Arteta clarifies Arsenal penalty situation as FPL bargain Smith Rowe scores again

We continue our Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Gameweek 11 Scout Notes with analysis of Arsenal v Watford.

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

All stats and graphics in this article are taken from our Premium Members Area, where there is still a seven-day free trial available.

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ARSENAL 1-0 WATFORD

• Goals: Emile Smith Rowe (£5.8m)
• Assists: none
• Penalties saved: Ben Foster (£4.1m)
• Penalties missed: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.1m)
• Red cards: Juraj Kucka (£5.5m)
• Bonus: Foster x3, Ben White (£4.4m) x2, Aaron Ramsdale (£4.7m) x1

ARSENAL REMAIN UNBEATEN SINCE GAMEWEEK 3

Emile Smith Rowe (£5.8m) scored in his third successive Premier League game for Arsenal on Sunday, as the Gunners maintained their unbeaten run, which now stretches to an impressive 10 matches in all competitions. 

With four goals and two assists in his last six starts, the no. 10 is now up to fifth in the midfielder standings, with only Mohamed Salah (£13.0m), Conor Gallagher (£5.8m), Sadio Mane (£11.9m) and Son Heung-min (£10.3m) racking up more FPL points to date.

However, it was a day to forget for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.1m), who had a goal ruled out for offside and picked up a second-half booking. He also missed his second penalty of the season, though Mikel Arteta did suggest post-match that he would continue taking them:

“He will stay on penalties if he’s happy to do so. You will miss when you take penalties – that’s part of your career and the job – [but] we’ll try to help him.”

Elsewhere, budget defender Nuno Taveres (£4.3m) continued at left-back, with Kieran Tierney (£4.8m) an unused substitute. On whether the Scottish international is still first-choice, Arteta said:

“Well, Nuno is playing because he deserves to play. He’s been exceptional in all the performances where he has been given the opportunity. But I cannot say anything different with Kieran, Kieran has been superb for us. Kieran has been injured, he came back two days ago to do his first full training session. This is what we need – two top players that are raising the level in their position – and I’m happy with that.”

The manager then went on to discuss Tierney and Thomas Partey’s (£5.0m) availability for the forthcoming round of international fixtures, with the latter missing Gameweek 11 with a tight groin:

“Let’s see what happens with Thomas. He wasn’t available to play today. He’s got a muscle injury, and we don’t know how it’s going to evolve, so let’s take it day by day. Kieran is going to go with the Scotland squad. He was training inside the stadium today, and he will go with Scotland.”

Notably, another clean sheet for Arsenal means it is now five for the season, a total only bettered by Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool.

Key to those shut-outs have been the performances of Aaron Ramsdale (£4.7m), who picked up a bonus point in Gameweek 11 despite only having to make one save, and Ben White (£4.4m), who again made some interesting forward forays into the opponent’s half, which has been a theme in recent matches.

Ben White’s touch heatmap 2021/22

The victory for Arsenal may have only been by a single-goal margin, but there was a bigger gulf in class than the scoreline suggests, which bodes well for their prospects in the coming weeks, despite the schedule toughening up.

DOUBLE-DIGITS FOR FOSTER BUT ISSUES AT WATFORD

Watford keeper Ben Foster (£4.1m) produced a penalty save at the Emirates on Sunday, and as a result, racked up an impressive 11-point haul for the small army of FPL managers who started him.

However, despite many needing to turn to the the veteran keeper in the absence of Robert Sanchez (£4.6m) in Gameweek 12, the fixtures are somewhat challenging to say the least, with Manchester United (h) up next, followed by Leicester City (a), Chelsea (h) and Manchester City (h).

Juraj Kucka (£5.5m), meanwhile, was sent off for a second bookable offence late on, and will now miss Gameweek 12.

Despite Sunday’s loss, Claudio Ranieri insisted that there were positives to take from the performance:

“I’m very satisfied with our performance. The players worked hard together and we had chances to come away with a draw.

It was a very tactical match in the first half, and Arsenal had some really good opportunities. We conceded a penalty but Ben Foster made a great save.

After they scored their goal there was a lot more space on the pitch, and we made some mistakes on the counter-attack that we’ll go away and work on.

I know we have lost too many matches, but for me things are positive. My players were fighting to draw the game until the end. My players are learning my methods and we’re in a good place.”

Arsenal XI: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tavares, Sambi-Lokonga, Maitland-Niles, Saka (Martinelli 90+3), Smith Rowe (Elneny 86), Lacazette (Odegaard 69), Aubameyang

Watford XI: Foster, Femenia, Cathcart (Fletcher 90+4), Nkoulou, Rose, Sissoko, Kucka, Tufan (Pedro 62), Sarr, Dennis (Cucho 74), King