Having already dissected Newcastle United’s win over Manchester United, we now turn our attention to the remaining four of Saturday’s Premier League games.
The key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from the matches at Arsenal, Brentford, Burnley and Nottingham Forest are covered in this Scout Notes article.
MBEUMO SUBBED OFF
After being talked up as a 90-minute man on these pages and beyond, Bryan Mbeumo (£7.1m) almost inevitably got the hook against Luton Town.
The winger was substituted after 77 minutes of Brentford’s 3-1 victory on Saturday, the first time he had been taken off in 2023/24.
His removal was part of a double substitution, with no mention of any injury in the post-match interviews. Jay Harris of The Athletic also reported that it was a pre-planned change even before Luton halved the deficit at 2-1. Still, it’ll be worth tuning in to Thomas Frank’s pre-match press conference (on Monday or Tuesday) to make sure there was nothing sinister behind his removal.
Mbeumo had one of his less effective outings against Luton’s low block but still racked up four shots (that trademark whipped effort after cutting in from the right flank) and claimed the assist for Ben Mee‘s (£4.8m) goal from a corner.
Yoane Wissa (£5.9m) turned in an improved showing, albeit without delivering a goal or assist, while Neal Maupay (£4.9m) made it three attacking returns in as many starts since he returned to west London.
In a big boost to Brighton and Hove Albion ahead of Gameweek 15, the excellent Christian Norgaard (£5.4m) picked up his fifth booking of the season and will miss Wednesday’s match at the Amex. Kristoffer Ajer (£4.5m) pulled out of the warm-up with a foot injury and will be further assessed, meanwhile, leaving the Bees even shorter in the hard-hit full-back area.
TOP TWO UP NEXT FOR LUTON
Luton’s concession of 27 chances would have been of much encouragement to owners of Arsenal and Manchester City attackers ahead of their upcoming meetings with the Hatters, although Rob Edwards’ side have looked tighter on home soil.
They could also potentially be without Alfie Doughty (£4.4m), Teden Mengi (£3.9m) and Tom Lockyer (£4.3m) for the visit of the Gunners, which would be a huge blow after that defensive trio’s recent good performances.
Doughty missed this match with a hip problem, while Mengi and Lockyer were subbed off with fresh injuries.
“We lost two centre-backs today, with us already having a few out, and we were very makeshift then for a long period of the second half.” – Rob Edwards
WHITE BENCHED AGAIN – BUT HOPE FOR GAMEWEEK 15
Ben White (£5.7m) was benched for the third successive competitive match on Saturday, with Mikel Arteta again preferring Takehiro Tomiyasu (£4.5m) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.1m) at full-back.
Both defenders contributed attacking returns in Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers, teeing up goals for Bukayo Saka (£8.8m) and Martin Odegaard (£8.3m) respectively.
A glimmer of hope for White is a potential injury picked up by Tomiyasu, with the trip to Luton now less than 72 hours away.
“I don’t know, he felt something, I don’t know if it was fatigue, we decided to change straight away with him, we didn’t want to take any risk. Let’s assess how he is.” – Mikel Arteta on Takehiro Tomiyasu
Arsenal delivered an excellent display against Wolves, with the 2-1 scoreline not doing them justice. The front three worked well in tandem, even though Gabriel Martinelli (£7.8m) and link-up man Gabriel Jesus (£7.9m) ended up blanking; the former struck the woodwork with one of his two efforts.
“He’s been unlucky in certain moments, today he had two big chances as well to score, the contribution he has on the team is immense, and I am really happy.” – Mikel Arteta on Gabriel Martinelli’s shortage of attacking returns
Wastefulness was the only blight on the performance, with Jesus, Leandro Trossard (£6.5m) – who featured in central midfield again – and Eddie Nketiah (£5.6m) spurning glorious chances to seal the win.
Arteta named the same 10 outfielders that started against Brentford last weekend, nine of which also lined up against Lens on Wednesday.
It does raise the prospect of a spot of rotation at Kenilworth Road, given that Arteta used accumulated minutes as one of the reasons for benching Gabriel Magalhaes (£4.9m) and Odegaard in Gameweek 10.
Gabriel, indeed, is on a nine-match starting run for club and country, the longest such sequence on Arsenal’s books.
WOLVES SCORE AGAIN, SA INJURY UPDATE
Wolves scored for the 13th league match in a row thanks to a late Matheus Cunha (£5.5m) effort, ruining the clean sheets of the millions of FPL managers who own Arsenal defenders.
Gary O’Neil’s side has gone toe to toe with many of the big guns this season and even though this was one of their least impressive showings, they always find a way of carving out the odd chance.
Hwang Hee-chan (£5.6m) was inches from prodding past David Raya (£4.9m), while Cunha had a shot beaten away by the Arsenal goalkeeper before his late consolation.
Wolves will have a chance to be much less passive and extend their scoring sequence when they host Burnley and Nottingham Forest in the next two Gameweeks.
The game-time prospects of Martin Dubravka (£3.9m) were given a boost at Newcastle on Saturday night but the prospects of Dan Bentley (£3.9m) getting a run in the Wolves side look unlikely for now.
