Gallagher in FPL demand as Palace move top of the fixture ticker

We continue our Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Scout Notes with analysis of Manchester City v Crystal Palace, where we also highlight the pick of the Eagles’ squad for their forthcoming good run of fixtures.

For a briefer summary of Saturday’s Premier League action, click here, while you can read up on some more matches in detail below.

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MANCHESTER CITY 0-2 CRYSTAL PALACE

• Goals: Wilfried Zaha (£6.9m), Conor Gallagher (£5.6m)
• Assists: Gallagher, Michael Olise (£5.4m)
• Bonus: Gallagher x3, Joel Ward (£4.5m) x2, Vicente Guaita (£4.5m) x1

PALACE TOP OF THE TICKER

Bottom of the Season Ticker for the first 10 Gameweeks of the campaign, Crystal Palace rise to first place from Gameweeks 11-20.

It’s not a completely straightforward run but there are meetings with eight of the 11 worst teams for goals conceded in 2021/22, not to mention the six sides who have scored the fewest goals.

The Eagles certainly put in a convincing audition on Saturday, beating Manchester City to nil at the Etihad thanks to goals from Wilfried Zaha (£6.9m) and Conor Gallagher (£5.6m).

It’s these two players who are the stand-out picks from an attacking perspective, and indeed they are the Palace assets with the most transfers in ahead of Gameweek 11. Gallagher, in fact, is the second-most bought midfielder across all 20 teams.

Odsonne Edouard (£6.5m) has played out on the left flank in the last three Gameweeks, diminishing his goal threat (just three shots in as many fixtures), while Christian Benteke (£6.3m) and Jordan Ayew (£5.9m) appear to be ‘horses for courses’ selections: the former when against ‘low blocks’ and the latter perhaps for his work rate against the bigger sides.

Gallagher is both Palace’s leading shot-taker and chance creator in 2021/22, and is now the fifth-highest-scoring FPL midfielder, having bagged his sixth and seventh attacking return of the campaign in the win at the Etihad.

As we pointed out last week, the close-range shots have dried up somewhat: his expected goals (xG) count was a whopping 2.48 in Gameweeks 2-4, compared to 0.48 in the last six Gameweeks.

But bar spot-kicks, Zaha hasn’t been that much more of a sustained threat to warrant the additional outlay, with his goal at City his first big chance from open play all season – his other two coming from the penalty spot.

Given the calibre of teams that Zaha and Gallagher have already faced and the less-daunting tests ahead of them, you’d expect both of their high-quality shot counts to rise over the coming 10 Gameweeks.

“In the one vs one Wilfried is a really dangerous player and he can stretch the opposition team by running behind. And that was the decision that we made and it worked today. And now I think it’s good to to show to the players that we have an interesting team and it’s important for them to understand that anybody can bring some things to the to the team.” – Patrick Vieira on his decision to play Wilfried Zaha as a central striker against Manchester City

Above: Conor Gallagher was behind only Jack Grealish for chances created (CC) at the Etihad on Saturday. It should be pointed out that the Chelsea loanee was only back on set pieces because of a benching for Luka Milivojevic (£5.4m), which was likely a tactical one to bring the more physical Cheikhou Kouyate (£4.5m) into midfield.

Despite their tricky opening to the season, Palace sit an excellent third for expected goals conceded (xGC) in 2021/22.

Vicente Guaita (£4.5m) deserves a mention as a budget goalkeeper for those FPL managers on a Wildcard or still searching for a replacement for David Raya (£4.6m). It’s not just the potential for clean sheets but bonus, too: he’s fourth among top-flight goalkeeper for baseline bonus points (BBPS), with those sideways balls out from the back helping him rack up those oh-so-important pass completion stats.

Marc Guehi (£4.5m), fifth among all FPL defenders for passes attempted, is another who could collect the odd bonus point for the same reason, and has had more shots in the box (four) than the rest of the Eagles’ backline altogether.

Tyrick Mitchell (£4.5m) is Palace’s leading chance creator from defence (six), meanwhile, and has looked better going forward this season.

It’s a struggle to make a case for either player over Valentino Livramento (£4.4m), who can better Guehi for goal attempts and Mitchell for key passes and final-third touches, even if the Eagles do have perhaps a marginally better run over the next 10 Gameweeks.

CITY SLIP UP

This was just an off-day for City, the type of goalless game where the cynics will point to the dearth of centre-forward options available to Pep Guardiola while others will highlight the fact that they had stuck four goals past Brighton a week earlier.

The Citizens’ goal count after 10 matches is on the low side when we look at previous years under Guardiola; only last season’s tally, when both Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus (£8.7m) picked up injuries in the opening quarter of the campaign, is inferior.

The form of the out-of-sorts Kevin De Bruyne (£12.0m), so often the creative hub of the side but who was hooked after less than an hour of Saturday’s defeat, is perhaps exacerbating the (relative) lack of goals, which are still being scored at an admittedly decent rate of 2.00 per match.

“We are a team who are able to do it but against teams who defend deep sometimes it’s difficult to find the right moment to punish them. We created lots of chances against West Ham [in the EFL Cup] and conceded few and today it was the same again except for the five/ten minutes. We produced more but we have to score more goals, we knew it.” – Pep Guardiola on goalscoring

Luckily for owners of Phil Foden (£8.2m), he still looks integral to the current City set-up. Arguably the best option at both centre-forward and left wing at present (he occupied both roles at times on Saturday), his bit of magic in an otherwise quiet display led to a Jesus goal in the second half of Saturday’s defeat that was subsequently disallowed for a marginal offside call.

And Joao Cancelo (£6.4m), remarkably and perhaps tellingly given what we discussed above about goal threat, is now City’s leading shot-taker of 2021/22 (see below) after having five stabs at goal from distance on Saturday.

Aymeric Laporte‘s (£5.5m) red card will see him suspended for the Manchester derby, meanwhile, with John Stones (£5.3m) surely set to take his place at Old Trafford.

Manchester City XI: Ederson, Walker, Cancelo (Mahrez 77) , Dias, Laporte, Rodrigo, De Bruyne (Stones 60), Bernardo, Grealish (Sterling77), Jesus, Foden.

Crystal Palace XI: Guaita, Ward, Andersen, Guéhi, Mitchell, Gallagher, Kouyaté (Olise 77), McArthur, J Ayew (Benteke 65), Édouard (Schlupp 73), Zaha.