With 90 minutes on the clock at Selhurst Park on Saturday, Crystal Palace – trailing 2-1 to Leicester City – were awarded a penalty.
Time for Eberechi Eze (£6.9m) to net for the second successive week and reward his 2.7 million owners…
… or maybe not. Up stepped Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.4m) instead, the French striker completing a brace by coolly converting from 12 yards.
Penalty-gate is the main talking point from Palace v Leicester in our latest Scout Notes.
WHAT GLASNER SAID ABOUT EZE, MATETA + PENALTIES
Mateta taking the Eagles’ stoppage-time spot-kick effectively cost Eze owners eight points.
Had the 26%-selected midfielder stepped up and scored instead, he would also have walked away with maximum bonus points.
So, then, is Eze off penalties? Not quite – but the jobshare that we saw at Arsenal and Manchester United in previous seasons now seems to be in operation at Palace.
“It’s [Mateta] and Eberechi. We always talk about it before the game. We say, ‘You two are the two deliverers and then you decide on the pitch, who feels better’. It was their responsibility but I trust them both. We do it sometimes in training and they always have good finishes.
“JP and also Ebz are really great penalty shooters.” – Oliver Glasner on who is responsible for penalties
Eze and Mateta both took their first Palace penalties in 2023. A quick look at the record since then reveals they’ve actually not been on the field that much together when a spot-kick has been awarded. Only once before, in fact – and Michael Olise took that one, with Eze only just on as a very late substitute on his comeback game from injury.
| Scorer | Date of penalty and opposition | Were Eze and Mateta on the field? |
| Mateta | v Leicester, 14/9/24 | Both on the field |
| Mateta | v Burnley, 24/2/24 | Mateta yes, Eze no |
| Olise | v Man City, 16/12/23 | Both on the field (Eze had just come on as a sub) |
| Mateta | v Liverpool, 9/12/23 | Mateta yes, Eze no |
| Eze | v Everton, 11/11/23 | Eze yes, Mateta no |
| Eze | v West Ham, 29/4/23 | Eze yes, Mateta no |
A blow to Eze owners? Perhaps, but he only scored one penalty in 2023/24 anyway. The same in 2022/23.
He hasn’t been overly reliant on spot-kicks, then, in his FPL exploits so far.
NKETIAH DEBUT, ANOTHER CLEAN SHEET LOSS
Amidst all this was a debut for Eddie Nketiah (£5.9m).
He was initially stationed in a deeper attacking midfield role as Glasner kept faith with his 3-4-2-1, joining Eze as support for central striker Mateta.
Not ideal, perhaps, but that didn’t stop him from racking up five shots in the first half alone. His sixth effort, which came in the second half, was his closest attempt and whistled inches wide of the post.
No player in Gameweek 4 could beat him, indeed, for shots (six) and penalty box touches (15). A quietly promising start.
“I felt good. Obviously, it’s my first 90 minutes in quite a while, so it was good to get back out there. Like I said, I’m nowhere near at my best, I know I’m going to keep getting better, and I’m sure I can help the team as things go on.” – Eddie Nketiah
Mateta ended his ‘drought’ with a deft finish from a Tyrick Mitchell (£4.9m) cross. Glasner’s wing-backs were at their threatening best again, amassing a combined three shots, seven penalty box touches and six chances created.
It’s not been so great at the other end. A fourth game went by without a clean sheet, with Leicester good value for their lead. Jordan Ayew (£5.4m) had already spurned a couple of good openings before Jamie Vardy (£5.6m) seized on hesitancy to score. Stephy Mavididi (£5.3m) pounced on more slack defending to double the lead.
Perhaps the chopping and changing hasn’t helped Palace. There’s been a different back three in all four league matches to date. The central midfield pairing ahead of them has changed in every fixture, too.
Maxence Lacroix (£4.5m) came into the defence this week, with Glasner’s lukewarm praise betraying the fact that the summer signing looked rusty.
“Maxence was solid, and also we could see that it was his first competitive game for a very long time in some parts.” – Oliver Glasner
More time may be needed, then, before things settle down at the back.
FOXES CONFOUND EXPECTATIONS – AGAIN
Judging Leicester on pre-season, we assumed we had another hilariously bad Sheffield United on our hands.
And yet, they’ve drawn twice and only lost by a single goal on the other two occasions. They spoiled the clean sheets of Pedro Porro (£5.5m), Antonee Robinson (£4.7m) and Ezri Konsa (£4.5m) before the international break, adding Dean Henderson (£4.5m) and co to their list of scalps on Saturday.
They’re not the hopeless whipping boys we expected they would be – at least not yet.
They do rank 19th for expected goals (xG), mind, so they have been overperforming in attack. No surprise, when you’ve got the xG-busting Vardy up top.
Both of Leicester’s goals were set up by Wilfred Ndidi (£5.0m), who now has three assists in two matches as a curiously advanced central midfielder.
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