There are some significant injury updates to bring you as we start our Gameweek 27 write-ups.
The matches at St James’ Park and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium are covered in this article.
HOWE ON TRIPPIER’S INJURY
Kieran Trippier‘s (£6.9m) three-month wait for clean sheet points drags on.
FPL’s most-owned and highest-scoring defender, who still features in almost one in four squads in the top 100k, was substituted after 51 minutes of Newcastle United’s 3-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Wouldn’t you know it, he was also suspended when the Magpies last kept a clean sheet back in Gameweek 17.
Eddie Howe wasn’t sure of the severity of Trippier’s injury when interviewed after the game.
“He felt a pain in his calf, we’re hopeful it’s not too bad. It was good to see him walk down the touchline rather than limp, so we’ll wait and see how bad that is.” – Eddie Howe on Kieran Trippier’s injury, to in-house media
“Kieran felt something in his calf and had to come off the pitch. That is a concern for us, although I don’t know how serious it is at this moment.” – Eddie Howe on Kieran Trippier’s injury, in his press conference
Any length of absence would of course raise Fantasy interest in Tino Livramento (£4.1m), who was excellent on his introduction against Wolves. The right-back even scored Newcastle’s third goal on Saturday after a slaloming run.
It’s a little too early to be proclaiming this as a turning point for the Newcastle backline. Their last clean sheet was against the 10 men of Fulham in December. Here, they shut out a Wolves side not only without their top two goalscorers but also deprived of the services of Pedro Neto (£5.8m) in the second half.
HWANG “OUT FOR SIX WEEKS”, NETO + SA UPDATES
Speaking of Wolves’ fitness concerns, Gary O’Neil offered a timeline on the absent Hwang Hee-chan (£5.6m) after full-time.
“It’s approximately six weeks for Channy, which is obviously a disaster for where we are at this moment. Him and Cunha will probably be back around similar times, probably Cunha slightly earlier than Channy now, so losing Pedro today was far from ideal.” – Gary O’Neil
The visitors dominated the possession at Newcastle but didn’t carve out too many serious chances without their two strikers. Pablo Sarabia (£4.7m) got the best of them, scuffing an effort at the back post.
The last time Wolves were without both Hwang and Matheus Cunha (£5.8m) through injury was in Gameweek 24, when Cunha left the field after just 19 minutes. O’Neil’s side, so impressive in attack for much of 2023/24, slumped to a 2-0 defeat to Brentford then. It’s not hard to make the connection.
If you own Bernd Leno (£4.7m), you’ll be feeling a bit more positive about your clean sheet chances in Gameweek 28.
Neto and Jose Sa (£5.0m) were both taken off at half-time to add to O’Neil’s woes but the Wolves boss expects the pair to be fine.
“To be missing Cunha and Channy [Hwang] is one thing, then Joao Gomes added to that, then Sa and Pedro [Neto] both off injured at half-time left us in the toughest situation we’ve been in.
“I said this would be the toughest game of the season for us because of where we were, and what we’ve been through this week, and it turned out to be that. But in terms of a group willing to work, we looked like a really good side for a long spell when name-wise we are well away from our best at this moment.
“Jose, sore quad they think he will be fine next weekend. I don’t know if it was his quad that collided with the post, but he’s got some issue, so it may have been from that situation, but he’s confident he’ll be ok for next weekend.
“Pedro, tight hamstring. I don’t think there’s any injury there, it’s just tight. It was precautionary really. Channy had a tight hamstring at half-time last week and wanted to carry on and hurt it, so Pedro, with a tight hamstring, unfortunately, we had no choice but to make sure he was off and safe, and make sure we are strong enough to go again on another day.” – Gary O’Neil
GORDON’S HOME COMFORTS
Anthony Gordon (£6.1m) kept up his phenomenal record at home on Saturday. His opportunistic goal means it is just one blank in 14 at St James’ Park this season.
Above: Gordon is the leading midfielder for attacking returns in home matches this season
He’ll not be back on Tyneside until Gameweek 30, however.
