FPL Gameweek 14 round-up: James injury latest and budget Dennis delivers again

Our Scoreboard series rounds up the key goings-on from Wednesday’s Gameweek 14 fixtures, from injury news to stats analysis.

With the swift turnaround between Fantasy Premier League (FPL) deadlines, the Scoreboard articles will take the place of the usual Scout Notes for this midweek round of action.

The graphics below are taken from LiveFPL, Ragabolly’s excellent and ever-expanding website, and our own Premium Members Area.

GOALS, ASSISTS, BONUS

INJURIES AND BANS 

It was a punishing night on the injury front; no coincidence, perhaps, with the games coming thick and fast and the risk of muscle problems increased as a consequence.

Aside from Kevin De Bruyne, whose absence was expected at Villa Park, three other Manchester City players didn’t even make the matchday squad. Ilkay Gundogan, John Stones and Kyle Walker all missed out with previously undeclared “niggles”, with Pep Guardiola unsure when speaking after the match whether that trio would be fit for Gameweek 15:

“Yesterday the doctor come and say this player cannot play and after another and this morning the doctor said Gundogan couldn’t play. Aymer [Laporte] was suspended but will be back. Kevin had just two training sessions but is coming back. It is important for us as many players as possible. They have to compete with these guys, they were exceptional.

“I don’t know [if they will face Watford]. Normally I’m not like this, they are not there, I would prefer it, absolutely.” – Pep Guardiola

Phil Foden was an unused substitute on his return from injury, while the newly fit-again Jack Grealish had a brief cameo off the bench on his own comeback.

Jorginho and Timo Werner were also fit enough for bench duty at Vicarage Road but Reece James didn’t make the trip. Thomas Tuchel may have been about to tell us that the right-back had a chance to face West Ham at the weekend but the Chelsea boss was annoyingly interrupted by the same reporter who posed him the initial question.

“I cannot say today, it was like yesterday, too much pain for him to travel for us and to play. Hopefully, we have a chance that he’s back on… [answer interrupted by another question on the nature of the injury]… he got a kick on the ankle” – Thomas Tuchel on Reece James’s chances of featuring in Gameweek 15

Chelsea also lost Trevoh Chalobah to a hamstring injury in the second half of the win over Watford.

“The next game is coming on Saturday and I am most worried about the injury to Trevoh. We got a lot of hits today. The doctor was on the field 20 times to treat players. It is a big loss with Trevoh and we have already some injured key players so I am a bit worried because the next game is Saturday at 12.30.” – Thomas Tuchel

The Hornets themselves saw Adam Masina limp off with a muscle problem that looks set to keep him out for a while.

“I think it’s serious because he was already operating these muscles. think I will miss him for a long time.” – Claudio Ranieri on Adam Masina

There weren’t many teams to emerge from Wednesday night unscathed.

Aston Villa lost Leon Bailey to a muscle issue that will very likely keep him out for weeks but the prognosis sounds positive on Matt Targett‘s head injury, at least.

“We’ll have to analyse [Bailey’s injury] with an MRI scan in the coming days but it looks like he’s going to miss at least a few weeks I think Matty will pull through, he’s had a bang but coming off the pitch he tells me that he should be OK. But you can’t take risks when it’s that area of the head.” – Steven Gerrard

Jan Bednarek and Salomon Rondon also picked up problems for Southampton and Everton respectively.

“He felt his hamstring so we need to wait to see what the physios are saying.” – Rafael Benitez on Salomon Rondon

“Hopefully he is okay. I hope that he stepped out just in time so that the problem did not become an injury.” – Bednarek

Marcal was absent from Wolves’ goalless draw with Burnley after testing positive for Covid-19, while the worst-hit side of the night were Brighton: they lost Adam Lallana, Jeremy Sarmiento and Adam Webster to muscle strains that left them down to 10 men in the closing stages of their draw with West Ham United.

“At the moment it doesn’t look like [they’ll be fit for] the weekend.” – Graham Potter on his injured trio

GAMEWEEK 14 TAKEAWAYS

DENNIS DELIVERS AGAIN

As Michail Antonio was delivering a fifth straight blank in West Ham’s draw with Brighton, Emmanuel Dennis was overtaking him in the FPL points chart.

The fixture and the 50% flag meant that he was benched by almost 90% of his owners in the top 10k but the Nigerian recovered to play 90 minutes at Vicarage Road, making it nine attacking returns in five appearances with a clean sheet-busting goal for the Hornets.

He now trails only Jamie Vardy for points among FPL forwards and from Gameweek 16-23, Watford move to the top of our Season Ticker.

It should be said that he is massively exceeding his expected goal involvement (xGI) this season (by 7.35!), while he has been named in Nigeria’s provisional squad for the Africa Cup of Nations in January, which could see him miss a handful of Gameweeks.

But with so few other forwards making a case for inclusion, the question does have to be asked as to why we wouldn’t simply recruit a bargain-bin Watford striker and splash the cash elsewhere, at least while the more expensive forward options are trying to play themselves into some sort of form.

TUCHEL ON ALONSO

It was a disappointing night all round for those going big at the back, with Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea all losing their clean sheets.

Marcos Alonso ‘assisted the assister’ for both of the Blues’ goals and a frustrating evening for owners was compounded when he was booked.

There were some quotes of note on the wing-back emerging from Thomas Tuchel after the game, when the hapless Saul Niguez was brought up as a topic of conversation.

“He was on a yellow card so we had two options – take Marcos [Alonso] off who also had a yellow card and try Saul as a wing-back. I had this in my mind before the game, if something happened to Marcos. I thought maybe it was not the right match to try things with new positions so it was him to change the shape a little bit and have Thiago on the pitch with his organising.” – Thomas Tuchel on Saul Niguez

TIME TO SELL WOLVES PLAYERS

Wolves drew a blank for the second match running and the last two Gameweeks have been a bit of a damp squib for owners of Raul Jimenez and Hwang Hee-chan, who would have hoped for greater things against two of the division’s weakest defences.

Bruno Lage’s troops now face some daunting-looking fixtures all the way through to the New Year, so Gameweek 15 looks to be a good hopping-off point.

‘UNDROPPABLE’ BERNARDO

Bernardo Silva made it five attacking returns in seven Gameweeks with a goal in Manchester City’s win over Aston Villa.

With fitness concerns dogging Pep Guardiola’s squad, Bernardo has started 13 league matches in a row and is now City’s leading-scoring FPL midfielder.

With Grealish and Foden back to fitness, and De Bruyne and Gundogan not far away, the Portuguese may be due a breather soon – although it was only two weeks ago that he was deemed ‘undroppable’ by his manager.

“You cannot compete a long season without players. The moments Rodri and Bernardo play lately is too much. In six years, I never complain because the players are not here.

“I had 12 players today. If you think I complain because players are not here, it’s not going to happen. They have to recover quickly and compete against these guys who were so strong today.” – Pep Guardiola

EVERTON AND LEICESTER DEFENCES STILL ONES TO TARGET

Mohamed Salah continued his superlative form in the Merseyside derby, while Diogo Jota made it four goals in three matches in Liverpool’s ultimately comfortable 4-1 win over Everton.

The Toffees may not show up as dark shades of blue on our Season Ticker but they are a defence to target at present: 15 goals have flown in over their last six matches, with a league-worst total of 22 big chances conceded an unwanted record.

The same could be said for Leicester, who are still without a clean sheet since Gameweek 1.

In eight of their last 10 matches, the Foxes have conceded two or more goals – including in Wednesday’s 2-2 draw with Southampton.