FPL notes: Dunk injury, Ait-Nouri threat + Delap benched

Two matches that saw a combined 11 goals scored are the subject of our final Gameweek 9 Scout Notes.

Brentford edged out Ipswich Town in a thriller in west London, while the spoils were shared at the Amex as winless Wolverhampton Wanderers mounted a late comeback.

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THREE GOALS IN FOUR FOR AIT-NOURI

Above: Fantasy Premier League defenders sorted by attacking returns (ARtn) in 2024/25

Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.5m) now has more goals and assists combined than any other Fantasy defender this season.

His third goal in four matches arrived in Saturday’s draw with Brighton and Hove Albion. Pouncing on a loose ball from a corner, he lashed home to spark Wolves’ comeback.

Even for Ait-Nouri, this season’s output is impressive: a tally of five attacking returns is as many as he delivered in the whole of 2023/24.

There’s no denying his offensive threat. Among the top 10 defenders for shots, efforts in the area, attempts on target and penalty box touches, he’s also top of the pile for StatsBomb xG.

But some context is needed to his recent scoring streak. Those three goals have arrived from only three shots:

Still, he’s not likely to need a 100% conversion rate with the upcoming fixtures. Chance frequency, you’d think, would increase given the more favourable opposition:

Let’s not forget the other avenue to points for defenders, too: clean sheets. Wolves are one of three clubs without a single shut-out this season but, to mitigate, all bar one of their fixtures so far has been against a top-half club. The other was Newcastle United, which is no easy test.

We’re not expecting Gary O’Neil’s side to suddenly turn into 1993/94 AC Milan. You’d hope, however, for at least a couple of shut-outs in the next eight Gameweeks.

One final word on Ait-Nouri, as you may have already read this morning. He’s on four bookings, one away from a suspension. Teammates Nelson Semedo (£4.5m), Toti Gomes (£4.3m) and Joao Gomes (£4.9m) are in the same boat.

GREEN SHOOTS OF RECOVERY?

It’s worth reiterating the tough start that Wolves have had. It’s also worth mentioning that they put up decent fights against Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester City.

Thumping defeats against Chelsea and Brentford were the only real off-days.

“My only two thoughts and concerns are the players and how much they’ve given, because it can easily not look like that when results are so bad, results can cloud everything. But if we’re really honest, Aston Villa second half, I was disappointed with Chelsea second half, Brentford, apart from that they’ve just given everything, and they continue to do so.” – Gary O’Neil

Saturday looked like it would bring another defeat. O’Neil rued his decision to start with a 5-3-2 (the formation that worked against City), as it left Wolves blunt in attack. Brighton were 14-3 up on shots at half-time.

But a change to a back four in the second half helped. It’s a system we can expect Wolves to operate with in the more winnable tests ahead.

Above: Gary O’Neil’s change to a back four at the interval helped spark the comeback

A more attacking mindset should further boost the appeal of Matheus Cunha (£6.5m) and Jorgen Strand Larsen (£5.5m). Perhaps we’d rather see Ait-Nouri as a wing-back but bear in mind that his all of his goals so far have come in a back four.

Cunha lashed in a deflected equaliser on Saturday, his fourth goal of the season. Pretty good, considering the calibre of opponents to date. The Brazilian had a match-high five attempts; only once this season has Strand Larsen outshot him in a game.

“I’m a little bit disappointed in myself for starting with a five as well. There’s quite a thing made of being a five at this football club and it did do well against City, but I thought it would be tough today to get any sort of hold of the game in a five against their shape. We were solid to be fair, but we didn’t look that much of a threat. Glad that we were quick enough to change to a four quickly at half-time and make a couple of changes, and that it gave us some momentum and energy.” – Gary O’Neil

DUNK INJURY, WELBECK + RUTTER COMBINE AGAIN

An injury to Lewis Dunk (£4.5m) may be of some interest to Mohamed Salah (£12.6m) owners. Liverpool entertain Brighton and Hove Albion next weekend, and they’d surely fancy their chances even more against a Dunk-less backline.

The Brighton captain pulled out of the starting XI after the warm-up on Saturday.

“I don’t know [the severity of the issue]. He made the warm-up, he felt something, now we have to make the scan and the control, and then we will see.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Lewis Dunk’s injury

Media reports on Monday suggest he’ll be out until after the November international break.

