Our write-ups of the Gameweek 8 action continue with the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from Saturday’s fixtures.
The numbers you see in this article are from our Premium Members area, where you can access Opta player and team data for every single Premier League fixture.
- READ MORE: FPL review: Haaland and Foden hit hat-tricks, Guardiola on rotation
- READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 9: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus and statistics
- READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 9: Sunday’s goals, assists, bonus and statistics
MITROVIC INJURY LATEST
Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.9m) limped out of Fulham’s defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday, lasting only 37 minutes of the 10-man Cottagers’ 4-1 loss after failing to shake off a knock.
Marco Silva said it was “too early” to know how serious the problem is, with further assessment to follow.
The Fulham manager also suggested it was a recurrence of the issue he had while away on international duty with Serbia.
“Too early, we have to assess him, of course.
“The situation with Mitro, [we didn’t know if he] will be or not in his best physical condition. Yesterday we assessed him and we was OK to play.
“He got a knock in the first game with the national team. It’s in the foot.” – Marco Silva on Aleksandar Mitrovic
The historically profligate Miguel Almiron (£5.1m) scored a brace in Newcastle’s thumping win – that’s as many strikes as he had in his previous 37 league appearances – and Callum Wilson (£7.2m) made it 29 attacking returns in 48 Premier League appearances for the Magpies with a point-blank range opening goal that will distort expected goals (xG) numbers considerably.
Above: Wilson’s tap-in moved him to fourth among forwards for minutes per xG
Kieran Trippier (£5.5m) consolidated third spot in the FPL defenders’ points table, managing to bank clean sheet points when being substituted before Fulham’s late consolation.
There were starts for two sub-£4.5m midfielders, meanwhile, with Sean Longstaff (£4.4m) and Jacob Murphy (£4.3m) part of the visitors’ line-up. Longstaff was only in the side due to substitute Joelinton‘s (£6.0m) knee injury, however, while Murphy will be the likely makeweight when Allan Saint-Maximin (£6.4m) returns.
“Hopefully, Allan will be back next weekend. It’s always difficult to give a guarantee, but he did train with the team yesterday and trained well.
“For me, it was too early to involve him. We need to make sure that when he comes back, he’s fit enough to do himself and the team justice. Hopefully, with a good training week under his belt, he could be close.” – Eddie Howe
We can’t really take too many lessons away from this game, in truth, with Nathaniel Chalobah‘s (£4.4m) eighth-minute red card killing the game as a contest. Fulham were also short of several regulars through injury.
LIVERPOOL’S DEFENCE
Of great interest to owners of Arsenal’s attacking assets will be Liverpool’s current plight at the back.
The shots conceded count may have only said six but Brighton had as many ‘big chances’ (opportunities that Opta say a player “should reasonably be expected to score”) at Anfield on Saturday.
Personnel shortage can’t really be blamed now – only Andrew Robertson (£6.7m) of the regular back eight was injured yesterday – but Klopp admitted that confidence was an issue at present.
“To be 100 per cent honest, it is not the first time that we saw a similar situation. Maybe the amount of situations we saw was a bit different, where the ball was kicked high and different situations, but that’s a sign for something – and the sign is that the confidence level is now not extraordinarily high. In our situation, the things you want to have, getting the confidence back, you want to keep it and increase it.
“We should have defended all three goals better, there is no doubt about that, but in different areas; not in the last moment, already earlier we should have defended better. They scored, 3-3, and that feels again like a defeat even when it is not a defeat. We have to fight through this. The boys can play much better, my job is to create a situation where they deliver. For that you need stability and consistency and you get that with top defending and obviously we didn’t defend top in the beginning and then not even during the game [because] there were other situations and they were really dangerous.” – Jurgen Klopp
Trent Alexander-Arnold‘s (£7.4m) latest below-par performance earned him a 3/10 from the Liverpool Echo. He’s still second among FPL defenders for xGI this season but slightly concerning is the fact that the usually prolific chance creator has supplied only two opportunities in his last three outings. When you add in the collective leakiness at the back and the next two fixtures (Arsenal away and Man City at home), it’s easy to see why many are – temporarily at least – losing faith.
Saturday was slightly more the Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) of old despite him banking only one assist, with the Egyptian getting off more shots (five) than he had managed in any other Gameweek this season.
He also received fewer passes on the touchline and more of them in the half-spaces closer to the box – something to do with Darwin Nunez (£8.8m) being benched, perhaps.
Above: Salah’s passes received heatmaps in Gameweek 9 (left) and Gameweek 6 (right)
Darwin, Diogo Jota (£8.9m) and Luis Diaz (£8.2m) were all on the bench after returning from international duty either with small issues or just plain late in Diaz’s case, with two-goal Roberto Firmino (£7.9m) starting in their stead and quietly drawing level with Jesus in the FPL points table.
TROSSARD TREBLE
Second among FPL midfielders for points is Leandro Trossard (£6.7m), who scored a superb hat-trick on Merseyside.
Trossard has now delivered nine goals, five assists and 106 points (at a superb 8.2 points per game) in his last 13 appearances, with his stationing as a very advanced left wing-back or, as was the case today, as a more central support striker scarcely seeming to matter.
