Our write-ups of the Gameweek 13 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.
LIVERPOOL’S AWAY-DAY BLUES
Six days after beating the reigning champions 1-0, Liverpool lost by the same scoreline to the side that went into Gameweek 13 bottom of the Premier League table. “One step forward, one back. Rinse, repeat” was how Ian Doyle described the Reds in the Liverpool Echo but the form on the road has been consistently bad, with a first away league win of 2022/23 yet to be registered.
The defence is a big concern: in Liverpool’s last six matches, they rank 19th for expected goals conceded (xGC). Some tough opponents can partly explain that but they’ve also conceded a combined 3.43 xG to the limited attacks of Nottingham Forest and Everton.
Above: Last six matches
Injuries aren’t helping and perhaps the harsh scheduling can be some mitigation this week, with the five starting XI changes made today resulting in a disjointed display.
Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.2m) was among the players benched for this one and it’ll be worth checking on minutes played against Ajax in midweek, as another tight turnaround (Wednesday-Saturday-Tuesday, highlighted in white in Legomane’s graphic below) could result in some teamsheet carnage in Gameweek 14.
The ‘lunchtime kick-off curse’ bested ‘he’s better centrally’ in the battle of the hackneyed Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) narratives, and the Egyptian has now blanked in more games than not in 2022/23. Salah was used through the middle in Klopp’s 4-4-2 but despite the position change the Egyptian was peripheral and lacked a spark.
Peripheral for Salah still means four shots in the box and eight penalty area touches, it should be said, totals that weren’t beaten by any other player on Saturday. And a bad day at the office for Liverpool still saw them register four big chances, to lend some perspective.
DARWIN INJURY UPDATE
One player not involved at the City Ground was Darwin Nunez (£8.8m), whose precautionary substitution in midweek turned out to be something a little bit more.
The silver lining for his owners and Liverpool is that he should be back for Gameweek 14, when Leeds come calling at Anfield.
“So, as I said, Thiago got a bad ear infection last night and there was no chance for him to do anything. We drove him home. Darwin should be back [on Wednesday], this game was just too early. I think another day recovery would have helped him, but we played today. At least that is my knowledge in the moment. Ibou will train from tomorrow on and Naby as well, but Naby is far off so he starts training now after a long period.” – Jurgen Klopp
HAALAND FIRST ON PENS?
Erling Haaland (£12.2m) being on penalties may not seem like news, considering that he scored from the spot in Gameweek 1, but today was the first time that Manchester City had won a spot-kick with both the Norwegian and erstwhile first-choice Riyad Mahez (£7.5m) on the field.
It was Haaland who stepped up to despatch the penalty against Brighton after Bernardo Silva (£6.9m) had been felled, doubling his tally for the day after he had earlier barrelled through the visiting defence to latch onto an Ederson (£5.4m) punt.
It could still be a job-share, it could still be ‘whoever fancies it on the day’. But today’s events, coupled with Mahrez’s miss in the Champions League earlier this month, bode well for yet another route to points for FPL’s runaway leading point scorer.
Haaland has now plundered 17 league goals this season, more than any City player managed in the whole of 2021/22.
INSCRUTABLE PEP
Rotation isn’t usually a shock when it comes to Pep Guardiola but after a midweek blank and a week’s rest, most of us were expecting all of the regulars to feature against Brighton.
Cue a benching for Phil Foden (£8.3m), FPL’s most-bought player of Gameweek 13, and little explanation from his manager about why.
“I choose for Riyad [Mahrez] and Jack [Grealish].” – Pep Guardiola asked why he has dropped Phil Foden to the bench
Mahrez’s poor display on the right flank was at least some consolation, with Foden replacing him on the hour.
Elsewhere, Bernardo jumped to second in the Premier League assist table by setting up two goals (one of which was the penalty), while Kevin De Bruyne (£12.3m) scored only his second goal of the campaign with a late curler.
FOREST AND BRIGHTON POSITIVITY
Most of the Fantasy interest centred around Liverpool and Manchester City in the matches we’ve just covered but there were positives for both Nottingham Forest and Brighton and Hove Albion.