Jack Hinshelwood (£5.0m) also missed the game but should be back for Gameweek 10. Another positive on the fitness front was the recovery of Danny Welbeck (£5.9m), who shrugged off a back injury to notch his sixth of the season.

Georginio Rutter (£5.5m) assisted Welbeck for the third straight match. The two have developed a nice understanding up top in Joao Pedro‘s (£5.4m) absence.

It’ll be interesting to see how, and if, Fabian Hurzeler intergrates all three when Pedro returns. The Seagulls have an excellent run coming up after the November break, when Pedro should be fit:

Rutter could potentially move to the right wing; we saw defender Ferdi Kadioglu (£4.5m) operate there on Saturday, with Yankuba Minteh (£5.3m) also not fit.

Albion shot themselves in the foot here. Two-nil up with five minutes to go, they also wasted a four-on-one breakaway about 10 seconds before Cunha levelled the scores. That naivety is no doubt part of the reason that Salah tops our Gameweek 10 captaincy poll.

Above: Brighton’s spurned four-on-one chance late on Saturday

WISSA RETURNS WITH A BANG

Yoane Wissa (£5.9m) has more attacking returns (six) than starts this season (five).

A month out with injury hasn’t affected his rhythm: back in the starting XI on Saturday, he scored and saw another shot deflect in off Harry Clarke (£4.0m). A third one-on-one big chance was later spurned.

Bryan Mbeumo (£7.7m) meanwhile is now second in the Golden Boot race. On eight goals already, he’s only one short of his previous season best.

Saturday’s 15-point haul was a little fortunate: a 51st-minute penalty was followed by a stoppage-time cross that curled all the way in.

The Gtech Community Stadium has seen more goals than any other venue this season (24). A ringing endorsement of the Bees’ attack, with the likes of Keane Lewis-Potter (£5.0m) and Mikkel Damsgaard (£5.0m) probably in the form of their Brentford careers.

It’s not such a seal of approval for the Bees backline, however. Without a clean sheet at home or away all season, they’re conceding an average of two goals per match.

The state of affairs is neatly summed up by their expected goals (xG) output. Fifth for xG, they’re fifth bottom for xG conceded (xGC).

Shipping three goals to the league’s worst side for xG – Sammie Szmodics (£5.8m) wasted another big chance on top of that – was the biggest indictment yet.

Injuries haven’t helped. Budget defender Sepp van den Berg (£4.0m) was shifted to left-back here, with Kristoffer Ajer (£4.5m) out with a minor issue. Regardless, Ethan Pinnock‘s (£4.5m) form – defensive form, anyway – hasn’t been great of late.

DELAP GAME-TIME CONCERN?

We suspected there’d be starting XI alterations from Kieran McKenna this week but the benching of Liam Delap (£5.7m) wasn’t one we’d seen coming.

McKenna changed all of his front four, although Omari Hutchinson (£5.3m) would have started had he not been ill.

George Hirst (£5.4m) came in for the benched Delap, with Conor Chaplin (£5.2m) deputising for Hutchinson.

While Delap did come on to net his fifth of the campaign, Hirst had also scored earlier – and he earned the praise of his manager after full-time.

“I thought Conor and Hirsty were an absolute credit to themselves. The way they worked without the ball, the things they showed with the ball. I thought they epitomised the ethos that we need to have in the team for the rest of the season – and it’s up to everyone to follow that ethos.” – Kieran McKenna

Injuries are clearly hurting Ipswich right now. Eight players are currently flagged in FPL, seven of them defenders or holding midfielders.

Above: Not quite the full Bednarek but Harry Clarke goes firmly into the Hall of Shame after an own-goal, a red card and his team’s four goal concessions

Clarke’s red card meant that the Tractor Boys were three right-backs down in the second half. Injuries to Sam Morsy (£4.9m), Massimo Luongo (£4.5m) and Jack Taylor (£4.8m) also meant that a half-fit Jens Cajuste (£4.5m) had to last 90 minutes in midfield.

Further forward, right-winger Chiedozie Ogbene (£5.0m) was stretchered off.

“With Chieo it looks like an Achilles tear. We hope that won’t be the case, but I think that’s what looks most likely.

“Jack will be out until at least after the international break. We don’t know with Sam. That’s not quite as significant, but there’s going to be a big, big question mark around next week.” – Kieran McKenna

A good time to be facing Ipswich’s defence, then – which is something Jamie Vardy (£5.7m) does next weekend.

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