Bentley came on for the injured Jose Sa (£5.0m) at the Emirates, even claiming clean sheet points as he kept the score down with some key saves.
O’Neil, however, doesn’t think Sa’s back injury is serious.
“He had some tightness in his back, but he’ll be fine. It was a back spasm and it was strange really as it’s not something he has suffered from before. His foot slipped and he flet something tighten up in his back.
“He was struggling with moving a little bit, struggling to kick, so we could possibly have left him on, but we felt where he was, we didn’t need him taking goal kicks as that could have caused us a problem, so it was better to get him off, get him some treatment and we’ve got a big game on Tuesday and I anticipate he’ll be fine for.” – Gary O’Neil on Jose Sa
Hwang, incidentally, is now just one booking away from a ban.
BALDOCK INJURY, HECKING(ROCK)BOTTOM
The first ‘El Sackico’ of 2023/24 went the way of Burnley, who smashed five goals past 10-man Sheffield United. Don’t let the ’10-man’ part act as mitigation, however, as the Blades were already 2-0 down by the time Oli McBurnie (£5.4m) saw red for the second time this season.
Successive losses to relegation rivals has left Paul Heckingbottom on the brink of the sack. The tone of his post-match press conference, in which he discussed players letting him down and leaving with his “head held high”, didn’t sound like a man making plans for the January transfer window.
FPL managers who own Liverpool players may be hoping that the Blades board keeps the faith, to avoid the threat of any ‘new manager bounce’ when the sides meet in Gameweek 15.
Budget forwards Cameron Archer (£4.6m) and substitute Will Osula (£4.3m) had sights of goal but there was so little to cheer, with Heckingbottom’s troops never recovering from Jay Rodriguez‘s (£5.3m) opener after 15 seconds.
There was a further blow as Sheffield United’s second-most-selected player, the 7.6%-owned George Baldock (£3.9m), exited the match early with an injury.
“I don’t know, I was just trying to get Jayden [Bogle] the information, I’ve not spoken to him.” – Paul Heckingbottom on the extent of George Baldock’s injury
BEYER BANNED, TAYLOR DELIVERS AGAIN
Fantasy managers probably aren’t likely to go out and buy the likes of Zeki Amdouni (£5.3m) and Luca Koleosho (£5.0m) off the back of this pasting, given the calibre of opponent.
So far this season, Burnley have only beaten sides that came up with them from the Championship. They were also the division’s lowest goalscorers ahead of this weekend.
The performances have been better of late, at least, with the Clarets unlucky to lose to Crystal Palace and West Ham United.
There are also decent bench fodder options available from Vincent Kompany’s squad, two of which delivered when it counted on Saturday.
Budget defenders Charlie Taylor (£4.0m) and Jordan Beyer (£4.0m) both provided assists, and double-digit hauls, on a weekend in which autosubs may well be widely required.
As was the case with his once-in-a-blue-moon goal in Gameweek 10, don’t expect Taylor to make a habit of it: he’s creating a chance only once every 248 minutes this season.
Beyer will sit out Gameweek 15, meanwhile, after collecting his fifth booking of the season.
THE LEAGUE TABLE SOMETIMES LIES
Were it not for their 10-point deduction, Everton would be sitting in 11th place right now.
It’s worth bearing this in mind when evaluating the Toffees as opponents, as they’re certainly a cut above the sides around them in the relegation zone.
Sean Dyche’s side, indeed, feature in the top half for expected goals (xG) both for and against in 2023/24.
A scrappy game ended 0.71-0.70 on xG but Everton were just about the deserved winners, securing their third straight win on the road.
Dwight McNeil (£5.4m) had seen an effort cleared off the line before he lashed home the winner, with Beto (£5.7m) also wasting a great opening in the first half.
Beto started due to a calf injury to Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.8m), which doesn’t sound too serious.
“Dom was touch and go, it is a tight one with him because of his past. I think as long as he has come through this weekend he has got a good chance for later in the week.” – Sean Dyche
After this latest clean sheet, Vitalii Mykolenko (£4.4m) is now fourth among defenders for points per match (4.9, below):
ELANGA A THREAT
There wasn’t much to cheer about Nottingham Forest’s performance but Anthony Elanga (£5.0m) carried their biggest threat, going close with a trio of back-post chances.
Morgan Gibbs-White (£5.7m) either shot or teed up five of Forest’s opportunities, while fit-again substitute Felipe (£4.4m) hit the post – but even Steve Cooper admitted that quality was lacking at the top end of the pitch.
“We weren’t productive enough in the final third. For all the times we got there we haven’t shown enough creativity, enough guile or enough quality to really create more chances than we did. When we did create chances, we haven’t even hit the target.” – Steve Cooper
Three of Forest’s next four fixtures are against sides around them in the table but it’s actually been against these teams where the struggles have come, with even the mid-August victory over Sheffield United only being sealed in the 89th minute.
Above: Nottm Forest’s results against sides sitting 12th or below