One word of warning: no midfielder is ‘overachieving’ on the xG front more than the Belgian, while history tells us he won’t keep scoring with 29.4% of his shots (as is now the case this season).
But Roberto De Zerbi’s reputation as an attack-minded coach could really solidify Albion’s midfielders and forwards as legitimate mid-price targets: Trossard alone had four big chances at Anfield, with Danny Welbeck (£6.5m) spurning another two.
“When he [Trossard] was in the [Belgium] national team I sent a message to him and I told him he needs to increase the number of his goals and I think he made me happy!
“When I say he can do even better it is not because I am not happy about his game today because I consider him to be a great, great, great player.” – Roberto De Zerbi
“[Roberto De Zerbi] tried to work a lot already this week on the technical stuff. You could see how passionate he is and I think we will have some good times with him.” – Leandro Trossard
XHAKA’S THREAT
Granit Xhaka (£5.1m) trails only nine other FPL midfielders for points, with his goal in the north London derby taking him to five attacking returns in eight starts – that’s exactly what the most-owned midfielder in the game, Gabriel Martinelli (£6.6m), has registered in 2022/23.
Xhaka racked up five penalty box touches, three shots and one key pass in Gameweek 9, and this is just a continuation of the much-improved attacking numbers that he’s been posting this season.
We’ve written at some length about his role in this exciting Arsenal side, with ‘inverted full-back’ Oleksandr Zinchenko‘s (£5.1m) cover in central midfield allowing Xhaka to bomb forward much more than we’re used to seeing. Granted, he doesn’t pose the same goal threat that Martinelli or Gabriel Jesus (£8.0m) does and is considerably outperforming his expected goal involvement (xGI), but he’s still noticeably present in or around the opposition area whenever the Gunners go forward and has even recorded more penalty box touches than Martin Odegaard (£6.5m) this season – not bad for a £5.1m option.
| Xhaka in 2021/22 | Xhaka in 2022/23 | |
| Pen box touches | 1.4 | 3.8 |
| Shots in box | 0.4 | 0.8 |
| Big chances | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| Chances created | 1.2 | 1.9 |
(all stats per game)
Jesus, sold by more FPL managers than any other player in Gameweek 9, found the net and avoided a fifth booking of the season. He seemed to be limping at full-time, having taken a knock in the second half, but there was no report of any injury after the match.
Arsenal players probably won’t be being bought in great numbers given that a Gameweek 12 blank looms but whether to sell existing in-form assets before then is another question, with Gameweek 10 opponents Liverpool in defensive disarray and Leeds United to follow.
CHANCE FOR DOHERTY?
Emerson Royal’s (£5.1m) red card in the north London derby means that he’ll miss the next three Premier League matches through suspension. Might this open up Matt Doherty (£4.6m) as a short-term FPL punt, particularly for Gameweek 13 Wildcarders?
We should say straight away that Antonio Conte has played Ivan Perisic (£5.6m) on the right flank already this season, although Doherty’s struggle for match fitness – something he built on over the international break with the Republic of Ireland – was part of the reason for that.
With a rested Emerson now presumably set to start the Champions League matches either side of Gameweek 10 and Perisic and Ryan Sessegnon (£4.5m) likely to be sharing game-time on the opposite flank in this busy period, Doherty could get a belated chance to impress in the next three Gameweeks.
Spurs’ attacking assets didn’t get much of a sniff on Saturday (even before the dismissal), with their first-half penalty owing a lot to some self-sabotage from Arsenal. Son Heung-min (£11.7m) didn’t register a single shot or penalty box touch, in fact, although a trip to Brighton in Gameweek 10 could provide more openings if De Zerbi continues with a front-foot approach.
Harry Kane (£11.4m) meanwhile avoided a blank for the seventh straight match and is now leading the battle of the ‘other’ premiums behind Erling Haaland (£12.1m).
CUCURELLA-LESS CHELSEA
After all the analysis of Chelsea’s 3-5-2 and Raheem Sterling (£10.0m) as a gung-ho wing-back in Graham Potter’s first match in charge, the former Brighton boss opted for a back four at Selhurst Park this weekend – with Sterling on the right.
Marc Cucurella‘s (£5.1m) absence through illness was likely key to this tactical change, however, so there’s every chance that we could a reversion to a wing-back system in Gameweek 10 if Cucurella is fit enough to resume his hybrid centre-half/left-back role against Wolves.
“We lost Marc [Cucurella] and we also felt a back four would be better for us. So that was the thinking. You need to be careful with change because things have to be consistent. How we play is consistent but at the same time, we have 12 matches in six-and-a-bit weeks, so it will be difficult to keep consistency in terms of selection.
“We have to stay open-minded but we need some consistency in how it looks and what we are trying to do on the pitch. But at the same time, we have to pick a team we think can win.” – Graham Potter
Sterling was quieter but still wasn’t beaten by any team-mate for shots or chances created on Saturday, so the omens still look fairly positive for the England international under the new regime.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£9.0m) and his extortionate FPL price tag got the equaliser in south London before substitute Conor Gallagher (£5.7m) came back to haunt his old club.
