FPL review: Haaland and Foden hit hat-tricks, Guardiola on rotation

The Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from Sunday’s fixtures are covered in this latest Scout Notes article.

A statistical summary of Sunday’s Gameweek 9 action can be found here.

The numbers you see in this piece are from our Premium Members area, where you can access Opta player and team data for every single Premier League fixture.

MANCHESTER CITY 6-3 MANCHESTER UNITED

Erling Haaland’s (£12.1m) third consecutive hat-trick in a Premier League home game helped Manchester City secure a thumping 6-3 derby win on Sunday.

The Norwegian – captained by over 5.6 million FPL managers – didn’t stop there, however, adding a pair of assists and maximum bonus, with his 23-point haul the highest by any player in a Gameweek so far this season, beating the 22 of Roberto Firmino (£7.9m) v Bournemouth.

“I say it many times and I will say again – what Erling is doing he did in Norway, Austria and Germany. The quality we have alongside him helps him score, but what he is doing I didn’t teach him. He has incredible instincts. It comes from his mum and dad. He was born with that.

What I like was in the last period of the game, he was involved. I want him to be involved. He became a player to score goals, but I want him in contact with the ball. I like him being part of those situations. But of course, he has to put the ball in the net, and he is a fantastic striker.” – Pep Guardiola on Erling Haaland

While Kevin De Bruyne (£12.3m), Phil Foden (£8.0m) and Jack Grealish (£6.8m) were withdrawn after 75 minutes, with the points already in the bag, Haaland lasted the full 90 for the third successive league outing.

However, Pep Guardiola did say he would rest his number nine, but only when the time is right.

For FPL managers, that would ideally be on Wednesday, for City’s UEFA Champions League clash with FC Copenhagen.

“He will take a break. There will be games he is not going to play. We are lucky, last season he could not play many games in a row – here we have incredible physios and thanks to them, he can play every 90 minutes. They are so important – with their hands, they allow players to play.” – Pep Guardiola on Erling Haaland

Foden, meanwhile, scored his first treble for City and is now up to third in the midfielder standings, just two points behind De Bruyne. He’s also registered 14 shots in the box – only Haaland has more among teammates – and has started each of City’s eight league fixtures in 2022/23.

“Phil in reality, is still a young lad, but he played important games in the last years with us. Not just the quality he has, you see how he runs, how he presses, the intensity he does it. Last season he played many games as a striker, at the end he will be play as an attacking midfielder. Close to the box he has incredible sense.” – Pep Guardiola on Phil Foden

It’s worth noting that the front three of Foden, Grealish and Haaland have now started three of the last four matches for City, against Sevilla, Wolverhampton Wanderers, and now, Man Utd.

In those fixtures, the Citizens have scored a whopping 13 goals, of which the trio have netted 12.

“It works well for today but we have Riyad [Mahrez], we’re waiting for him to come back to his best. There are many games. The next game against Copenhagen we are going to rotate the team. Kalvin [Phillips] is injured for a long time, Rodri I don’t know when he comes back, he has a calf problem.” – Pep Guardiola

At the back, Aymeric Laporte’s £5.8m) return after 75 minutes is important, given that John Stones (£5.4m) and Rodri (£5.8m) are both injured, while Kyle Walker (£5.0m) was also forced off in the first-half.

Nathan Ake (£5.0m) and Manuel Akanji (£5.0m), meanwhile, were surprisingly preferred to Ruben Dias (£6.0m) at centre-back, with the Portuguese an unused substitute.

As for Man Utd, they will want to forget this result, but there were a couple of positive performances by Antony (£7.5m) and Anthony Martial (£6.9m).

The former has now scored in back-to-back Premier League matches, while Martial’s brace from the bench means that he has registered three attacking returns in just 76 minutes of Premier League action this season.

As a result, the Frenchman will be pushing for a start in Gameweek 10, when Man Utd meet Everton at Goodison Park.

