FPL notes: Solanke’s fitness, Schade a sub, Chelsea’s fixtures v form

Wins for Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea are the focus of our next Gameweek 5 Scout Notes.

Both clubs’ strikers were on target on Saturday, while their £10.0m+ midfielders also delivered attacking returns.

But while there was credit for Brentford to take from their defeat, there were fewer positives to be extricated from West Ham United’s display.

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ANGE ON SOLANKE’S FITNESS

Dominic Solanke (£7.5m) finally opened his Spurs account in Gameweek 5, tapping home a rebound after James Maddison (£7.5m) saw a shot saved.

A second goal could/should have followed. The ex-Bournemouth man couldn’t adjust his feet when two yards out in the 31st minute, while Mark Flekken (£4.5m) sprawled to deny him from close range after the interval.

Solanke still looks a little short of his best, both in terms of rhythm and fitness.

However, the chances are dropping to him in excellent positions. All nine of his shots this season have come from well inside the penalty box (see below). Four of those were registered on Saturday.

“Yeah, I mean, again Dom’s still working his way to match fitness. You saw at the end there, he was out of gas. We wanted to take him off a bit earlier but we needed that third goal to kill the game off. But he was good again, I think he’s been good in every game he’s played for us, and as you said, strikers love scoring goals and, yeah, a great moment for him to score his first goal for the club, particularly at home.

“But aside from that, again it was a really strong performance by him. I thought he led the line really well, important for us today as a link up there because we knew they’d go pretty aggressive on a man-to-man marking and he was going to have to hold the ball up for us and I thought he did that really well.” – Ange Postecoglou

SPURS RACK UP THE CHANCES

Goals from Brennan Johnson (£6.4m) and Maddison sealed the win for the Lilywhites but the hosts shouldn’t have had to wait until the 85th minute to wrap up the three points.

Their totals of 19 shots in the box, seven big chances and 3.52 xG were the highest of Gameweek 5.

There were several instances of Son Heung-min (£10.0m) bursting through on goal only for the South Korean winger to check back and tee up teammates for blocked/saved efforts. All four of Solanke’s shots were deemed ‘big chances’, too. Johnson had six attempts of his own.

Interestingly, Johnson – who now looks more assured of starts after Wilson Odobert (£5.5m) got injured – has had 15 shots in the box to Son’s three this season.

Maddison was arguably the star of the show. He’s quietly improved this season after a dismal second half of 2023/24. The England international is also comfortably Spurs’ leading player for expected goal involvement (xGI) – and indeed the top FPL midfielder:

KEY BRENTFORD QUESTIONS STILL UNANSWERED

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