The Gameweek 26 inquest continues as we dissect Arsenal’s 4-1 mauling of Newcastle United on Saturday evening.
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Pep hails “world-class” Foden + Kerkez impresses
- READ MORE: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus points + stats
NO STRIKER? NO PROBLEM
Bukayo Saka‘s (£9.1m) phenomenal run of goalscoring form continued on Saturday night as he bagged his eighth goal in seven league matches.
There was little wrong with his underlying numbers when the goals dried up in December, and now those encouraging stats have been backed up by tangible Fantasy returns.
Arsenal, in general, are enjoying a real purple patch in the league. Dusting off the disappointment of the midweek defeat in Porto, they set about Newcastle with real venom.
Four goals were plundered, while further big chances were missed by Kai Havertz (£7.1m) and Gabriel Martinelli (£7.7m).
The Gunners have now scored on 25 occasions in their last six matches, which is three more than Gameweek 27 opponents Sheffield United have managed all season.
Eight of those 25 goals have been from set pieces, with two of them arriving against the Magpies. Declan Rice (£5.4m) was again on a share of corners and assisted Jakub Kiwior‘s (£4.3m) headed fourth, while Saka and Gabriel Magalhaes (£5.2m) had combined for the opener – or so we thought, with replays revealing that a succession of Newcastle touches resulted in Sven Botman (£4.5m) putting the ball into his own net.
Arsenal’s goal rush has been mostly achieved without a recognised striker, too, with Gabriel Jesus (£7.8m) recently injured and Eddie Nketiah (£5.1m) sparingly used. Jesus was back on the bench last night, however, so Havertz’s latest stint up top might not be sustained longer term. The German’s glaring miss after half-time does fuel the ongoing argument that the collective team effort (there have been 11 different scorers of those 25 goals, one of whom was Botman) is still papering over the cracks up front. It might be an issue in tighter games, such as Gameweek 30 at the Etihad, but it likely won’t be a problem in the next two Gameweeks, against two of the ropier defences in the division.
Saka, top of all Fantasy assets for expected goal involvement (xGI) in the last six matches, is most definitely in the captaincy conversation next week.
“The team is hitting form, we are in a good moment, the players individually are performing. It’s not any secret things are flowing at the moment, we are scoring goals in various ways, and we want more. We score one and we want to go for the second and third and the fourth one and I love that mentality from the team.” – Mikel Arteta
NO CASE FOR THE DEFENCE + WHY DUBRAVKA MISSED OUT
Most teams would have struggled to live with Arsenal on Saturday but for Newcastle, the goal concessions were part of a wider trend.
The Magpies have conceded more goals, both ‘expected’ and actual, from Gameweek 15 onwards than any other side. By quite some distance, in fact:
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what’s gone wrong. Fixture congestion and fatigue were possible mitigating circumstances towards the end of last year, but Newcastle are mostly back to one game a week now. Injuries to the first-choice back four were also blamed, but that unit has been reunited for weeks. Dan Burn (£4.4m) was a target of fan ire, but he was benched at the Emirates as four goals flew in. A lack of midfield protection without Joelinton (£5.8m) is now the convenient narrative but he was present for hefty away losses at Everton, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.
“With every game that goes by and we concede goals, it’s a concern. Of course, we’re working on lots of things behind the scenes to try and improve that, but that probably wasn’t evident in today’s performance.” – Eddie Howe
The penalty box presence of Nick Pope (£5.3m) is a big miss, of that there’s no doubt.
Newcastle were actually down to their third-choice ‘keeper, Loris Karius (£3.9m), on Saturday, as Martin Dubravka (£4.2m) missed out through illness.
Dubravka should be back for the visit of Wolves, who will no doubt be licking their lips at the prospect of facing the Magpies’ backline next weekend.
There was some positive news in that Joe Willock (£5.3m) and Alexander Isak (£7.5m) both returned from injury, with the former coming off the bench to nod in a late consolation; what would have been an 11th clean sheet of the season for Arsenal being ruined out of nowhere.
*Stats correct before Wolves v Sheffield United
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