With Forest, Steve Cooper finally seems to be settling down with a core group of first-teamers and a 4-3-3 set-up. Budget defender Neco Williams (£4.1m) remains a part of Cooper’s plans and he has now delivered back-to-back clean sheets after a poor start to 2022/23.
As we pointed out in the Wildcard articles last week, Forest’s defensive numbers are moving in the right direction, too:
Above: Gameweek 1-6 (left), Gameweek 7-12 (right)
Luck had to be ridden against Liverpool, with Virgil van Dijk (£6.4m) spurning some big chances, but most of the Reds’ threat came from set plays and they are arguably the best team in the division for that.
As for Brighton, they played a big part in the contest at the Etihad and Leandro Trossard (£6.8m), inevitably, scored after blanking in a much more favourable Gameweek 12 fixture.
Despite facing Liverpool, Spurs and City in Roberto De Zerbi’s first five matches in charge, the Seagulls are top-seven material for minutes per xG and xGC since the managerial change. Actually putting the ball in the net – and not good underlying numbers – has long been Albion’s problem, of course.
CREATIVE IWOBI
The battle of the Season Ticker top two looked hard to call before kick-off but ended up being one-sided, despite the shot totals matching.
Both the ‘big chance’ count and the score read 3-0 to the hosts, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£7.9m) scoring his first goal of the season and encouragingly stringing together back-to-back starts after his prolonged fitness woes. The striker entered FPL folklore in 2020/21 so has pedigree along with short-term good fixtures but the price tag remains on the extortionate side and we’ll need to see further proof that he can stay injury-free after so long on the sidlelines.
The impressive Alex Iwobi (£5.5m) collected his fourth and fifth assists of the season and is now joint-sixth among midfielders for chances created, although he is outperforming his expected assists (xA) count by quite some margin. He’s also yet to have a single shot in the box in 2022/23 but a tactical tweak from Frank Lampard on Saturday saw him move to a more advanced no. 10 role, and he had more penalty box touches than any other Everton player on show.
On the subject of all things expected goals, you may have noticed that Anthony Gordon (£5.4m) topped the xGI table for the day. Some context here is needed, however: he had only one shot in the box and it happened to be a tap-in into an empty net, with the xG from that effort alone more than anyone else has managed in Gameweek 13 so far.
There was more away-day misery for Palace, who like Liverpool are winless on the road this season – although trips to Anfield, the Etihad and St. James’ Park aren’t straightforward.
Their next game against Southampton looks appealing but two more away matches then follow before the World Cup break.
“It’s something we have to look at but again we aren’t going to throw everything away. It was a bad day today and we have to keep working hard.” – Patrick Vieira on Palace’s away form
UNITED THEY STAND
A veritable game of chess played out at Stamford Bridge in the late kick-off, minus the anal beads.
The match went to and fro as Graham Potter and Erik ten Hag tweaked and tinkered tactically, with a one-all draw about the right result.
Casemiro‘s (£4.9m) late looping header denied budget options Kepa Arrizabalaga (£4.5m) and Trevoh Chalobah (£4.7m) a fourth straight clean sheet, and Kepa was indeed poised for a double-digit haul before the agonising late equaliser.
“I thought he was fantastic, got better and better, grew into the game. He is playing such a lot as well. It’s not easy with [Marcus] Rashford making runs in behind constantly, he’s got incredible pace. So I thought Trevoh did really well.” – Graham Potter on Trevoh Chalobah
While Chelsea’s short-term fixtures remain a mixed bag, United’s ticker-topping schedule looks pretty good over the next six Gameweeks – although that run is, of course, dissected by a World Cup break and unlimited FPL transfers.
Antony (£7.6m) continues to look a threat even when not at his best and he spurned a great opportunity in west London to break the deadlock. Looking back at Antony’s last six matches (which stretches back to his debut), Salah is the only midfielder who has had more goal attempts:
Above: Last six matches
United look like they are a fit striker away from being a very good team, with Marcus Rashford (£6.6m) better on the flank in the disappointing Jadon Sancho’s (£7.3m) spot, Anthony Martial (£6.7m) perma-crocked and Cristiano Ronaldo (£10.2m) on borrowed time.
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