Our round-up of the latest pre-season friendly action summarises the goals, assists, injury updates and team news information from three matches involving Fantasy Premier League (FPL) players.
Manchester City and Norwich City took on Football League opposition on Tuesday night, while Burnley and Newcastle United met one another in a previously unannounced, behind-closed-doors game at Turf Moor.
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.
MANCHESTER CITY 4-1 BLACKPOOL
- Goals: Sam Edozie, Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m), Ilkay Gundogan (£7.5m) x2
- Assists: Gundogan, Fernandinho (£5.0m), Mahrez, Joao Cancelo (£6.0m)
Ilkay Gundogan (£7.5m) marked his first start of pre-season with two goals and an assist in Manchester City’s 4-1 win over Blackpool.
The German’s uncanny knack for ghosting into shooting positions around the six-yard box was again in evidence, with the mid-price midfielder first connecting with an inswinging Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m) free-kick before finishing a Joao Cancelo (£6.0m) cross to double his tally.
Gundogan had earlier claimed the Fantasy assist for City’s opener, when youngster Sam Edozie latched onto his blocked effort.
Pre-season results and form are sometimes irrelevant when the real action gets underway and it’s difficult to draw too many conclusions from City’s summer in particular, given the names that Pep Guardiola has had to do without so far.
The likes of Kevin De Bruyne (£12.0m), Phil Foden (£8.0m), Gabriel Jesus (£8.5m), Raheem Sterling (£11.0m), Ferran Torres (£7.0m) and, potentially, Jack Grealish (£8.0m) are all still to return to playing action, with their comebacks muddying the waters in the medium term regarding rotation in the attack.
But what Gundogan, Joao Cancelo (£6.0m) and especially Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m) have in their favour in the first few Gameweeks is match-sharpness and rhythm, something that will surely stand them in good stead for starts before the September international break.
Mahrez has been excellent against some admittedly limited opposition in City’s warm-up games, here supplying the assist for Gundogan’s first goal having earlier slotted in his third goal in as many matches.
His link-up play with Cancelo was positive against Blackpool, with the Portuguese defender reprising his hybrid right-back/central midfielder role and getting into his usual dangerous shooting positions.
Guardiola said afterwards:
One more day, one more game with no more injuries.
I’m very pleased for the young players and the more experienced players – for what they have done.
We need time – players are coming back. We need time and space to do it.
Manchester City XI: Steffen (Van Sas 81), Cancelo (Gomes 81), Dias (Couto 81), Ake (Sandler 60), Mendy, Fernandinho (Rogers 76), Gundogan (McAtee 76), Palmer (Doyle 81), Mahrez, Edozie (Lavia 76), Knight (Bernardo 60).
BURNLEY 1-0 NEWCASTLE UNITED
- Goal: Jay Rodriguez (£5.5m)
- Assist: Erik Pieters (£4.5m)
Two sides seemingly wedded to formations they ended 2020/21 in met at Turf Moor on Tuesday.
With managers elsewhere experimenting with systems and tactics, Sean Dyche and Steve Bruce stuck with their trusted 4-4-2 and 3-5-2 set-ups in Lancashire.
Wing-backs Jacob Murphy (£5.0m) and Matt Ritchie (£5.0m) are big parts of Newcastle’s approach and the former has particularly impressed in pre-season, here teeing up Joelinton (£6.0m) for a point-blank header that the Brazilian somehow missed; had Callum Wilson (£7.5m) been occupying that space inside the six-yard box, Murphy would surely have another assist to his name.
Wilson and Allan Saint-Maximin (£6.5m) were again absent, with a knock and an illness respectively seeing them sidelined recently.
Bruce gave a positive update on the pair after full-time:
Almiron will now start with the group, which is good, so he’s back. Then, of course, we have got the illness to Allan Saint-Maximin, which we hope by the weekend he will be OK. Callum we hope will be OK.
[Dummett] nicked a calf at Doncaster the other night, which is a shame, as he’s had a really good three weeks. But we’ve been unfortunate in that department.
With Martin Dubravka (£4.5m) injured and Karl Darlow (£4.5m) still recovering at home after testing positive for Covid-19 earlier this month, it was again Mark Gillespie (£4.0m) and unpriced Freddie Woodman who shared duties between the posts.
Burnley might also be starting the season with a reserve shot-stopper in their starting XI, as Wayne Hennessey (£4.5m) continues to deputise for the recovering Nick Pope (£5.5m).
The absence of Matthew Lowton (£4.5m) remains unexplained at the time of writing, meanwhile. With back-up right-back Phil Bardsley one of a handful of FPL defenders in the £4.0m bracket, that’s a situation worth monitoring – although Dyche’s post-game comments didn’t hint at any issue:
Everyone so far is fit and well, which is important. Popey is on the way back – and there is Kevin Long and Dale Stephens missing – but generally, people are fit and well.
