In the nick of time before Friday’s Premier League double-header, we finish our Boxing Day Scout Notes.
This time, we look at Liverpool 3-1 Leicester City and Newcastle United 3-0 Aston Villa.
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- READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 18 round-up: Boxing Day’s goals, assists, bonus points + stats
SLOT ON JOTA, DIAZ + GAKPO
Arne Slot’s team selections have been largely straightforward to predict this season, thanks to almost clockwork-like rotation in certain positions (ie left-back, left wing, central midfield and up front).
He threw us a curveball by benching Luis Diaz (£7.5m) in this one, however. Diaz, while lasting 86 minutes in Gameweek 17, had been benched in the EFL Cup a week ago. Cody Gakpo (£7.2m), by contrast, went into Gameweek 18 on a run of three successive starts in all competitions.
Gakpo duly got the nod, with Diaz remaining an unused substitute.
Interestingly, Slot mentioned after the game about the Colombian winger still being an option up front – despite the availability of Darwin Nunez (£7.1m) and Diogo Jota (£7.2m).
“I think the main difference maybe is that the set-up of the front three was a bit different [in the past] than the set-up now. We expect a bit from our wingers to keep it wide, to try to get them in one-v-one situations. Cody has done this really well. Lucho has done this really well when he played from the left but Lucho is, in our opinion, also capable of playing as a nine; he did that really well against Spurs.
“Against Spurs it was mainly maybe Lucho and Mo that were dominant, now it was Cody again, together with Mo. It’s just nice to have so many options, in every position actually but also in the front three.” – Arne Slot
As for the central striker role, Darwin – and not Jota – made the cut.
Slot later used Jota’s fitness as the reason for that. It perhaps also explains why Kostas Tsimikas (£4.6m) has yet to start after his own recent return from injury.
“I think the last thing, for sure, we’re still managing his fitness. He has been out for quite a long time and he couldn’t train that much.
“Sometimes if a player has an injury he can do a lot, but he couldn’t do a lot for quite a long time. Since this league is so intense, it’s not so easy if you are almost two months out to come in and play from the start again.
“You need to have some minutes to build this up. And he is in competition with some other special players as well who are at this moment also on top of their game.
“He is gradually building it up and I think he comes close to starting a game, but like I said, he has competition in this position as well.” – Arne Slot on Diogo Jota
SALAH CLOSING IN ON ‘200’
While Darwin continues to turn in so-so performances, Gakpo is ensuring that any upcoming benchings will be down to rest and not form.
He’s been excellent in recent games, curling in a superb equaliser here to break Leicester’s unexpected resistance.
While displays like these are noteworthy for Gakpo, we’ve just come to take them for granted from Mohamed Salah (£13.5m).
A first blank since Gameweek 7 was averted with an excellent 82nd-minute strike. The Egyptian had earlier hit the bar with another one of his five shots.
We’ve reached a point now where Salah could get to 200 points by the halfway stage of the season. He needs a 14-point haul against West Ham United to do that, a tally he’s achieved five times already in 2024/25. Bear in mind that Liverpool have also played one game fewer than 18 other teams, too!
To beat his 303-point record from 2017/18, he’ll only need to score at a rate of 5.6 points per game for the rest of the campaign – and avoid injury, of course.
As for the rest of the supporting cast, it’s still just one clean sheet in five since Ibrahima Konate (£5.1m) got injured.
Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.1m), as he so often does, almost made up for it with an attacking return, seeing two assists – one for Salah, one for Andrew Robertson (£5.9m) – denied by the woodwork.
Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.3m) managed to pick up his fifth booking of the season despite only appearing as a substitute, so will sit out Gameweek 19. Gakpo, by the way, is also on four cautions.
(ANOTHER) £4.0M GOALKEEPER STARTS
In terms of FPL price, Ruud van Nistelrooy made the sideways move from Danny Ward (£4.0m) to Jakub Stolarczyk (£4.0m). But as many Leicester fans will tell you, it’s a bit of an upgrade in ability levels.
Stolarczyk, impressing between the posts at Anfield, is still only starting because Mads Hermansen (£4.5m) is injured. It sounds like the first choice might be out a while, however.
Van Nistelrooy is at least more hopeful that Jamie Vardy (£5.6m) will be back in Gameweek 19. The veteran striker sat out the defeat on Merseyside with a minor issue.
It was left to Jordan Ayew (£5.2m) to play the Fantasy scourge/scrooge, busting the Liverpool clean sheet early on. The Foxes have already done that to Arsenal, Spurs, Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Aston Villa, among others, this season.
Shut-outs well and truly ruined, Leicester then failed to have a single shot after the 10th minute.
NEWCASTLE ON A ROLL
It’s 19 goals in six league and cup games for Newcastle in December, following this latest 3-0 win over Aston Villa.
Playing porous defences like those of Brentford, Leicester City and Ipswich Town helps. As does facing the 10-man Villans.
But even so, the momentum is with the Magpies now. Even before Jhon Duran‘s (£5.9m) 32nd-minute dismissal on Boxing Day, they were a goal up and largely in control.
The Newcastle notes are basically rinse and repeat from last week.
Alexander Isak (£9.1m), on the scoresheet again, is in superlative form. So too is his assister, Jacob Murphy (£5.0m), whose starting spot is his to keep so long as he keeps playing the way he is right now – but if not, rotation beckons for him more than most. Anthony Gordon (£7.3m) is gradually rediscovering his swagger from 2024/25, scoring a pearler here. Sandro Tonali (£5.5m) is excelling as a ‘six’. Bruno Guimaraes (£6.1m) likewise in a more advanced ‘eight’ role.
On top of all that, big winning margins mean Eddie Howe can take players off early and preserve them for the next Gameweek. That’s great news over this busy festive period.
It’d be no surprise if we’re sitting here writing exactly the same thing after a trip to sorry Manchester United in Gameweek 19.
Two bits of team news from the north-east. Tino Livramento (£4.5m) missed this game through illness but is expected back on Monday. His replacement, Kieran Trippier (£5.6m), was forced off but Howe hopes it was more fatigue.
VILLA’S AWAY-DAY BLUES
Aston Villa have lost five successive away league games for the first time since February 2017, last doing so in the Championship under Steve Bruce. Obviously doesn’t take into account the win in Leipzig, but can’t help but feel Villa look a little passive on the road. #AVFC
— Jacob Tanswell (@J_Tanswell) December 26, 2024
The above stat needs some context. Aston Villa have faced four of the top five in those away defeats, also falling to a loss at free-scoring Tottenham Hotspur.
It’s also difficult to know what kind of game would have panned out at St James’ Park had Duran not seen red early on.
Unai Emery confirmed that Villa would appeal that decision, so Ollie Watkins (£8.8m) isn’t yet guaranteed a Gameweek 19 start after four successive league benchings.
Emery didn’t quite throw the towel in at 2-0 but Morgan Rogers (£5.4m) being subbed off after 68 minutes did smack of eyes turning to next Monday.
The good news for Rogers owners and Villa: it’s successive home games next. Not only that but a Brighton side without a clean sheet in nine (before Friday’s fixture) and Leicester are providing the opposition.
