Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.4m) was on the scoresheet for Crystal Palace again on Tuesday, as two matches get the Scout Notes treatment.
Here, we focus on Crystal Palace 4-1 Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-2 Fulham.
MATETA AGAIN
The in-form Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.4m) scored again on Tuesday and is now up to 12 Premier League goals for the season.
Eight of those strikes have arrived since the turn of the year, a period which has seen him average 8.0 points per match.
Once Palace’s Blank Gameweek 29 is out of the way, expect Mateta’s ownership, which currently stands at just 10%, to quickly ramp up.
On his 27th Birthday, Ismaila Sarr (£5.5m) also excelled with a brace of goals, having been directly involved in four of Palace’s six big chances on Tuesday.
His second goal was particularly eye-catching, as he hooked Daniel Munoz’s (£4.9m) cut-back into the far corner on the volley.
For large periods, Villa just couldn’t live with the attacking trio of Mateta, Sarr and Eberechi Eze (£6.7m), with the underlying stats showing Palace’s dominance.
Indeed, the Eagles’ 3.82 expected goals (xG) was their highest total in a Premier League game all season.
They’ve been superb defensively, too, conceding just 0.53 xG in their last two matches.
As for Oliver Glasner (£0.8m), he’s now produced back-to-back 20-point Assistant Manager hauls.
Finally, a quick word on Marc Guehi (£4.6m). He played the full 90 minutes on Tuesday but “felt pain in his knee” so will need to be monitored.
“He felt a little bit of pain and fingers crossed it’s nothing serious, he felt pain in his knee. He can rest now for two days.” – Oliver Glasner on Marc Guehi
ROGERS GOAL
Morgan Rogers (£5.6m) was fit to start on Tuesday following his injury scare and showed glimpses of his best form at Selhurst Park.
The budget midfielder had a goal ruled out for offside in the first-half but wasn’t to be denied, later smashing it into the bottom corner for his seventh league goal of the campaign.
Overall, however, this was a dismal night for Aston Villa, with a potential injury to Emiliano Martinez (£5.0m) adding further complications.
“He was feeling some pain yesterday. He tried and did the warm-up but in the first half he felt pain and we decided to change him.” – Unai Emery on Emiliano Martinez
Unai Emery changed his formation for this game, lining up in a 3-4-2-1 to match Palace, before shifting to a more familiar setup after the break.
Yet Villa didn’t look completely comfortable in either shape, with the introductions of Marco Asensio (£6.0m) and Marcus Rashford (£6.7m), the match-winners against Chelsea last time out, failing to ignite them, as they fell apart in south London.
Villa have now lost seven of their last nine Premier League away games, with a trip to Brentford up next in Gameweek 28.
“We were a little bit surprised by their system because they matched us in a 3-4-3, but the players knew exactly what to do. They stayed patient. Also, at the beginning, when Emi Martinez always waited with the ball, we know what they wanted. We ran and opened the pocket, and then with two or three quick passes, they found their players – so we stayed patient.
“We just gave them passes where we wanted. We didn’t allow the momentum to change because the players were so confident, and stuck to the plan and waited for situations, and were so aggressive and so sharp. And then we scored amazing goals, created so many chances, and it was really a very good performance today.” – Oliver Glasner
WHY ROBINSON WAS BENCHED
Fulham didn’t get going against Crystal Palace on Saturday but came out on top at Molineux, thanks to some inspired Marco Silva changes.
The Portuguese made five alterations to his starting XI and switched to a back-three formation, with Antonee Robinson (£5.1m), Alex Iwobi (£5.7m) and Raul Jimenez (£5.6m) among those rotated out, perhaps with an eye on Sunday’s FA Cup fifth-round tie against Manchester United.
Their replacements, including Ryan Sessegnon (£4.1m), who was handed his first Premier League start of the season, and Rodrigo Muniz (£5.5m), certainly made the most of it, with both players on the scoresheet.
“We knew that we were going to need some fresh legs inside. The last game for us on Saturday was a difficult one, performance-wise was not the best, and I knew that coming here the game was going to demand from us some fresh legs inside. Some players that we decided wouldn’t start the game, like Alex Iwobi, Robinson, Calvin [Bassey], for example, they are the players with more minutes in our team. It’s not easy when you change five players, when you are playing at the level we are playing in the Premier League.
“Not starting with Alex, Willian is not ready to start a game yet from a physical point of view, and we don’t have other wingers, that is the reality, we don’t have solutions. And that was the first reason we changed the formation. We know that Sessegnon is able to play wing-back very well, he has the composure to attack the box in the right moment, like he did for the first goal. And with Jorge Cuenca there, we knew that he was always going to be very well covered. Overall, changing five players in a short period, and changing the formation, too, the boys responded really well and I’m really pleased for them.” – Marco Silva
As for Wolves, they surprisingly struggled at Molineux.
Matheus Cunha (£6.9m), who scored two goals and assisted another in the reverse fixture earlier this season, carried a threat, racking up a match-high six shots, but lacked a clinical touch.
Above: Matheus Cunha’s shot map v Fulham in Gameweek 27
The equaliser was scored by Joao Gomes (£4.9m) after a neat one-two down the left, with wing-back Nelson Semedo (£4.5m) claiming the assist, his fourth of the campaign.
They failed to build on it, however, often lacking momentum in the final-third.
“We cannot build a team around a player [Cunha]. We should create situations. We should create dynamics to solve, to create goals, to score goals. We needed to defend well, and today we committed mistakes that we cannot commit again. It means that tomorrow we start correcting these mistakes.
“We need to reflect. We need to think about our mistakes. We need to look at ourselves, it’s not about the other team, it’s about us. Today, after three days, the players tried everything, but not in the right way. This is a problem against a team that when they started to do the subs, they came with a lot of players with high quality, because they have these solutions in the squad. At this moment with the injuries for us, it’s difficult.” – Vitor Pereira
