Bruno Fernandes (£8.2m) was sent off as Tottenham Hotspur destroyed Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday.
We summarise the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from that match in our next Scout Notes article.
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BRUNO SENT OFF
Bruno Fernandes was sent off for ‘serious foul play’ on Sunday.
The Portuguese appeared to slip when attempting a tackle in the first half, but then raised his foot and caught James Maddison (£7.5m) on the shin.
Handed a three-match domestic ban, Fernandes will now miss Premier League games against Aston Villa, Brentford and West Ham United.
The next league match he will be available to play will be at home to Chelsea on 3 November (Gameweek 10).
UNITED IN DISARRAY
The red card for Fernandes on 42 minutes capped a rotten afternoon for United, who were totally outclassed from start to finish.
By the end of the match, Tottenham had accrued 24 shots, nine big chances and 4.67 expected goals (xG), the most Spurs have ever had in a Premier League match on record.
Alejandro Garnacho (£6.3m) volleyed a shot off the post but this was one of the worst United displays since Erik ten Hag took charge.
This season, United rank in the top five for xG, but they have scored over five goals fewer than expected based on the quality of chances they have created in front of goal.
In fact, no team has a worse difference in the Premier League this season:
In addition, Fernandes, Joshua Zirkzee (£6.9m) and Garnacho all rank among the six worst xG underachievers in 2024/25.
On the injury front, Harry Maguire (£4.9m) missed out on Sunday due to a knock picked up in training.
Kobbie Mainoo (£5.3m) and Mason Mount (£6.3m) will be assessed after coming off, meanwhile.
SPURS THRILL
Despite the absence of Son Heung-min (£10.0m), Tottenham were thrilling to watch on Sunday.
Sharper in and out of possession, Brennan Johnson (£6.4m) put the visitors ahead after a surging Micky van de Ven (£4.5m) run, continuing a purple patch that has seen him notch in four consecutive games in all competitions.
Johnson later hit the post, too.
That chance was created by Dejan Kulusevski (£6.2m), whose technical quality was key to Spurs’ impressive display.
The Swedish international, who was deployed in a central role at Old Trafford, scored and supplied a ridiculous nine key passes.
Dominic Solanke (£7.5m) then showed off his strikers’ instincts by adding a third, sticking out a leg to poke the ball into an empty net.
Ange Posecoglou’s side now embark on an excellent run of matches:
“I mean, it helps that obviously Dom’s overcome his crisis of confidence for 180 minutes and now he’s back to some sort of fitness and he’s leading the line really well and Brennan. But just in general, I think the team, like I said, it just felt that as I kept saying, I thought we played really well, we played well at Newcastle, we played well against Arsenal, but we just missed chances and it felt like there was a desperation about us trying to get another one.
“Whereas, you know, probably the last three games this week, we just had a real calmness about us and I think it’s helped that we’ve got a focal point in Dom and he’s just a real presence and he attracts attention. He kind of takes attention away from other players and it just works really well in our unit.” – Ange Postecoglou
SON + UDOGIE INJURY LATEST
Son was absent from Tottenham’s matchday squad at Old Trafford, having been forced off in the latter stages of Thursday’s UEFA Europa League win over Qarabag.
Speaking to Sky Sports before the game, Ange Postecoglou said:
“Short turnaround obviously from Thursday night and he just wasn’t right for today so we’re going there without him. Yeah [it’s a blow for Tottenham], but we’ve had to sort of suffer those things a fair bit during my time here with key players missing out. We just have to learn to cope without him.” – Ange Postecoglou on Son Heung-min
Postecoglou was quizzed again after the match.
When asked if Son will be fit for midweek or next weekend, he said:
“We’ll see. Obviously, it was a quick turnaround today, so we’ll assess it when we go back and get back down to London. We’ll see how he is.” – Ange Postecoglou on Son Heung-min
Ange also discussed Destiny Udogie (£5.0m), who sustained a knock and failed to appear for the second half in Gameweek 6.
“Destiny was okay. I mean he felt something in his quad but he obviously finished the half, but we just thought at half-time no point, we’ve got to be careful about how much we push our players. Obviously, Destiny had to come on pretty early on Thursday night, which wasn’t the plan and I would say Micky [Van de Ven] played probably more than we wanted him to. So with those kind of things, we’ve just got to be really careful, and Djed did really well when he came on so I thought it was just wise to take him off but we’ll see how it goes.” – Ange Postecoglou on Destiny Udogie
