Another mini-midweek Scout Notes for you as we reflect on the European action on Wednesday and Thursday.
As ever, we’re more focused on the main Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points rather than a blow-by-blow account of each match.
WEDNESDAY + THURSDAY RESULTS
| Goals | Assists | |
|---|---|---|
| Arsenal 3-0 Dinamo Zagreb | Rice, Havertz, Ødegaard | Havertz, Martinelli |
| PSG 4-2 Manchester City | Grealish, Haaland | – |
| Hoffenheim 2-3 Tottenham Hotspur | Maddison, Son x2 | Porro, Maddison, Moore |
| Manchester United 2-1 Rangers | own-goal, Fernandes | Eriksen, Martinez |
TEAM SELECTION/ROTATION
| Starting XI changes from Gameweek 22 | Players who kept their place (mins) | Other mins for selected players | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 4 | Raya (90), Gabriel (90), Rice (90), Odegaard (90), Martinelli (90), Havertz (74), Timber (59), Sterling (58) | Kiwior (90), Jorginho (90), Zinchenko (74), Sterling (58), Nwaneri (32), Partey (31), Trossard (16) |
| Manchester City | 2 | Ederson (90), Akanji (90), Gvardiol (90), Foden (90), Haaland (90), Nunes (78), Kovacic (70), De Bruyne (70), Dias (45) | Bernardo (90), Lewis (45), Grealish (45), Savinho (45), Gundogan (20), Stones (12) |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 3 | Porro (90), Dragusin (90), Davies (90), Gray (90), Bergvall (90), Kulusevski (90), Maddison (89), Son (79) | Bentancur (90), Richarlison (56) |
| Manchester United | 5 | Diallo (90), Dalot (90), Fernandes (90), Zirkzee (82), Yoro (55), De Ligt (45) | Garnacho (90), Maguire (45), Mainoo (16), Ugarte (16), Hojlund (8) |
QUALIFICATION STATE OF PLAY
| Team | Current position | What’s needed next week |
| Arsenal | 3rd | A draw or win would ensure a top-eight place but even with a loss they’ll very likely qualify |
| Manchester City | 25th | No chance of a top-eight place, only a victory will do to give City a chance at making the play-off round (positions 9-24) spots |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 6th | A win would ensure a top-eight place but a draw could be enough |
| Manchester United | 4th | A win would ensure a top-eight place but a draw will very likely be enough |
What FPL managers would ideally want in Matchday 8 of the UEFA Champions League/Europa League – which falls in between FPL Gameweek 23 and 24 – is for their players to be rested.
Mikel Arteta might well oblige, with only an absolute historic thrashing by Girona standing between them and progression. Girona are already eliminated.
Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are nearly, but not quite, there.
Manchester City, however, have to go all out for a win – so there’s scant chance of Pep Guardiola resting too many key players against Bruges.
NWANERI RETURNS TO ADD FRONT-THREE COMPETITION
Kai Havertz (£7.8m) assisted Declan Rice’s (£6.2m) early opener, and then thumped home a header to double his side’s lead in what proved to be an easy win that all but guaranteed Arsenal’s progression to the Champions League last 16.
That comes after a run of three goals in four league starts for the German forward, who – in the absence of any new striker signings – will likely be leading the line against Wolves in Gameweek 23 and for the foreseeable future given Gabriel Jesus’s (£6.7m) knee injury.
But the return of Ethan Nwaneri (£4.5m) to the midweek matchday squad has thrown a potential spanner in the works for owners of Leandro Trossard (£6.8m) and Gabriel Martinelli (£6.7m).
Nwaneri started twice in Gameweeks 19 and 20, scoring his side’s only goal in the latter fixture before being forced off with a muscular issue that caused him to miss both league games since then.
Trossard has a goal and two assists in that time, while Martinelli scored against Villa last week and assisted Havertz on Wednesday. Regardless, Nwaneri’s availability inevitably adds some uncertainty over the minutes of Arsenal’s front three, particularly in the wide positions where Raheem Sterling (£6.7m) – who started on the right here but made way for his young teammate before the hour mark – is still a factor as well.
William Saliba (£6.2m) was absent from Arsenal’s squad with a hamstring injury for the second match in a row, and is expected to miss Gameweek 23, but could return for the Gunners’ clash with City the following weekend.
Riccardo Calafiori (£5.8m) made the bench on Wednesday after missing Arsenal’s last two league matches with a reported muscle issue, so could be in line to feature at the Molineux on Saturday, while Jurriën Timber (£5.6m) was handed an early midweek rest so will likely deputise for Saliba unless Mikel Arteta is feeling a little radical.
Leaky City’s Champions League progression in peril
Just as City seem to return to their winning ways, another setback.
This time, a dismal surrendering of a second-half 2-0 lead within minutes and a continued collapse of confidence from that point on saw Pep Guardiola’s men succumb to a 4-2 defeat in Paris that leaves their place in the Champions League knock-out stages far hanging in the balance.
It was the ninth time this season the defending Premier League champions have failed to win (four losses, five draws) after taking the lead.
Goal-starved substitute Jack Grealish (£6.4m) opened the scoring before Erling Haaland (£14.9m) bundled home a second that gave City a lead it’s hard to argue they deserved, given how fraught they looked in the bottom two-thirds of the park during the first half – which saw Joao Neves miss an open goal, Joško Gvardiol (£6.0m) forced into a goal-line clearance, and Achraf Hakimi have an effort disallowed for offside.
