FPL notes: Saka “unlikely”, Calafiori injury + Watkins rested

As it so often does, the midweek European action threw up more talking points for Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.

Firstly, we look at Tuesday night’s action.

Arsenal and Aston Villa hosted UEFA Champions League matches, both sides winning to nil.

But it’s less about the results of these games than the repercussions for FPL. Be it new and existing injuries, penalty takers or welcome rests, we pick out the key talking points in this latest Scout Notes article.

A summary of Wednesday’s games will follow.

TUESDAY’S RESULTS

TUESDAY’S LINE-UPS

Aston Villa XI: Martínez, Konsa, Carlos, Torres, Maatsen, Onana (Barkley 45), Tielemans (Kamara 78), Bailey (Ramsey 65), Rogers, McGinn (Philogene 66), Durán (Watkins 65).

Arsenal: Raya, White (Merino 46) Gabriel, Saliba, Calafiori (Lewis-Skelly 70), Partey, Rice, Havertz, Jesus (Sterling 68), Martinelli, Trossard (Jorginho 88).

SAKA “UNLIKELY” FOR GAMEWEEK 9…

As seemed likely due to the lack of training, there was no Bukayo Saka (£10.0m) on Tuesday night.

The winger and Jurrien Timber (£5.5m), who were both absent for Saturday’s defeat at Bournemouth, sat out the narrow win over Shakhtar Donetsk entirely.

The big debate now is whether Saka will be fit to face Liverpool in Gameweek 9. We say ‘debate’ because there’s always a discussion to be had about Mikel Arteta’s cunning. Fond of giving a positive update when someone is about to miss out, and vice versa, the below quote might be seen as a boost to Saka owners who think Arteta is a double-bluff merchant.

“I don’t know [if Saka will be fit to face Liverpool]. So, he wasn’t able to train yet so that’s unlikely.” – Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka, speaking after full-time

CALAFIORI INJURY, ARTETA EXPLAINS WHITE SUB

Arsenal’s defence may not be looking as impregnable as it usually does in Gameweek 9. Already, Timber is an ongoing concern and William Saliba (£6.0m) is banned. Now, Riccardo Calafiori (£5.8m) is a worry.

The Italy international picked up a knee injury midway through the second half of Tuesday’s victory and had to be replaced.

Ben White (£6.3m) was substituted at the interval, meanwhile, but there’s no concern there.

“Ben, it was my decision to take him out. He had a yellow card, we have played enough with 10 men in certain periods. They had a lot of intensity on that side and a lot of attacking players on this side, we didn’t want to take any chances there.

“With Riccy it was something different, he had to come off. He felt something, I don’t know the extent of that so in that sense it’s not great news.” – Mikel Arteta

It’s within the bounds of reality that Arsenal have to field a back four of Thomas Partey (£5.0m), White, Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.3m) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (£4.8m) on Sunday – encouragement for Mohamed Salah (£12.6m) et al as Liverpool attempt to go seven points clear of the Gunners.

ARTETA ON PENALTY TAKERS

With Saka and Martin Odegaard (£8.2m) out, and Jorginho (£4.8m) not on the field, there was a chance for someone else to stake a claim from 12 yards when Arsenal were awarded a second-half penalty.

Kai Havertz (£8.3m) had taken and scored a spot-kick just over a year ago. Given that he was on a seven-match scoring streak at home, many expected that the German would get the nod.

Leandro Trossard (£6.9m) did instead – and he subsequently missed.

“Yes, the [players] made that decision, the penalty taker normally is Bukayo or Martin and after that we have two or three players who can take it. They made the decision and unfortunately Leo missed it, but as you said it’s an opportunity missed.” – Mikel Arteta, in his post-match presser, on whether he considered giving Kai Havertz the penalty-taking responsibility

“I don’t know. I don’t know the conversation because he’s one of the takers and Leo decided to take it. Okay he missed it, that’s it, unfortunately.” – Mikel Arteta, to TNT Sports, on whether Kai Havertz ‘wanted’ the penalty

TIREDNESS?

This wasn’t a vintage Arsenal display, with the contest being settled by an own-goal. Gabriel Martinelli (£7.0m), the liveliest player on the night, claimed the assist, his shot bouncing back off the post and in off visiting goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk.

Fatigue looked like it was kicking in later in the game. A rudimentary measure of this was the 13-3 shot count up to Trossard’s penalty, the visitors then mounting a belated siege by registering six of the game’s final seven attempts.

It was perhaps to be expected. This match came 72 hours after full-time at Bournemouth, a game in which the Gunners played an hour with 10 men. No surprise, then, that Martinelli – a substitute at the Vitality Stadium – was the brightest spark.

Arteta promised that energy levels would be restored come Gameweek 9.

“Well, we played two and half days ago, after the internationals, after flying from Brazil and many countries. I was expecting that we could drop off a little bit. And the fact that we put so much in the first half and we didn’t convert and get the distance in terms of the result and the scoreline that far, I think we paid a little bit of that.

“And then we made life more difficult for us because obviously we started to give the ball away and not regain the ball in the right areas and it was more open. So, that didn’t help but we have another four days and believe me, on Sunday, we will be flying.” – Mikel Arteta on tiredness

WATKINS RESTED, ROGERS STARS AGAIN

Unai Emery had a fully fit squad for Tuesday’s win over Bologna, with their bench looking impressively strong as a result:

A clean bill of health allowed Emery the opportunity to rotate, with Matty Cash (£4.4m), Lucas Digne (£4.6m), Jacob Ramsey (£5.4m) and Ollie Watkins (£9.1m) granted a rest.

You could imagine much more of this midweek rotation in the weeks to come, with the physio room empty.

“We struggled in August and September with some players coming back not fit or injured. We got points but we were thinking of the better moment with the players available to play like today or Saturday.

“And now it’s a good moment as well to try to be intelligent, doing some changes and thinking about the best thing in each moment. I did this today after we won in Fulham because it was a really good moment to do it.” – Unai Emery on rotation

Ezri Konsa (£4.5m) and John McGinn (£5.2m), only substitutes on their returns from injury on Saturday, were restored to the starting XI. McGinn was arguably the man of the match, his whipped free-kick evading everyone to break the deadlock.

Jhon Duran (£6.2m) started up top instead of Watkins, doing what he does best and finding the net with whatever game time he is afforded. You just know, however, that Watkins will be back up top come Gameweek 9.

“It is good to try and manage. We will do it sometimes and when you get the performance today like Jhon Duran and Watkins it is the best for the team.” – Unai Emery on rotating his front two

Challenging McGinn for star-of-the-show status was, once again, Morgan Rogers (£5.4m). The impressive winger registered four shots and three chances created, teeing up Duran for his strike.

If there is one minor criticism of Rogers, it is that his finishing perhaps needs work. Another one-on-one chance went begging here. He’s spurned all five of his big chances in the league this season, too.

A third consecutive Champions League clean sheet was secured with little fuss. An early Thijs Dallinga effort was well saved by Emi Martinez (£5.0m) but that was about as big a chance as Bologna got, although they did strike the woodwork late on.

SIGN UP HERE FOR ALL THE TOOLS YOU NEED TO WIN AT FPL!