FPL notes: Saka delivers best-ever FPL return, Saliba injury latest

We assess the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from Arsenal v Crystal Palace in the final Scout Notes article from Blank Gameweek 28.

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

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Bukayo Saka (£8.6m) scored twice and provided an assist to help Arsenal extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table to eight points.

In an electric display, the winger’s cross found Gabriel Martinelli (£6.6m) for the opener, before making it 2-0 with an assured finish from Ben White’s (£4.7m) pass. He then added a second on 74 minutes, earning him his best-ever return in FPL with an 18-point haul.

Such is his consistency, Saka now has 23 attacking returns (12 goals, 11 assists) in the Premier League this season – only Erling Haaland (£12.0m) and Harry Kane (£11.8m) have more (see below). He also becomes the first player to reach both 10+ goals and 10+ assists in the Premier League this season.

“He was disappointed not to get a hat-trick. That is what we need. We need our front players firing and making the difference and today they did that again.” – Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka

Still, it’s Martinelli who is Arsenal’s top-scoring player over the last five Gameweeks, with six goals and 49 FPL points – five more than Saka – served up.

“The reaction he had after missing a penalty [on Thursday]. There is always the question, but I asked him yesterday how he was and he said: ‘I want to be in the team’.” – Mikel Arteta on Gabriel Martinelli

Meanwhile, William Saliba (£5.3m) had played every minute of Arsenal’s Premier League season before Sunday but missed out after picking up a back injury in the UEFA Europa League defeat by Sporting CP. According to reports in France, he will pull out of the national squad for the upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers.

His replacement, Rob Holding (£4.2m), struggled at the start, with Palace looking to exploit his side, but he became more comfortable as the match went on.

However, Jeffrey Schlupp (£4.7m) wiped out Arsenal’s clean sheet from a dead-ball situation, and it’s striking that the Gunners have started to concede quite a few goals from corners and set-pieces this year, something Mikel Arteta mentioned after the game.

“We hope Willy [Saliba] is going to be better news but we have to wait till tomorrow to understand a better picture.” – Mikel Arteta on William Saliba

“Yeah, I am not happy with that. Again it is from a set-piece. We need to improve that.” – Mikel Arteta on conceding

Elsewhere, White was excellent on the overlap and a constant threat down Arsenal’s right, working perfectly in tandem with Saka. In his last three appearances, he has a goal and an assist. He also beats Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.2m) over the last six matches in metrics such as crosses, penalty box touches and expected assists (xA). Mikel Arteta said positional rival Takehiro Tomiyasu‘s (£4.2m) injury is “not looking good, that’s for sure.”

Crystal Palace are still without a win in 2023 after their latest loss in north London.

However, if looking for positives, they did at least end the mini-goal drought they had been on, with Schlupp’s goal their first since Gameweek 24.

They will probably have a new manager in place by Gameweek 29, too, who will at least have much easier fixtures after the international break.

In their first game without Patrick Vieira, they made three changes from the side that began the 1-0 loss to Brighton and Hove Albion on Wednesday, as Joel Ward (£4.4m), James Tomkins (£3.9m) and Luka Milivojevic (£4.2m) replaced Nathaniel Clyne (£4.5m), Joachim Andersen (£4.5m) – who was injured in the warm-up – and Albert Sambi Lokonga (£4.3m). That meant 19-year-old goalkeeper Joe Whitworth (£4.0m) was again in goal.

“He felt his calf in the warm-up. We had to make a late change, which unsettled us somewhat but I thought Tomkins came in and did well. We just had to get on with it.” – Paddy McCarthy on Joachim Andersen’s injury

Despite the scoreline, Palace did threaten at the Emirates.

Wilfried Zaha (£7.2m) hit the post and tested Aaron Ramsdale (£4.9m) with a decent shot, while Odsonne Edouard (£5.0m) also missed a good one-on-one opportunity.

However, their finishing let them down, a familiar problem: their tally of 22 goals in the top-flight is the joint-worst alongside Nottingham Forest, Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

“There are lots of positives to take, definitely. The scoreline obviously doesn’t suggest that but I thought there was fight in the team, there was creativity in the team. We had two early chances – Ramsdale makes a great save, we hit the post. Even when we went down we were able to create in moments. But this is high-quality opposition. They are top for a reason. I can’t fault the lads’ effort. They are a good group and they have to believe in themselves. they have more than enough to win games at this level. At 3-1 we created a chance through Wilfried and then they go and score an offside goal which is a little bit of a gut punch.

The players have had a lot thrown at them. In the week, there was a little bit of illness going around. Obviously there was the situation with the manager on Thursday so a quick turnaround. It is probably a time when we need to get together, regroup and see what happens going forward. Whatever happens, this group has more than enough.” – Crystal Palace caretaker manager Paddy McCarthy