FPL review: Brighton fail to score again, unplayable Zaha

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

The graphics below are taken from LiveFPL and our own Premium Members area, where you can access Opta player and team data for every single Premier League fixture.

Brighton’s winless run under new boss Roberto De Zerbi continued in Gameweek 12, as they failed to score for the third consecutive match. In an absolutely textbook performance, Albion dominated and had plenty of efforts on goal, yet there was no end product, like at Brentford on Friday.

“In my experience in the Premier League it’s not the first time my team play like this and we can’t win. I don’t want to speak about whether it’s unfair or unlucky. I say thanks to the players. Today I enjoyed a lot. I watched a very fantastic game. We shoot 20 times, we have a lot of chances. We have to work in the last 20 metres to choose the best solution. We have to attack the space better, to work in the last pass.” – Roberto De Zerbi

Leandro Trossard (£6.9m), now owned by over 20 per cent of managers, lined up at left wing-back in De Zerbi’s 3-4-2-1, but carried a threat, often cutting inside onto his stronger right foot. The Belgian saw a powerful effort rattle the crossbar and was twice denied by good saves from Dean Henderson (£4.7m).

Above: Brighton’s average position map v Nottingham Forest in Gameweek 12. Number 11, Leandro Trossard, accumulated more final-third touches (44) than any player from either side

Their defence, meanwhile, has now kept four clean sheets this season – only Manchester City have more (five). In three of those matches, Lewis Dunk (£4.6m) has received bonus.

However, owners of Brighton’s assets will now need to bench or sell them, with games against Man City and Chelsea to come.

As for Nottingham Forest, they showed good discipline at the back but no real quality in the final-third. They have only scored seven goals all season, with just one arriving in their last four matches.

A more reserved approach has seen them tighten up, however, with Neco Williams’ (£4.1m) owners celebrating an unlikely clean sheet in Gameweek 12. The Welshman’s attacking threat has dried up since Forest shifted to a 4-3-3, but his positional versatility was on show at the Amex, as he lined up at left-back until Serge Aurier (£4.5m) departed.

“Every point is valuable, so is a clean sheet and tonight the boys were warriors. Every man ran their socks off. I’m so proud of them all. We’ve conceded a lot of goals so far this season so the manager said we need to stop that and build on that foundation. In the last couple of games I haven’t been that busy but I was tonight.” – Dean Henderson

Brighton and Hove Albion XI: Sanchez; Veltman, Dunk, Webster; March, Mac Allister, Caicedo, Trossard; Gross (Undav 85), Lallana (Lamptey 64); Welbeck

Nottingham Forest XI: Henderson; Aurier (Toffolo 69, Biancone 86), Cook, McKenna, Williams; Yates, Freuler, Mangala (Kouyate 61); Gibbs-White, Lingard (Worrall 86), Johnson (Awoniyi 86)

In his past four league outings prior to Gameweek 12, Wilfried Zaha (£7.5m) hadn’t hit the heights his owners were probably expecting from him, delivering a solitary assist against Leeds United.

However, after the break on Tuesday, he was unplayable at times, with his well-taken winner capping Crystal Palace’s comeback.

At home, Zaha has now produced either a goal or assist in four of his six appearances, with 16 of his 21 shots inside the box arriving on home turf.

“I took it upon myself to move from left-wing and float a bit. It opened up room for Tyrick [Mitchell]. It made a confusion in their defence, who to go to, and that opened them up a bit.” – Wilfried Zaha

“In the second-half he [Zaha] came to play between the lines, he was a bit more central and that allowed him to combine with other players and that was better for us.” – Patrick Vieira

Above: Wilfried Zaha’s touch heatmap v Wolves in Gameweek 12 (left) and v Leicester City in Gameweek 11 (right)

Eberechi Eze (£5.6m) also impressed, as he produced his second double-figure haul in three matches. Just six of his 17 shots have arrived inside the box this season, yet it’s hard to argue against the value he is offering, given that he has also created 16 chances, more than any teammate.

For Wolves, they are now winless in 10 successive Premier League away matches.

At Selhurst Park, they handed two full debuts to Hugo Bueno (£3.9m) and Boubacar Traore (£4.5m), with the former producing an excellent assist for Adama Traore’s (£5.5m) opener. It remains to be seen if Bueno has done enough to keep his place, but if he can, he is one to monitor given his £3.9m price tag.

“We’d been talking about him [Adama Traore] getting to the back post. He’s doing that now. It [the goal] was the best move of the game for us. Excellent goal. It could have been different if we stated the second half better.

Hugo [Bueno] had a fantastic debut. He was excellent. He came as a kid from Spain as a 10 and we converted him to wing-back. Full-back today. Rayan [Ait-Nouri] was ill so we made a late situation change. He didn’t let anyone down.” – Steve Davis

Crystal Palace XI: Guaita; Ward, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell; Doucoure, Schlupp, Eze (Riedewald 90); Olise (Ayew 80), Zaha, Edouard (Mateta 81)

Wolverhampton Wanderers XI: Sa; Semedo, Collins, Kilman, Bueno; B Traore (Moutinho 58), Neves; A Traore (Guedes 58), Nunes (Hodge 58), Podence; Costa (Hwang 75)