FPL notes: Pickford avoids ban, Huijsen bonus + Brentford’s big chances

Two more of Saturday’s matches get the Scout Notes treatment now: Bournemouth 1-0 Everton and Southampton 0-5 Brentford.

• READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 20 round-up: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus points + stats
• READ MORE: Scout Notes: £4.0m Chelsea defender, Maresca on Jackson form
• READ MORE: Scout Notes: Odegaard + Havertz updates, why Mitoma was a sub
• READ MORE: Scout Notes: Why Son + Maddison were subs, Howe on Botman

EVERTON TRIO IN THE CLEAR

Jordan Pickford (£5.0m) and James Tarkowski (£4.8m) owners can breathe easy. The pair, along with unused substitute Michael Keane (£4.0m), were on four bookings going into Gameweek 20. A fifth caution of 2024/25 at Bournemouth would have ruled them out of Gameweek 21.

But having avoided that fate, the imminent danger is lifted. The yellow card threshold now rises to 10 for the Toffees’ players, after they fulfilled their 19th fixture of the campaign.

Pickford and the backline are, really, the only Everton players of interest to most FPL managers.

Having kept Arsenal and Chelsea at bay in recent weeks, they also restricted Manchester City to one goal. Here, at Bournemouth, their resolve was only broken by a superb David Brooks (£4.9m) volley.

Pickford is in excellent form. Here he collected a couple of save points, making fine stops from Dango Ouattara (£5.5m), Antoine Semenyo (£5.6m) and Justin Kluivert (£5.5m).

Should the postponed Liverpool clash be put in Double Gameweek 24/25, there’s a great run to look forward to for those not already invested in the Everton backline:

You’d have to have a serious case of Double Gameweekitis to consider anyone further forward. Everton didn’t have a single shot on target against the Cherries and have failed to score in eight of their last 10 fixtures.

While their defensive numbers have returned to somewhere near last season’s levels, the rolling six-game xG average below has got even worse:

Having lost Youssef Chermiti (£4.9m) to injury before the game and Armando Broja (£5.4m) during it, it was back to Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.4m) up front on the south coast.

WHY KEPA WAS BENCHED, EVANILSON UPDATE

Kepa Arrizabalaga (£4.5m) didn’t benefit from the clean sheet points, having been benched.

It wasn’t form-related: Andoni Iraola confirmed after full-time that Kepa’s partner had given birth to twins this week and that the Spaniard has been doing a lot of travelling ahead of the game.

Kepa won’t feature in Gameweek 21, either, as he’s ineligible to face his parent club.

Evanilson (£5.9m) should be okay, though. He was walking gingerly in the closing stages, eventually coming off in the 82nd minute. Iraola assuaged fears.

“He was tired of everything, I think! When you have cramps in not just one place, and a little bit everywhere, I feel more relieved because it’s a matter of probably just being tired.” – Andoni Iraola on Evanilson

HUIJSEN: BONUS POINT MAGNET

It threatened to be another frustrating afternoon for the Cherries, who are the Premier League’s biggest underachievers on the xG front this season. Finishing isn’t a strong suit. All of the front four probably should have scored, with Evanilson firing narrowly wide.

Ouattara, interestingly, is Bournemouth’s leading player for expected goal involvement (xGI) over the last six Gameweeks, matching Semenyo for big chances. The latter most definitely has the edge for expected minutes, however.

Milos Kerkez (£4.7m) finally delivered on his attacking threat with an assist, while Dean Huijsen (£4.4m) banked bonus points yet again. Even though Huijsen has made just nine starts, Ola Aina (£5.2m) is the only defender who has more bonus points to their name in 2024/25.

Goals have helped but even aside from that, Huijsen ranks among the league’s best defenders for baseline bonus points (BBPS):

Above: Defenders sorted by minutes per BBPS (minimum 10 apps)

0-11

Ever seen a team win 5-0 and feel short-changed? That was Brentford on Saturday as Southampton’s mildly encouraging start under Ivan Juric came to a crashing halt.

The big chances tally read 0-11 at St Mary’s. We thought that was a data error initially – but no, it was correct. Here is a blow-by-blow account:

• 5′: Kevin Schade (£5.1m) races onto a deflected Mikkel Damsgaard (£5.0m) through-ball to score, 0-1
• 21′: Yoane Wissa (£6.2m) latches onto a Bryan Mbeumo (£7.7m) through-ball but has a shot saved
• 22′: Christian Norgaard (£4.8m) nods Mathias Jensen‘s (£5.3m) free-kick onto the bar
• 51′: Wissa miskicks form eight yards then sees the follow-up shot blocked with the goal gaping – both counted as big chances
• 59′: Wissa is clean through on goal after a Schade flick-on but blazes well over
• 61′: Mbeumo lashes in from the edge of the six-yard box after Wissa tees him up, 0-2
• 68′: Mbeumo scores a penalty after Sepp van den Berg (£4.1m) is hauled down, 0-3
• 73′: Keane Lewis-Potter (£5.0m) skews wide when being brilliantly sent clear by Mbeumo with a backheel
• 91′: Lewis-Potter does convert this time from six yards from a Mbeumo pass, 0-4
• 93′: Wissa picks up a loose Southampton header, races clear and scores, 0-5

Exhilarating from Brentford but how much can we read into a win over one of the Premier League’s worst ever sides?

That sounds like hyperbole but Saints’ tally of six points from their opening 20 games is the joint-worst since the top-flight rebrand in 1992. Sunderland’s dismal 2005/06 team shares that unwanted record.

Impotent at the other end, they barely had a chance of note.

“It was an extremely bad day. A really, really bad game. And it was such a difference between two teams. I’m really disappointed with everything. With the team, with myself, with everybody.” – Ivan Juric

CITY NEXT

The Bees won’t have it as easy as this again – but if you’ve got Wissa and/or Mbeumo in your FPL squad, you’re still surely starting them in Gameweek 21.

Time was when a fixture against Manchester City would have seen FPL assets benched or fielded reluctanctly.

But even in victory over West Ham United on Saturday, the reigning champions looked so suspect defensively.

Over the last 11 Gameweeks (the start of their poor run), City are in the bottom six for goals conceded, expected goals conceded and big chances conceded.

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