Two of the Clarets’ form players of pre-season again caught the eye against the Magpies, with Dwight McNeil (£6.0m) looking lively in what limited match footage exists and Jay Rodriguez (£5.5m) notching his fourth goal of the summer.
Chris Wood (£7.0m) now looks set to rejoin training on Thursday, meanwhile, so could be in the mix for game-time of some variety come Gameweek 1.
Burnley XI: Hennessey (Norris 46), Bardsley, Collins, Mee (Tarkowski 46), Pieters, Gudmundsson (Trialist 60), Westwood (Brownhill 46), Cork, McNeil (Taylor 60), Vydra (Barnes 60), Rodriguez (Richardson 80).
Newcastle United XI: Woodman (Gillespie 46), Murphy (Allan 46), Krafth (Schar 46), Fernandez (Lascelles 46), Clark (Watts 55), Ritchie (Lewis 46), M. Longstaff (Shelvey 60), Hayden (Young 46), Hendrick (S. Longstaff 46), White (Fraser 46), Joelinton (Gayle 46).
NORWICH CITY 5-0 GILLINGHAM
- Goals: Pierre Lees-Melou (£5.0m), Adam Idah (£5.0m) x2, Lukas Rupp (£4.5m), Jacob Sørensen (£4.5m)
- Assists: Todd Cantwell (£5.5m) x3, Dimitris Giannoulis (£4.5m)
A hat-trick of assists from the excellent Todd Cantwell (£5.5m) helped Norwich City to a comfortable win over Gillingham at a spectator-filled Carrow Road.
It was the Canaries’ first match in 11 days, with a Covid-19 outbreak in the camp putting paid to two other friendlies since a 2-0 triumph over Huddersfield Town.
Indeed, Daniel Farke suggested that seven of his first-team absentees had to miss out against the Gills because of coronavirus.
The Norwich boss confirmed that Teemu Pukki (£6.0m) was among that affected group when speaking after full-time:
We had a tough 14 days. Two players just came back yesterday to training, Jacob Sorensen and Angus Gunn, due to Covid cases.
Max Aarons and Dimitrios Giannoulis had to self-isolate. They didn’t catch it but in order of precaution because, they were not in close contact, but they had to isolate because they were not too far away.
It was difficult and also today seven players missed due to Covid reasons and without 11 first-team players in the last days was difficult. First of all with the mood and the confidence in the group and also on the training pitch.
It is not easy for the lads who are missing right now as they have to self-isolate. No team training for ten days it is of course difficult. For example, Teemu was away longer after the Euros and he only just came back and had three days together with us and right now he is not with us for ten days.
It’s not ideal but the most important is that they feel alright. Some are struggling with some symptoms, some are a bit less, but the most important thing is their health and their safety and the health of their families.
Of course, it is not ideal for pre-season, but we cannot change the situation. We accept how it is and the good news is that at least in the last six days there have been no new Covid cases and it seems we broke the cycle a little bit.
Forward Adam Idah (£5.0m) scored twice in Pukki’s absence, with one of his goals set up by the lively Cantwell; the midfielder also creating Jacob Sørensen‘s (£4.5m) goal from a free-kick situation.
Budget central midfielders Pierre Lees-Melou (£5.0m) and Lukas Rupp (£4.5m) were also on the scoresheet, while Billy Gilmour (£4.5m) excelled in the engine room.
Gilmour is the second most-owned £4.5m midfielder in FPL at present and appearance points will surely flow for those interested in his services as bench fodder.
The limitations of a deep-lying playmaker in FPL were evidenced in Norwich’s third goal, with the Chelsea loanee ‘assisting the assister’ with a slide-rule pass out wide.
But there were one or two moments where Gilmour advanced into more threatening positions, and he was always looking to pass forward when on the ball.
It was Dimitris Giannoulis (£4.5m) who claimed the actual assist for the Canaries’ third strike and both full-backs were well advanced down the Norwich flanks, with Giannoulis and Max Aarons (£4.5m) going close to scoring themselves.
Gilmour’s ability to spot runs from and pick out both defenders out wide will surely boost their assist potential this season, with the on-loan Chelsea star saying afterwards:
I am loving it. All the boys are really good with me. I have settled in quickly. It is a good bunch of boys, and you can see from what we showed out on the pitch that we have got a good understanding already and hopefully that continues throughout the season.
We are a good attacking team, with Max (Aarons) and (Dimitris) Giannoulis who will go down the wings. If we can find them, then we can get balls into the box and that is the reason we scored five goals tonight.
Norwich City XI: Krul (Gunn 46), Aarons, Omobamidele, Gibson, (Zimmermann 63), Giannoulis, Rupp (Sørensen 63), Gilmour (Adshead 85), Lees-Melou (McLean 63), Cantwell, Dowell (Tomkinson 82), Idah.
