Our Scoreboard series rounds up the key goings-on from Saturday’s Gameweek 16 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 throughout December.
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
One Premier League player reached five bookings for the season on Saturday and it’s a big name from an FPL perspective: Joao Cancelo will miss Gameweek 17 as a result of his yellow card accumulation after being cautioned against Wolves.
The match at the Etihad saw Raul Jimenez sent off for two bookable offences and the Mexican will too miss the midweek round of fixtures.
On the injury front, Phil Foden, Emile Smith Rowe and Diogo Jota all overcame fitness issues to make their respective clubs’ substitute benches and scored a grand total of two points between them. The consolation for owners of that trio, at least, is that they’ll be in a decent position to challenge for a start in Gameweek 17.
The player who seemed likeliest to benefit from Jota’s absence, Divock Origi, missed out because of a knee problem picked up in training on Friday – exactly the same thing that happened to Pascal Struijk.
Southampton have real problems up top, with Che Adams missing today because of a “complicated” hamstring injury and both Adam Armstrong and Armando Broja limping out of the defeat to Arsenal with muscle issues.
“We do not know yet. Hopefully they are not too serious but they were unable to continue.
“Che Adams also has a very strange injury in the hamstring. The doctor said he had not seen it very often. We’ll have to see how long it takes.” – Ralph Hasenhuttl
Venturing back to City, and Ilkay Gundogan is a bit of a doubt for Gameweek 17 after three successive starts, a dip in performance levels and a back injury:
“Gundogan is struggling a lot with his back. And he has not performed well in the last two games. We must reflect what to do to recover him.” – Pep Guardiola
GAMEWEEK 16 TAKEAWAYS
WOLVES’ DEFENCE IS THE REAL DEAL…
The expected goal (xG) tally for Manchester City may have come to 2.79 in their win over Wolverhampton Wanderers but as anyone who plumped for Joshua King over Emmanuel Dennis can testify, stats don’t always tell the full story.
For the second week running, Wolves – who were down to ten men for the entirety of the second half – made life extremely difficult for one of the Premier League title challengers and it was only a contentious penalty award that ended their resistance.
Bar one Jack Grealish sitter there weren’t too many clear-cut openings for the Citizens, although Bernardo Silva still managed to continue his fine FPL form with the assist for Raheem Sterling‘s spot-kick.
Fantasy managers likely won’t be piling onto Rayan Ait-Nouri and co with Wolves’ upcoming fixture run but owners of attacking assets from Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd should bear in mind the solidity of Bruno Lage’s backline ahead of upcoming fixtures over Christmas.
…AS IS ASTON VILLA’S
Steven Gerrard prioritised defensive improvements when he took over as Aston Villa manager last month and he’s been as good as his word, with Manchester City made to work hard for their win at Villa Park in Gameweek 14 and Liverpool similarly having to graft on Saturday.
The real big chances came late in the game with Villa chasing a deficit – spurned, naturally, by Jota – and like City above, it was only a penalty that broke the deadlock; Mohamed Salah reaching the 160-point mark with his 24th attacking return of the season.
Villa’s upcoming run sees them leap to the top of our Season Ticker over the next 12 Gameweeks and there are plenty of decent clean sheet opportunties for FPL managers looking to pounce on Matty Cash and co:
Cash, incidentally, is second for penalty box touches among Fantasy defenders since Gerrard took over, adding another two to his tally today.
RAMSDALE SUPERB AGAIN
Aaron Ramsdale is averaging more FPL points per match (5.4) than any other first-choice goalkeeper this season, with Saturday’s 11-point return his biggest haul of 2021/22.
Ramsdale collected maximum bonus and two save points to supplement his seventh clean sheet in 13 league appearances for the Gunners.
It was a convincing display at the other end of the pitch, too, with Martin Odegaard scoring for the third straight Gameweek.
“He should have scored a hat-trick against Everton. He’s making it into the box much more and now he understands why we encourage him to do that. Because then he is a match-winner – that’s the difference between a very good player and a match-winner – and we need more of those players on the pitch, to win more of our games.” – Mikel Arteta on Martin Odegaard
RAPHINHA AND GELHARDT PROFIT FROM BAMFORD ABSENCE
Patrick Bamford was absent from the Leeds squad again on Saturday, with an injury picked up on his comeback last week ruling him out for an as yet undetermined period of time.
His continued unavailability, and Mateusz Klich‘s lack of game-time, spells good news for Raphinha, who was again trusted with penalty-taking duties when the Whites were awarded a spot-kick at Chelsea.
Any sustained period of absence for Bamford, and there is nothing to suggest that is the case, also raises the possibility of more game-time from one of the few £4.5m forwards in the game: Joe Gelhardt.
The teenager is very highly rated among Leeds fans and he took mere seconds to open his Premier League account when he prodded home from close range.
He’s no more than a Fantasy footnote at present but a name to monitor over the coming weeks.
CHELSEA DEFENCE ALL AT SEA
It’s eight goals conceded in three competitive matches for Chelsea, whose early-season solidity has given way to some unconvincing displays at the back. Ben Chilwell‘s absence, Edouard Mendy‘s ‘crisis of confidence’, a shortage of fit central midfielders in front of the back three (Jorginho again playing through back pain), normal variance – whatever the reasons for the dearth of clean sheets, it hasn’t been a profitable month for those FPL managers with a double-up or triple-up of Chelsea defenders. Reece James, indeed, has a grand total of one point over the last four Gameweeks.
Marcos Alonso and Antonio Rudiger at least chipped in with a combined three assists on Saturday, taking the Chelsea backline’s collective total of attacking returns to a whopping 28 in 2021/22.
Mason Mount made it five attacking returns in three Gameweeks with his strike against Marcelo Bielsa’s troops, meanwhile.
PLENTY OF WORK NEEDED AT UNITED
A goal from Cristiano Ronaldo and a second successive clean sheet for the previously porous Manchester United defence: signs of improvement under Ralf Rangnick? Not hugely, based on Saturday’s evidence.
This was a United display straight from the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer era, limp going forward and overly reliant on some heroics from David de Gea between the posts at the other end.
It’s unfair to expect too much from Rangnick given the lack of time he’s had with his new troops but it’s equally worth stressing that the appointment of a new coach isn’t going to transform the Red Devils into a free-flowing attacking unit overnight, when it comes to FPL targets and their favourable fixture run.
As was the case with Liverpool and City, it was only a penalty that separated the two teams at Carrow Road.
STAT-WATCH – GAMEWEEK 16
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