Gameweek 18 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) kicked off on Friday evening, as Liverpool edged past Leicester City and Brentford beat West Ham United.
We’ve got the key quotes, notes and stats from both matches in our Scout Notes summary.
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 match.
It was a night to forget for Wout Faes (£4.5m), whose two own goals handed Liverpool a 2-1 win at Anfield.
The Reds have now won four Premier League games in a row, yet owners of Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) and Darwin Nunez (£9.0m) had to settle for a solitary assist and a combined seven points in Gameweek 18.
The pair served up a whopping 11 shots, including three big chances, but failed to find the net with any of them.
As for Darwin, he hasn’t scored since returning from the World Cup, despite racking up 1.83 xG across his two league outings. However, his interaction with Salah was encouraging and he did at least provide an assist, although owners may now be looking to move him on ahead of Monday’s Gameweek 19 deadline, with fellow forwards Aleksandar Mitrovic (£7.0m) and Kai Havertz (£7.8m) both involved in doubles.
Salah, meanwhile, had a goal ruled out for offside and missed a few good chances, one in particular after an excellent through ball from Darwin.
Elsewhere, Liverpool were vulnerable at the back and missed Fabinho’s (£5.3m) presence in midfield. They were carved open a number of times and lost their clean sheet after just four minutes when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£4.9m) finished past Alisson (£5.5m). As a result, the Reds have kept just four clean sheets in their 16 Premier League games this season, with only five sides keeping fewer.
“We’re here for results and that’s what we’ve done. The early goal wasn’t helpful, we lost balls at the wrong moments when we were too open but we had good spells and scored the two goals, or we forced them to score own goals, and we were much better in the second half, though they still had their moments. We have to take the result momentum but play better.” – Jurgen Klopp
Adding to their worries, Andrew Robertson (£6.8m) and Harvey Elliott (£5.0m) were both taken off injured, with Jurgen Klopp providing an update after full-time. At this stage, both players are early doubts for Monday’s trip to Brentford, given the tight turnaround.
“Funnily enough, Harvey, before the game, injured Robbo a little bit. In our warm-up game, he hit him with a knee at the hip, so it was a dead leg. He could play but then at one point the muscle closed and he couldn’t play on. Harvey got a knock, which was quite painful, but when you see the situation because it is clear that’s painful, but that’s it, I think.” – Jurgen Klopp on Andrew Robertson and Harvey Elliott
Prior to kick-off, Brendan Rodgers discussed James Maddison (£8.1m), with his knee injury set to be assessed in seven to 10 days. That will likely mean he misses Gameweek 19 and the FA Cup tie at Gillingham.
“They’ll hopefully see some progress over the next week. After seven to 10 days, we’ll see where he’s at in terms of re-joining the group.” – Brendan Rodgers on James Maddison
Liverpool XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold (Gomez 86), Matip, van Dijk, Robertson (Tsimikas 62), Henderson, Elliott (Bajcetic 86), Thiago, Salah, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Keita 62), Darwin
Leicester City XI: Ward, Castagne, Amartey, Faes, Thomas, Ndidi (Tielemans 59), Soumare, Perez (Iheanacho 71), Dewsbury-Hall, Barnes, Daka (Vardy 15)
Brentford cruised to a 2-0 win at West Ham United, but their night ended on a sour note with Ivan Toney (£7.5m) leaving the pitch on a stretcher after landing awkwardly.
Earlier, the 26-year-old had put the Bees ahead after the hosts failed to deal with a throw-in, before setting up Josh Dasilva (£4.2m) just before half-time.
As a result, Toney is now up to 12 league goals for the season – only Erling Haaland (£12.2m) and Harry Kane (£11.6m) have scored more. However, a serious-looking injury paired with a possible betting ban makes him a no-go for FPL managers right now, a real shame given that he is the best value forward in FPL.
“Of course, it didn’t look great, but I’ve also been in this game long enough to know that you never know exactly what it is until it’s been assessed over the following days. Hopefully it’s a minor injury, a minor thing, there’s a good chance for that, but of course it could be worse. We don’t know yet.” – Thomas Frank on Ivan Toney
The impact of Christian Norgaard (£5.3m), plus goalkeeper David Raya (£4.6m), is also worth noting. Since the former returned from injury in Gameweek 16, Brentford have taken seven points from Manchester City (a), Tottenham Hotspur (h) and West Ham (a). Raya, meanwhile, is up to second in the goalkeeper rankings, with his record of 75 saves first among Premier League shot-stoppers.
As for West Ham, they have now lost five consecutive Premier League games.
In Gameweek 18, David Moyes started out with a 3-4-2-1 formation with cheap defenders Vladimir Coufal (£4.1m) and Emerson Palmieri (£4.0m) lining up as wing-backs, before switching to a 4-4-2 in the second half.
The result, however, leaves Moyes on the brink, with just 13 goals scored all season.
“I don’t think it’s unfair, because I think the business we are in means that normally when you go five games where you’ve not won, you can always be under pressure. I totally get that. But you feel bad when you lose one, never mind two, never mind five.
Obviously, that is football, I understand that totally. I only want the best for West Ham because it’s been a great club for me and the club’s done well and we’ve sort of taken it into a little bit better of a place than I think it was before so I’m determined and sort of desperate to keep it there.
I don’t want it to go back down and get dragged back down, so I’m hoping that we can get ourselves away from where we are.” – David Moyes
West Ham United XI: Fabianski, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Coufal, Rice, Paqueta (Soucek 82), Emerson (Antonio 64), Bowen, Benrahma, Scamacca
Brentford XI: Raya, Zanka, Pinnock, Mee, Roerslev, Dasilva (Ghoddos 67), Norgaard, Jensen (Janelt 59), Henry, Toney (Jansson 90+5), Mbeumo (Wissa 58)
