barnsley and he was among the players sighted at the training ground on Monday, although City’s English and Brazilian contingent were still absent.

The Belgian saw Mahrez supply and score two of City’s four goals, with full-backs Joao Cancelo (£6.0m) and Benjamin Mendy (£5.5m) also claiming assists.

Manchester City XI: Steffen, Cancelo (Couto 69), Dias (Sandler 46), Ake (Burns 69), Mendy (Zinchenko 61), Fernandinho (Gomes 61), McAtee (Roberts 69), Palmer (Gundogan 61), Mahrez (Pozo 69), Edozie (Rogers 46), Knight (Moreno 61).

STOKE CITY 1-1 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
COVENTRY CITY 1-2 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS

• Goals: Raul Jimenez (£7.5m) | Fabio Silva (£6.0m), Ruben Neves (£5.5m)
• Assists: Nelson Semedo (£5.0m) | Neves, Morgan Gibbs-White (£4.5m)

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS v STOKE CITY

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS v COVENTRY CITY

Wolverhampton Wanderers faced two friendlies in the space of 24 hours at the weekend.

Bruno Lage turned to a Nuno Espirito Santo-approved 3-4-3 for the first time in pre-season, deploying the system in both matches at Stoke and Coventry.

‘Out of position’ run-outs for Rayan-Ait Nouri (£4.5m) over the last month had drummed up Fantasy interest in the young Moroccan but the belated return of Adama Traore (£6.0m) was always going to be the biggest challenge to his starts, and so it proved at the weekend.

The stronger of the two starting XIs took to the field at Stoke, with Ait-Nouri only a late substitute and Marcal (£4.5m) – as he has done throughout pre-season – starting at left-back/wing-back.

The formation switch was better news for Nelson Semedo (£5.0m), however.

Lage’s tendency to play with inverted wingers was already benefitting Semedo in a 4-4-2 but he looked even more threatening on Saturday, prospering in the space vacated by the drifting Francisco Trincao (£6.0m) and often the furthest player forward in the Wolves attack.

It was Semedo who claimed the assist for a welcome first goal of 2021 for Raul Jimenez (£7.5m), who pounced on the Portuguese defender’s deflected saved shot to tap in.

That was Semedo’s second assist in a week, following his role in Patrick Cutrone‘s goal in the win over Real Betis.

Jimenez turned in a positive showing against the Potters, too, while Traore was electric down the Wolves left; although that hasn’t always translated into FPL points in the past.

Morgan Gibbs-White (£4.5m) might be behind Trincao and Traore in the pecking order but he’s a name worth monitoring in the budget midfielder pool, as Lage used him in the front three in both of the weekend’s games.

It was Gibbs-White who teed up Ruben Neves (£5.5m) for Wolves’ decisive goal, with Fabio Silva (£6.0m) – who will be hoping that Lage reverts to a 4-4-2 in order to boost his first-team chances – earlier on target from a cute Neves cross.

While there was plenty to enjoy going forward, the gaps at the back remain an issue.

Injuries are starting to mount at centre-half, too, with Yerson Mosquera (£4.5m) going the way of Willy Boly (£5.0m) in picking up a muscle issue.

Wolves XI v Stoke City: Sa, Semedo (Hoever 81), Mosquera (Kilman 46), Coady, Saiss, Marcal (Ait-Nouri 81), Moutinho, Neves (Dendoncker 46), Trincao (Cutrone 73), Traore (Gibbs-White 46), Jimenez (Silva 73).

Wolves XI v Coventry City: Ruddy, Hoever, Mosquera (Bueno 33) (Campbell 45), Kilman (Coady 78), Ait-Nouri, Neves (Estrada 90), Marques, Dendoncker (Moutinho 88), Gibbs-White (Cundle 78), Traore (Cutrone 61), Silva (Semedo 88)

SWANSEA CITY 1-3 SOUTHAMPTON

• Goals: Nathan Tella (£5.0m), Nathan Redmond (£6.0m), Stuart Armstrong (£6.0m)
• Assists: Che Adams (£7.0m), Moussa Djenepo (£5.5m), Shane Long

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

The Nathan Tella (£5.0m)/Che Adams (£7.0m) combo produced a third goal in two matches as Southampton saw off Swansea City.

Tella had set up Adams’ brace at Cardiff City earlier in the week but the roles were reversed here, with the budget midfielder drawing Saints level soon after they had fallen behind.

While the promising Tella faces competition from the likes of Nathan Redmond (£6.0m) and Theo Walcott (£6.0m) for a starting role, there may be one less name to worry about in the two attacking midfield positions.

Stuart Armstrong (£6.0m) reprised the number six role he took up towards the end of last season, playing alongside Oriel Romeu (£4.5m) in the absence of the injured – and sought-after – James Ward-Prowse (£6.5m).

Ralph Hasenhuttl said of Armstrong:

Ori to have back is important for us but Stuey also showed last season, especially with the ball he is a very good six, who carries the ball very good in the opposition half. This is his biggest strength – there he can definitely help the team.

You also see he is still missing a little bit – he has been in training one week and in one week you cannot train as much as when you come in the highest level fitness-wise. We must work with him that he is then also able to go longer than 70 minutes.

Armstrong nevertheless got on the scoresheet despite his withdrawn role, while another Saints midfielder playing deeper than usual, Moussa Djenepo (£5.5m) at left-back, teed up Redmond for the visitors’ second goal.

Southampton XI: McCarthy, Walker-Peters (Valery 60), Bednarek (Olufunwa 82), Salisu (Stephens 60), Djenepo (Perraud 60), Romeu (Diallo 46), Armstrong (Finnigan 73), Tella (Elyounoussi 60), Redmond (Walcott 60), Adams (Ings 60), Long (Obafemi 60).