The non-derby between two of the south-coast clubs went the way of Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday.
Ten-man Brentford meanwhile ground out a point at Goodison Park.
Picking the bones out of these two matches, we begin our Gameweek 12 Scout Notes.
SEMENYO BAN
Antoine Semenyo (£5.7m) became the latest Premier League player to reach the dreaded five-caution mark on Saturday.
He’d been on four bookings since Gameweek 9 but an almost inevitable fifth arrived in the 40th minute of Bournemouth’s loss to Brighton.
He’ll serve a one-match suspension in Gameweek 13 when the Cherries travel to Molineux.
The most-sold FPL midfielder since Saturday’s deadline passed, Semenyo still has plenty of very nice fixtures following the ban – so he’s one to consider parking on the bench in the upcoming Gameweek, should you have the luxury of doing so.
Semenyo so very nearly signed off in style, striking the bar with his fifth and final shot of the match. This was the ninth occasion in 12 Gameweeks in which he’s had four or more goal attempts in a game.
Brighton will be missing their own midfielder in Gameweek 13 after Carlos Baleba (£5.0m) was dismissed for two bookings.
PEDRO THE “DIFFERENCE MAKER”
Even Fabian Hurzeler admitted after the match that a draw would probably have been a fair result.
Andoni Iraola, meanwhile, bemoaned fine margins – quite literally in the case of VAR. The Cherries saw one goal disallowed for a tight offside, while Brighton had their second confirmed by centimetres.
Bournemouth outshot their visitors 19-6 and edged it 1.42-0.94 on the xG, although we have to acknowledge a) an early Brighton goal putting the onus on the Cherries to attack and b) the visitors being reduced to 10 men late on.
It was ultimately the contrasting tale of two Brazilians. Evanilson (£6.0m) skewed a good chance wide, headed straight at Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m) from eight yards and saw a sort of one-on-one opportunity (from a narrow angle) go begging early on. It was he whose goal was disallowed for offside, too.
Plenty of encouragement for the trip to Molineux, at least, in terms of the positions he was taking up.
Brighton’s own Samba star was more dead-eyed. Alert to convert the rebound from Georginio Rutter‘s (£5.6m) saved shot (Pedro’s only effort of the game), he then produced an inch-perfect through-ball for Kaoru Mitoma (£6.4m) to convert. Pedro’s quality was, ultimately, the difference between the two sides.
“I think every [team] has this player who makes a difference. I don’t judge him by doing the goals, by doing the assists. I judge him [on] how he works for the team. I think we also have to see how hard he works for the team and how hard he works to come back.
“He makes a difference for us. He proved it the last game, he proved it today, so hopefully he’ll continue this.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Joao Pedro
Rutter, Pedro and Danny Welbeck (£6.0m) playing in the same starting XI, for the first time this season, will be encouraging to owners of all three. They’re not just playing for two positions; the versatile Rutter was here drifting in from the right.
Above: Brighton’s average positions in Gameweek 12, including Pedro (9), Welbeck (18) and Rutter (14)
MBEUMO’S 0.0 XG
Bryan Mbeumo (£7.9m) ended the stalemate on Merseyside with an xG of 0.00. In fact, over the last five Gameweeks, he’s had just three shots in the box – and one of those was a penalty. That spot-kick was his only ‘big chance’ over this period.
It’s perhaps harsh to draw too many conclusions from Saturday’s duck-egg, however. Brentford were down to 10 men after 40 minutes, so the remit after that was to aid the defensive effort.
The Bees went 4-4-1-1 after Christian Norgaard‘s (£4.8m) dismissal, with Mbeumo playing even wider on the right.
Still, it was – like last week – Yoane Wissa (£6.1m) who got the better of the chances even when it was 11 v 11. He was denied by Jordan Pickford (£4.9m) in a one-on-one and failed to make good enough contact on a looping ball from four yards out.
Whatever the misgivings about Mbeumo’s seemingly waning goal threat, it’s Leicester City at home next. In a Gameweek in which Manchester City face Liverpool, removing Mbeumo before a home match against the division’s second-worst defence for expected goals conceded (xGC) doesn’t seem like a sage move.
Thereafter, there’s some discussion to be had with the fixtures stiffening.
Wissa may face a challenge to his own spot – or at least be moved back to the left – in the medium term. Fit-again £33m signing Igor Thiago (£5.9m) made his first appearance of 2024/25 here, looking very handy indeed when introduced as a lone frontman.
ABOUT FLEKKEN TIME
A very resistible force against an eminently movable object. That was the narrative before this game, as Everton’s limp attack came up against Brentford’s clean-sheet-less defence.
The titanic battle between average and mediocre went the way of Mark Flekken (£4.5m) and co, who recorded a shut-out at the 12th time of asking.
While Flekken made a smart stop to keep out a clever Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.7m) flick, Everton didn’t really trouble him all that much. Everton had 27 shots to the Bees’ nine, yet it was the visitors who had the clearer openings.
The hosts actually looked worse at 11 v 10, with Keane Lewis-Potter (£5.0m) wasting a good chance on the break. A square pass to Mbeumo (see below) would have quietened the talk of the Cameroon international’s ebbing threat.
That’s three blanks in a row now for Everton, who at least have four clean sheets in their last six. Dycheball is back.
“What I’m seeing at least is correcting a pattern which started very poorly for us this season. No one wants to lose four on the trot and concede as many goals, so we had to correct that side of things. Then we say, ‘We’re not doing that bit, we’re not doing that bit, so we have to correct that bit first’. And then when we corrected that bit, we now have to correct that bit. That’s the story of this club and it’s the story of my time here – getting them two things aligned.” – Sean Dyche on defence v attack