Alexander Isak (£7.5m), who we reintroduced to our Watchlist last week, bagged his 11th league goal from just 16 starts and a handful of sub appearances.
It’s hard to make an argument for him over Toney/Solanke/Watkins right now, due to the Blank/Double Gameweeks before the international break, but there’s a definite case come Gameweek 30:
Positional rival Callum Wilson (£7.8m) will be out until near the end of the season, so it’ll be Gordon providing relief for Isak up front until then.
RICHARLISON CONFUSION
There’s a bit of confusion about Richarlison‘s (£7.0m) recovery timeline after contrasting accounts from player and manager last night.
Ange Postecoglou had already flip flopped from 2-3 weeks to 3-4 weeks in Friday’s press conference, implying that we wouldn’t see the Brazilian until after the international break.
Richarlison sounds like he has other ideas, although it’s very possible something has been lost in translation in his interview with ESPN Brazil.
Asked about Richarlison’s inclusion in the Brazil squad for the upcoming internationals, Postecoglou doubled down on his timeline(s).
“No idea [if he’ll join up with Brazil]. We’ve still got, what, two weeks to go before then? As I said yesterday, it’s two to three weeks, so it just depends….”
“Mate, I’m not a doctor, I don’t write prescriptions, I get sort of a guide and go from there. It’s a week-to-week proposition. But with national teams, it’s pretty clear if they want him to present himself he’ll present himself. If they deem him fit he goes, if not, he comes back to us. It’s not one where… I’m not gonna try and sort of do something tricky with it. If he’s ready to go, he goes, if not, he’ll be with us. It’ll be a fine line from what I understand so far, I think I said three to four weeks, it happened a week ago, so it’ll be in that ballpark.” – Ange Postecoglou on Richarlison
SON LEADS THE LINE
Postecoglou gave the shortest of shrift to Son Heung-min‘s (£9.7m) own “injury”, when asked about the winger’s bandaged finger.
“It’s a finger. Even if he loses it, it won’t really matter. He can still play, he’s fine.” – Ange Postecoglou on Son Heung-min
Son, leading the line in the absence of Richarlison, was part of a slowburner of a Spurs performance against Crystal Palace. He didn’t have a single shot in an unremarkable first half as the Eagles held strong.
The Lilywhites haven’t been at their freeflowing best for some time. James Maddison (£7.9m) is understandably still short of top level after his injury, while the performances from wing options Dejan Kulusevski (£6.8m), Brennan Johnson (£5.8m) and Timo Werner (£6.3m) are inconsistent at best.
And yet, they still find a way of scoring, something they have done in all 26 league fixtures this season. It’s a good habit to have, especially for us Fantasy managers.
Son had come close to an attacking return before his breakaway late strike, teeing up Werner for a spurned big chance and then thwacking the upright himself.
Maddison also got in on the act with an assist for Cristian Romero‘s (£4.9m) header, while Werner made amends for his earlier miss when converting Johnson’s pass.
No FPL defender has scored on more occasions than Romero (four) this season.
EZE RETURNS, £3.9M RICHARDS SHINES
We’re still sussing Palace out under their new manager. Just as we can’t get carried away by a win over 10-man Burnley, there’s no great shame in succumbing to Spurs.
But the Eagles had encouragingly held out until the 77th minute. Had Joachim Andersen (£4.7m) not slipped up at that point, we might have been sitting here writing about a heroic rearguard effort and a one-nil win.
The impressive Chris Richards (£3.9m) is one for your budget defender watchlists, especially now that the Eagles are using three centre-backs and Marc Guehi (£4.3m) is out long term. And wing-back Daniel Munoz (£4.5m) remains eye-catchingly high, registering more final-third touches than any of his team-mates here.
The fit-again Eberechi Eze (£6.0m) converted a superb free-kick and is back on the radar now, too, although Glasner is keen to manage his minutes after previous instances of re-injury.
“Yes, Eze had his third injury this year, a muscle injury, so you have to take care because always a re-injury takes a longer time that he’s out.
“It was 65 minutes, and we cannot afford to lose him for more weeks again, so this was the reason.” – Oliver Glasner