“He [Anthony Martial] had a really good pre-season and I’m happy for him that he scored the goals. And also for Antony that he scored a goal [too]. And we had some more opportunities which we created. But in this moment I cannot express for the outside world the positives. We are highly disappointed for this result and that has to be the tone for this Sunday. We have to accept that but our performance is unacceptable.” – Erik ten Hag

Manchester City XI: Ederson; Walker (Gomez 41), Akanji, Ake, Cancelo; Gundogan (Laporte 75), De Bruyne (Alvarez 75), Bernardo; Foden (Mahrez 75), Grealish (Palmer 75), Haaland

Manchester United XI: de Gea; Dalot, Varane (Lindelof 40), Martinez, Malacia (Shaw 45); McTominay (Casemiro 59), Eriksen; Antony, Fernandes, Sancho (Fred 70); Rashford (Martial 59)

LEEDS UNITED 0-0 ASTON VILLA

10-man Leeds United held on to draw 0-0 with Aston Villa in a low-quality and often ill-tempered clash at Elland Road.

The main talking point from an FPL perspective was Luis Sinisterra’s (£6.5m) red card.

The Colombian went into the contest full of confidence after three goals on international duty but was handed his marching orders in the second-half after receiving two yellow cards. As a result, he will now sit out Gameweek 10, when Leeds United travel to Selhurst Park.

“Obviously going a man down wasn’t ideal. We worked on some ‘man down’ tactics in the time we had in the last four weeks and I think it was valuable. We started with four at the back and felt we were maybe giving away too much at the back post and on the wide spaces so switched to a 5-3-1. I thought the team were pretty clear with what we wanted in the match and then we fought like hell. What we know about our team, our club, is that we fight like lions. Even when our backs our down we’ll give everything we have and you saw that mentality today. In the first half I think if we’re a little more assertive in the match then we can find a way to maybe take a lead in the match. But overall it’s a good clean sheet and a good result.” – Jesse Marsch

On a more positive note, Rodrigo (£6.3m) did at least return from injury, lasting 68 minutes, before he was replaced by Patrick Bamford (£7.3m).

Both sides had chances to win it with Illan Meslier (£4.5m) the busier of the two ‘keepers, saving from Ollie Watkins (£7.2m) and Philippe Coutinho (£6.7m).

However, they suffered from a lack of quality in the final-third, a theme that has been apparent for Villa throughout the season so far.

Indeed, Steven Gerrard’s side have scored just six goals in eight league matches in 2022/23 – only West Ham United and Wolves have netted fewer.

“I’m scratching my head and I’m frustrated and I’m sure my attacking players will be as well because we created more than enough to win this match. We came here to frustrate Leeds and maybe we would have taken the point before the game but we could have had three. It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t question my attacking players and I need more quality. We have had 19 shots on goal and 12 inside the area so we need to be better. Leeds defended well and dug in and you would expect that but we created more than enough and it was that last bit that was missing. If we had found that we would have been happy. 

At times Leeds wanted to go to war and we did that. We frustrated Leeds and the crowd. When our moments came we got the ball into the right areas and to the people we wanted to but it didn’t happen. We need more goals. We need our attacking players to step forward and be more ruthless. That tally [six goals so far] is not enough at this stage of the season and we know where we want to go. We keep working and putting the sessions on and rehearsing the moments that will come their way. We have improved slightly defensively and we need to continue that but we need to keep creating these moments and hopefully our players will gobble them up. It feels like we dropped two points today and we missed an opportunity to take two more points and move into the middle of the league.” – Steven Gerrard

Villa also have growing problems at the back, with Ludwig Augustinsson (£4.3m) joining Diego Carlos (£4.8m), Matty Cash (£4.6m), Lucas Digne (£4.7m) and Boubacar Kamara (£4.9m) on the sidelines.

The reserve left-back will now be sent for a scan on his hamstring, with Gerrard saying “It doesn’t look good“.

Leeds United XI: Meslier; Kristensen (Ayling 68), Koch, Cooper, Struijk; Adams, Roca (Firpo 58); Harrison (Summerville 79), Aaronson (Klich 79), Sinisterra; Rodrigo (Bamford 68)

Aston Villa XI: Martinez; Young, Konsa, Mings, Augustinsson; Luiz, Ramsey (Ings 83), McGinn; Bailey (Buendia 64), Coutinho, Watkins