FPL notes: Gabriel injury, Timber threat, Haaland brace + Gvardiol woe

Arsenal and Manchester City experienced decidedly different fortunes in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday night.

The Gunners ended their 13-month wait for a European away win in style by trouncing Sporting CP 5-1 in Lisbon.

Manchester City, meanwhile, extended their winless streak to five matches in all competitions. The reigning Premier League champions snatched a draw from the jaws of victory by throwing away a three-goal lead they had held until the 75^th minute against Feyenoord.

We pick out the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from both fixtures in these Scout Notes.

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TUESDAY’S RESULTS

TEAM SELECTION/ROTATION

FULL-STRENGTH ARSENAL BACK TO THEIR BEST

Mikel Arteta finally got to play his strongest team and the rewards were plain to see. Arsenal, at the same venue where Sporting beat Man City 4-1 last time out, demolished their Portuguese opponents and matched their highest-ever Champions League result in the process.

Key to Arsenal’s recent struggles, apart from a brutal fixture schedule, has been the absence of important players through injury or suspension. This had forced Arteta to abandon his preferred 4-3-3 in favour of a 4-4-2 for several Gameweeks.

In Gameweek 12, with the exception of Ben White (£6.2m) and Takehiro Tomiyasu (£4.8m), Arteta had a full squad to choose from. He was able to rest Declan Rice (£6.2m), Thomas Partey (£5.0m), Gabriel Martinelli (£6.9m) and Kai Havertz (£7.9m) and still sweep Nottingham Forest aside.

All four returned for the Lisbon trip and contributed to an imperious display. Arsenal were on it from the first whistle. Partey no longer having to fill in at right-back, is back to his best in his preferred central midfield role. Against Sporting he won possession high up and made quick forward passes, safe in the knowledge that Arsenal are solid again at the back. 

Timber threat

Now that Jurrien Timber (£5.5m) is also playing in his best position at last, right-back, and Riccardo Calafiori (£5.8m) is back in the side inverting from left-back, there is solidity as well as a potent attacking threat from wide areas. Timber particularly caught the eye. The Dutchman had a goal disallowed for a marginal offside against Forest in Gameweek 12 and he provided a wonderful assist for Martinelli to tap in the early opener here, emphasising his genuine attacking threat.

Saka + Odegaard outstanding – again

The chief danger men from an offensive point of view were Martin Odegaard (£8.2m) and Bukayo Saka (£10.2m), who is thriving now that the Norwegian is back. Odegaard triggers Arsenal’s high press, finds space when there appears to be none and has the vision to carve out clever passes (as demonstrated by his back-to-back assists since returning from injury in Gameweek 11). He even got a Fantasy assist here when he was brought down for Saka’s penalty for the fourth goal.

“Martin is an unbelievable player. The day he returned I had a big smile on my face. I have a great chemistry with him. I’m happy he’s back and I hope he stays fit for the rest of the season. We’ve showed the level we can play at.” – Bukayo Saka on Martin Odegaard’s return to the side

Saka was a scourge down the right flank all evening and before his goal, produced a wonderful nutmeg before teeing up Havertz for Arsenal’s second. Saka had three shots against Sporting, the most of any team-mates (Havertz had two). He also weighed in with an xG of 0.89 and an xA of 0.95.

Even the set pieces worked out again, with Rice the provider for Gabriel‘s (£6.2m) towering header. That was his third such goal from a corner this season. 

Arsenal will be annoyed to have conceded from a corner themselves, a strange low cross that caught Calafiori on his heels and enabled Gonzalo Inacio to steal in. 

But after weathering a shaky 15 minutes or so, it was the Odegaard and Saka show. At 4-1, Arteta had the freedom to make some changes and Leandro Trossard (£6.9m) came on to snaffle a header from close range after fellow substitute Mikel Merino’s (£6.0m) shot had been parried into his path.

Gabriel injury update

Among those changes was the introduction of Jakob Kiwior (£4.8m) for Gabriel, who appeared to pick up an injury. This will be a concern for the 24.3% of managers who own the Brazilian – and Arteta was unsure as to the severity of the problem.

“We don’t know because he said he was feeling some discomfort. I was about to make the change of [Raheem Sterling] but I couldn’t make the sub and we had to make other ones.” – Mikel Arteta on Gabriel injury.

Gabriel was at least in good spirits on the bench, as seen in the header image.

Timber, a very appealing differential at just 1.9% owned, becomes even more enticing if the Gabriel news is bad.

CITY COLLAPSE

The only good news for Man City is that they didn’t lose. But this result will have felt like a defeat.

Three goals to the good and absolutely cruising, they contrived to commit hari-kari in a calamitous final quarter of an hour to inexplicably draw 3-3.