Chelsea lost a clean sheet for the sixth straight match but did keep Palace down to very few clear openings outside of Odsonne Edouard’s (£5.3m) opener, with budget picks Wesley Fofana (£4.4m) and Kepa Arrizabalaga (£4.4m) part of the Blues backline.
It’s still too early to say whether either player will become reliable first-team selections under Potter, especially in Kepa’s case given that Edouard Mendy (£4.9m) is out injured at present.
“I thought he did really well. He made a couple of big saves but also, his distribution in terms of his decision-making was really strong. You need players to step up and perform and Kepa did that today. So I am really happy for him.” – Graham Potter on Kepa
GORDON BENCHED
Anthony Gordon (£5.6m) was surprisingly named among the substitutes for Everton’s 2-1 win over Southampton but Frank Lampard explained after the match that fitness issues, and not form, was the reason for the winger’s demotion.
“Anthony has not been well. He missed training on Thursday. He trained on Friday and didn’t look right. He tried to tell me he was right, but I knew he wasn’t!
“Anthony is playing well, but we had to protect him. You want energy from your wingers and we got that from Dwight and Demarai Gray.” – Frank Lampard
Everton have now gone six games without conceding more than one goal in a match and remarkably are now the division’s meanest defence when it comes to goals against (seven), so it may be time to reconsider whether the Toffees are a favourable opponent for attackers in FPL; Spurs face Lampard’s side in Gameweek 11. Jordan Pickford‘s (£4.5m) form is a big part of that recent success, however, and his heroics over the last six matches are underscored in the expected goals conceded (xGC) delta table below:
Southampton, by contrast, are still without a clean sheet in 2022/23, despite themselves being one of the better teams for xGC over the last six.
The biggest issue with Saints right now is that Ralph Hasenhuttl is failing to find the right balance between attack and defence with his young squad, and falling short with the former in particular. He made six changes to his starting XI for the loss to Everton, with budget defender Juan Larios López (£4.0m) among those handed starts, but boos once again greeted the hosts at the full-time whistle.
“We are convinced about what we have done today. I think it was clear and I was not unhappy with the shape as it worked. We had a good ball win with Joe and a fantastic pass to Che and the chance for the second goal.
“The difference between these two teams today was the clinical finishing that they had and we didn’t have.” – Ralph Hasenhuttl
SOLID BOURNEMOUTH?
Since Scott Parker left Bournemouth, the Cherries are unbeaten, have kept two clean sheets and have shipped just three goals. Only Everton (two) have conceded on fewer occasions than the south coast side (three) in their last four fixtures.
Wolves, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle and the Bees isn’t the toughest run, however, and the Cherries are still 14th for xGC when clubs are filtered by their last four matches.
Gary O’Neil’s troops reduced Brentford to just one ‘big chance’ on Saturday, with Ivan Toney (£7.3m) wasting it late on. No Premier League player had more shots than Toney this weekend (six) but the Bees could muster just 0.87 xG in total.
Speaking of ‘expected goals’, it was another struggle for Dominic Solanke (£5.7m) in attack. While the penalty-taking striker’s owners were left ruing the failure of the match officials to award at least one of the two spot-kick shouts that Bournemouth had, there was precious little else created by the Cherries.
Solanke now has the third-worst minutes-per-xG figure of FPL forwards.
BOWEN BACK?
After seven successive blanks, Jarrod Bowen (£8.1m) opened his 2022/23 account with a double-digit haul. His first attacking return of the campaign was hugely fortunate, it should be said, with Opta deeming that he had recorded a blocked shot before Gianluca Scamacca (£6.7m) lashed home the game’s opening strike.
Bowen took West Ham’s second goal well and he’ll have ample chances to add to his tally in the next four Gameweeks, with even Liverpool not a formidable foe based on what we discussed above.
Just to underscore how favourable fixtures can induce good form, Bowen’s two best Gameweeks for shots in the box, chances created and xGI this season have been Gameweeks 8 and 9.
Scamacca is also on the FPL radar but the rotation risk with Michail Antonio (£7.2m), involvement in Europe and his fitness levels (he again only just made it past the 60-minute mark) are black marks against him at present.
“We’re looking forward to him, we’re still trying to get used to him, we’re still trying to use and integrate him. With his all-round fitness, to go 90 minutes in the Premier League, we’ve still got a long way to go and that is part of bringing him on and trying to get him correct.” – David Moyes on Gianluca Scamacca
Sinking down the watchlist is Vladimir Coufal (£4.4m), who missed out on the Hammers’ second clean sheet of the season after being replaced at right-back by Thilo Kehrer (£4.5m).
It’s not worth analysing Wolves’ display in too much depth as they’ll have a new manager at the helm in Gameweek 10 after Bruno Lage’s Sunday-afternoon sacking.
It’s clear why he’s been dismissed: Wolves have scored fewer goals (three) than any other Premier League team this season.
Diego Costa (£5.5m) made his debut as a second-half substitute and, considering his price in FPL, it’ll be interesting to see how much of a tune the incoming head coach can get out of the veteran Spaniard.
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1 year, 7 months agoRIP non Haaland Cappers.