No matter, as the advantage didn’t last long thanks to Ousmane Dembele and Bradley Barcola, with the former striking the bar before an unmarked Joao Neves headed home PSG’s third and Goncalo Ramos’s fourth in stoppage time was allowed to stand following a VAR check.
The Parisians’ pacey attackers ran City’s labouring defence ragged, with the previously formidable Rúben Dias (£5.4m) withdrawn at half-time with what has since been revealed to be an abductor injury that will keep him out of Gameweek 23 at the very least.
Savinho (£6.5m) was also withdrawn at the interval but no such injury has been reported – although new arrival Omar Marmoush (£7.0m) could now threaten his gametime.
Fellow left winger Jérémy Doku (£6.2m) missed out on the trip to Paris after picking up a problem in the Gameweek 22 win over Ipswich and will be absent from the upcoming visit of Chelsea, too, with Nathan Aké (£5.3m) also a repeated absentee.
That all means we may well see at least one of new defensive signings Abdukodir Khusanov (£5.0m) and Vitor Reis (£4.5m) sooner than expected, with both – as well as Marmoush – expected to be in the Gameweek 23 squad.
The in-form Phil Foden (£9.3m) lasted the full 90 minutes, as did Haaland, but along with the rest of City’s largely ineffective attack could do nothing to swing the momentum. Kevin De Bruyne (£9.4m) provided little of the magic we’ve started to see again in recent weeks and Mateo Kovačić (£5.4m) again looked woefully ill-prepared as a deputy for the injured Rodri (£6.2m); both midfielders looked exhausted and were withdrawn after 70 minutes, replaced by an ageing Ilkay Gündogan (£6.4m) and inexperienced James McAtee (£4.6m).
Solanke out six weeks as Spurs hold off Hoffenheim
Spurs needed that.
James Maddison (£7.5m), the team’s most productive midfielder (eight goals, five assists) in the league who regularly seems to evade Ange Postecoglou’s domestic line-ups for one reason or another, started them off on the right foot with an early goal from a Pedro Porro (£5.4m) assist.
He then turned creator to supply Son Heung-min (£9.8m) for his side’s second, with the South Korean star later adding his second of the match to help hold off a two-goal fight-back from their German hosts in the second half.
Tottenham – Maddison and Son in particular – looked more confident going forward but remained fragile at times defensively, as evidenced by their conceding from a counter-attack and a late header.
Cup-tied current No. 1 Antonín Kinsky (£4.5m) was handed a breather between the sticks, with the main talking point off the pitch the absence of Dominic Solanke (£7.5m), who Postecoglou confirmed could be out for six weeks with a knee injury.
The under-pressure Aussie added that Richarlison (£6.8m), who scored his first league goal of the season against Everton last weekend and started in Germany on Thursday, could therefore be set for a run in the team – a possible punt-worthy pick ahead of Leicester (H), Brentford (A), Man Utd (H) and Ipswich (A)?
“We are obviously managing his minutes at the moment. He felt good last night, he got through it. He hasn’t played for a long time so he is not going to be at his sharpest. We have still got to manage that. The reality is, unless something changes, he has to play.” – Ange Postecoglou on how fit Richarlison is to play every few days
Otherwise, Spurs’ hefty injury list remains largely unchanged for the time being.
Bruno rescues United with late winner against Rangers
It took a late Bruno Fernandes (£8.4m) finish from a lovely Lisandro Martínez (£4.4m) cross to secure all three points for United in their Europa League match against Rangers on Thursday.
Jack Butland mispunched a Christian Eriksen (£5.3m) corner to give the hosts the lead in a feisty end-to-end encounter at Old Trafford, but Altay Bayindir (£4.3m) was forced into several saves (and could only watch one of Rangers’ 11 efforts on goal hit the post) before being beaten by Cyriel Dessers’s equaliser.
But United’s captain scored for the second straight match in all competitions to put progression to the last 16 in his side’s hands.
Joshua Zirkzee (£6.5m), starting up top, offered little before being hooked for Rasmus Højlund (£6.8m) in the closing stages and Alejandro Garnacho (£5.9m) was threatening but wasteful amid rumours of a move away from the Red Devils by the end of the transfer window.
Young Toby Collyer (£4.5m) got a run-out in the middle of the park and was replaced, alongside Eriksen – who made way for Kobbie Mainoo (£5.2m) – by Manuel Ugarte (£4.9m) before the frantic final quarter of an hour.
Matthijs de Ligt (£4.9m) and Leny Yoro (£4.3m) were taken off early in the second period on Thursday with minor complains so may both present fresh concerns for Ruben Amorim ahead of Sunday’s late trip to Fulham, while Noussair Mazraoui (£4.4m) picked up a knock in last weekend’s loss to Brighton and was subsequently left out of Thursday’s squad as a reported precaution.
Amorim had a little more to say about United’s various defensive injuries, including the latest on Victor Lindelöf (£4.3m) and Luke Shaw (£4.9m), in his pre-match presser on Friday.
Otherwise, the injured Mason Mount (£6.3m) and wantaway Marcus Rashford (£6.6m) are the only unavailable members of United’s midfield and attacking ensemble, with the popular Amad Diallo (£5.6m) – again lining up at right wing-back – directly involved in a few of his team’s 16 shots against his former loan club but, most importantly for owners, emerging unscathed.
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