The Lacazette latest and the good and bad of Man Utd ahead of mooted Double Gameweek 34

We round up the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from Saturday’s four Gameweek 33 fixtures in our Scout Notes summary.

We’ll be reacting to the FA Cup semi-finals in a separate piece.

The graphics below are taken from LiveFPL, Ragabolly’s excellent and ever-improving website (which now has a new look!), and our own Premium Members Area.

GOALS, ASSISTS AND BONUS

INJURIES AND BANS

Absent from training this week because of what Mikel Arteta said were “personal reasons”, Alexandre Lacazette (£8.4m) was not part of the Arsenal squad that was defeated by Southampton on Saturday.

Local reporters had suggested the striker had been ill, and Arteta seemed to confirm that Covid was the cause of his no-show on Saturday.

“It will depend whether he’s negative and whether he is feeling better and if his symptoms have gone and if he’s available to play.” – Mikel Arteta on whether Lacazette might return to action this week

Kevin De Bruyne (£11.8m) and Diogo Jota (£8.3m) both made their respective sides’ benches after being doubts for the FA Cup semi-final Wembley but Kyle Walker (£5.4m) failed to recover from a twisted ankle. Again, we’ll have more reaction to that five-goal thriller in the coming days.

Most of the fresh injury news came from the visitors’ camp at Vicarage Road.

Ethan Pinnock (£4.4m) was substituted against Watford due to a hamstring injury, while Sergi Canos (£5.5m) missed today’s game with a hamstring issue too and might be out for a “few weeks.” Zanka (£4.5m) has an unspecified muscle problem, meanwhile.

FPL TALKING POINTS

ATTACK THE UNITED DEFENCE

Manchester United’s latest dismal defensive performance, in which they almost contrived to lose to the division’s lowest scorers and 20th-place club, will have been viewed keenly by owners of Liverpool and Arsenal’s attacking assets ahead of forthcoming league fixtures over the next week.

The Red Devils could also face Chelsea in a Double Gameweek 34, a scenario that will be confirmed if the Blues win their FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace on Sunday.

Norwich racked up the highest expected goals (xG) tally from open play on Saturday (see above), and when Ralf Rangnick is heralding the display of David de Gea (£5.1m) against a side that had previously scored just eight goals on the road in the whole of 2021/22, you know something’s wrong.

“The 2-0 lead should have made life easier but we didn’t defend well. David de Gea kept us in the game.

“It was highly important we won the goal but the way we played was not good enough. It is a question of intensity and physicality.” – Ralf Rangnick

Rangnick of course won’t go again with Paul Pogba (£7.4m) as his sole holding midfielder as he did against Norwich but on Saturday’s evidence and all that came before it, the ‘MUN’ on the Season Ticker should be dark blue from an attacking perspective.

BATTLING BRIGHTON

The division’s highest scorers in 2022, Tottenham Hotspur, failed to register a single shot on target, let alone a goal, in the lunchtime kick-off.

This was Harry Kane‘s (£12.6m) first blank since Gameweek 26 and it’s not often we have seen Son Heung-min (£11.1m) nullified to the point of him being taken off, as happened on Saturday lunchtime.

Albion have arrested their winless run with back-to-back wins in north London and it’s coincided with formation and personnel changes; the midfielder-packed 3-5-2 set-up has made the Seagulls a lot more solid-looking – when Enock Mwepu (£5.9m) and Alexis Mac Allister (£5.1m) are your starting ‘strikers’, the object of the game seems to be control and containment – and they suffocated Spurs in the same manner they did Arsenal a week earlier.

They’re not going to be key targets for FPL managers but it’s worth factoring in their solidity if your player is set to come up against Graham Potter’s troops in the week to come.

Leandro Trossard (£5.8m) may have turned managers’ heads with back-to-back goals but a word of caution: he’s effectively playing as a left wing-back in this system and his strikes in Gameweeks 32/33 came from his only two efforts in the opposition area.

IN-FORM BRENTFORD UP NEXT FOR SPURS

We can allow Spurs players to have an off-day after their recent heroics but it might not be too easy for Kane and co in Gameweek 34 either, with opponents Brentford sitting pretty in third in the six-match form table.

Only five goals have been conceded by Thomas Frank’s side in that time (the joint-third lowest), while 14 have been scored at the other end of the pitch (the fourth-highest). The Bees fare well for expected goals figures over that period, too, so the results haven’t been a total fluke.

Christian Eriksen (£5.6m) now has three attacking returns in his last four starts, and Brentford’s reliance on dead-ball situations – over half of their xG over the last six matches comes from set plays and penalties – does give him that extra bit of appeal.

RONALDO CLOUDING THE PREMIUM PICTURE?

Had Manchester United not had a Double Gameweek, chances are that we wouldn’t have taken a second look at many of their FPL players.

But here we are halfway through one double and potentially on the cusp of another for the Red Devils.

Much of the premium player talk in FPL has been over which combination of Spurs, Man City and Liverpool heavy-hitters to go for but Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.2m) also has to be in the conversation, if only for the prospective Double Gameweek 34.

He’s actually beating Kane (43) for FPL points over his last six matches (46), and trumping every other £10.0m+ asset for non-penalty expected goal involvement (xGI) in that time:

Yes, his latest hat-trick was ‘only’ against Norwich. But he delivered on a bigger stage against Spurs recently and he’ll be encountering a depleted Arsenal at a potentially good time next Saturday.

He’s certainly looking better on the eye than Bruno Fernandes (£11.6m), who is going through a bit of a poor run of performances at present – albeit while still registering good enough xGI figures to feature in the table above.

It’s interesting to see Teemu Pukki‘s (£5.9m) name up there in the above image, too. His goal and assist at Old Trafford made it six returns in as many matches, and he’s posting decent numbers on the underlying stats front; a name to add to the watchlist, perhaps, for those FPL managers looking at Bench Boost/cheaper options in Double Gameweek 36.

ABANDON ARSENAL?

It’s now three losses in a row for Arsenal and the love affair with their affordable FPL assets has lost its spark.

In fairness, this defeat owed more to their profligacy than anything else: there were chances galore created by Mikel Arteta’s side and an inspired display by Fraser Forster (£4.4m) between the posts, morsels of encouragement to take into next Saturday’s encounter with that woeful United defence.

“I can’t remember a game where Arsenal has played with this team, where they have created and dominated in a game more and better. But the result is what at the end we need to be where we have to be, and if we are not able to do that we aren’t not going to be there – it’s as simple as that. Because you don’t have enough quality to be there, because we have to win football matches and we have to score more goals, and that’s a problem we have at the moment.” – Mikel Arteta

For FPL managers on the never-ending lookout for a budget forward option, Eddie Nketiah (£5.4m) got a start at St Mary’s in Lacazette’s absence – although he did little of real quality to suggest he’ll be a reliable starter for the rest of the season.

Bukayo Saka (£6.8m) ought to have scored with the goal gaping, meanwhile, so we sit here writing this knowing that a few millimeters was the difference between an unsettling blank and faith-renewing haul.

The remaining fixtures for the Gunners are OK enough without popping off the page, so there is a valid question to be asked over whether the likes of Aaron Ramsdale (£5.1m) are still the attractive proposition they once were with a makeshift backline and being short of a striker who can actually convert the many chances created.

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