Pep Guardiola made three changes to the team that capitulated 4-0 to Tottenham Hotspur, bringing in Nathan Ake (£5.3m), Matheus Nunes (£4.9m) and Jack Grealish (£6.4m) in for John Stones (£5.3m), Kyle Walker (£5.2m) and Savio (£6.5m). 

It was an attacking move, with an extra defender sacrificed. Rico Lewis (£4.8m) was moved from midfield to right-back but inverted into the engine room, as he has done on many occasions before.

Promising start

Man City started brilliantly. In the opening 20 minutes Erling Haaland (£15.1m) had a header from Manuel Akanji’s (£5.4m) cross pawed onto a post, Grealish’s goalbound volley was blocked by Bernardo Silva (£6.4m) and Phil Foden (£9.1m) was denied by a superb save by Timon Wellenreuther. As half-time approached Ake headed Foden’s cross just wide, but the familiar pattern was resurfacing: City start well, create myriad chances but don’t score.

The breakthrough did come though, inevitably via Haaland. The Norwegian won a penalty after tumbling under a challenge from Quinten Timber, and put it away. There was an element of fortune about the second goal too as Ilkay Gundogan’s (£6.5m) shot through a crowded area took a cruel deflection to wrong-foot Wellenreuther. On 53 minutes it was 3-0 as Matheus Nunes showed great pace to race down the right before crossing for Haaland to grab his second on the stretch.

City were cruising. Home free. Game over. Or not. 

Guardiola decided to make a triple substitution on 68 minutes, bringing on Kevin De Bruyne (£9.4m), Jamai Simpson-Pussey (£4.0m) and James McAtee (£4.7m) for Gundogan, Foden and Ake. Disaster followed.

Gvardiol meltdown

It’s hard to blame the substitutions for what followed because had Josko Gvardiol (£6.3m) not made catastrophic errors the comeback wouldn’t have happened at all. Firstly, on 75 minutes, he attempted a volley back towards Ederson (£5.5m) which was effectively a through-ball for Anis Hadj Moussa to take advantage. He rounded the goalkeeper to score. 

Next, with eight minutes remaining, Gvardiol gave the ball away cheaply outside his own penalty area, as he had done against Spurs on Saturday, and Feyenoord worked the ball to Jordan Lotomba, who caught Ederson out at his near post. The keeper could only touch the ball onto the post and it span perfectly into the path of Santiago Gimenez to chest home. 

Finally, on 89 minutes, rather than kill time, Grealish elected to take a quick free-kick and gave the ball back to Feyenoord, who knocked it long into a sea of space behind Gvardiol and Akanji. Ederson, instead of staying on his line, came out and was beaten to the ball by Igor Paixao, whose pinpoint cross was headed in by David Hancko.

A combination of defensive howlers, poor game management and bad goalkeeping produced the perfect storm to unravel all of City’s good work. To compound a sorry evening Grealish hit the bar in added time.

Guardiola said afterwards the substitution had been made with the player’s welfare in mind.

“Nathan come with injury. 3-0 with 20 minutes left I didn’t feel the game was in danger. Nathan has been injured many times and I didn’t want to expose him.

“Gundogan is the only holding midfielder we have. Foden has played a lot of minutes and Kevin needs the rhythm.

“Kevin, like Macca and Jahmai, is so stable emotionally. Rico was playing really good and Matheus had the best moment of the second half with a marvellous assist.

“We gave away the goal and it was not stable.” – Pep Guardiola on the substitutions

Haaland still hot

So what have we learned from all this? 

Man City were the better team for much of the game, outshining the Eredivisie side on the xG by 2.35 to 1.44.

“The game was good, we scored three and we could have scored more. At the end we are not stable enough to do it. 

“We did a good game but then we were not able to control the last minutes.” – Pep Guardiola on why City drew

Haaland is still a lethal threat up front. He had six shots in this match, scored twice, hit the post and had an xG of 1.59. There is an argument for managers to persevere with him, if – and it’s a big if – they can justify the price tag. But as for other City assets, where do you go?

Gvardiol is City’s next best points scorer with 50, making him the third-highest scoring defender in Fantasy, but given the crisis of confidence that seems to be afflicting him, will Guardiola take him out of the firing line?

The champions have conceded 13 goals in their last four matches, which makes their defenders unappealing in the extreme, while the midfielders aren’t contributing attacking returns.

Foden scored 230 points last season. This season he has a grand total of one assist and 18 FPL points. At his current rate, he is on course for a total of 57.

De Bruyne is also a shadow of his former self. His injury has been seriously debilitating and he admitted this week that Friday was the first time he has been pain-free all season. But does Guardiola trust him? He still won’t start him, even in the midst of the worst crisis of his managerial career.

There really is no let-up for Guardiola at the moment. City’s latest disaster has left them on a morale-crushing six-match winless streak and it’s Liverpool next up. 

The main takeaway for Gameweek 13? Never mind starting Mohamed Salah (£13.1m), owners will be tempted to captain him…