Following our round-ups of Saturday and Sunday’s Fantasy Premier League (FPL) action, our Scout Notes cover all the Gameweek 11 matches in more depth.
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Crystal Palace 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
- Goals: Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m), Conor Gallagher (£5.8m)
- Assists: James McArthur (£4.5m)
- Bonus: Gallagher x3, Cheikhou Kouyate (£4.5m) x2, Marc Guehi (£4.5m) x2
PALACE PLAYERS IN FPL DEMAND
Last week we wrote about goals and growing FPL demand for Conor Gallagher (£5.8m) and Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m), an impressive showing from Crystal Palace’s backline, the bonus points potential of Marc Guehi (£4.5m) and a 2-0 win for Patrick Vieira’s ever-improving troops.
For Gameweek 11, read Gameweek 10.
A Wolverhampton Wanderers side who had been unbeaten in their five previous Premier League matches were comfortably swatted aside at Selhurst Park on Saturday and reduced to just four shots on goal, the lowest tally across the division in Gameweek 11. Only one of those efforts came from open play.
The second-best team in the league for fewest expected goals conceded (xGC) in 2021/22, 10th-place Palace’s defensive performances are made all the more impressive when we consider that Manchester United are the only top-half club who the Eagles have yet to face.
Above: Palace’s next nine fixtures
We won’t bother to rehash what we wrote last week but Gallagher – whose strike against Wolves was a slightly fortuitous one given the deflection involved – has now risen to an impressive second in the midfielders’ points table behind runaway leader Mohamed Salah (£13.0m), with his season total of 64 points higher than even what Michail Antonio (£8.2m) and Jamie Vardy (£10.8m) have managed.
Zaha, meanwhile, made it five attacking returns in his last six starts with a goal of his own on Saturday.
“I strongly believe that he can go to a different level. He can score more goals, and he can make more assists – he can be more decisive. He has the confidence of the football club, of myself and my staff, and we believe how good he can be for the football club and for himself to go to a different level. He can, and he will do it. I guarantee that he will do it.” – Patrick Vieira on Wilfried Zaha
“His performance has been terrific – it’s been excellent. It’s just about how he closes people down and the energy he is giving the team. He is in a really good period – he is scoring goals and working well for the team. There is a lot of confidence in himself at the moment, and the team as well is doing well to allow him to express himself.” – Patrick Vieira on Conor Gallagher
Gallagher – who is top for transfers in (215,000 and counting) ahead of Gameweek 12 – is besting Zaha across any number of underlying stats, although we do have to stress that the Chelsea loanee’s numbers are slightly skewed by some sky-high figures in Gameweeks 2-4:
Above: A comparison of Conor Gallagher and Wilfried Zaha in 2021/22
Gallagher is, in fact, only 27th among FPL midfielders for ‘expected goal involvement’ (xGI) over the last seven Gameweeks – but given the calibre of opposition faced, perhaps we can raise our expectations for the easier-on-paper tests ahead in 2021.
LAST STAND FOR JIMENEZ AND HWANG
We can forgive Wolves for an off-day after their recent form: this was Raul Jimenez‘s (£7.5m) first blank in five starts.
Palace won the battle for possession and saw more than 60% of the ball with their relentless pressing, and not for the first time this season, Bruno Lage’s troops were outgunned in the middle of the park when confronted by a three-man central midfield (see also: Brentford (h) and the majority of the Aston Villa (a) game) – something to watch out for, perhaps, going forward.
“We want to play a style of football and we need to have more of the ball. If we manage the ball and not lose it, we will have more time with it. If you don’t have this you spend more time defending.
“Our team does not have the profile to spend too much time defending in front of our box, waiting for goals.” – Bruno Lage
Owners of Jimenez and Hwang Hee-chan (£5.8m) will no doubt be holding for a juicy-looking Gameweek 13 and 14 double-header but the matches around that are fairly dire and enough to see the mob from Molineux rank rock-bottom of our Season Ticker for fixture difficulty.
Given the fixture congestion that awaits in December and the number of attacking options available to Lage, sustained game-time may also soon be an issue for Hwang in particular.
Crystal Palace XI: Guaita, Ward, Guéhi, Andersen, Mitchell, McArthur (Schlupp 80), Kouyaté, Gallagher, Zaha, Edouard (Olise 80), Benteke (Ayew 89).
Wolverhampton Wanderers XI: Sá, Kilman, Coady, Saïss, Neves, Aït-Nouri, Trincao (Podence 68), Semedo (Traoré 68), Moutinho, Hee-Chan, Jiménez.
