Rounding off the Scout Notes from Saturday, we look back on stutters for Arsenal and Nottingham Forest.
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Rashford penalty boost + Emery on resting Rogers
- READ MORE:Â FPL notes: Why Mateta was subbed + Ederson injury update
- READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 32 round-up: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus points + stats
MORE MANAGED MINUTES
With more than one eye on Real Madrid, Mikel Arteta dished out more domestic rests to key players on Saturday.
Bukayo Saka (£10.4m), Jurrien Timber (£5.7m), Martin Odegaard (£8.2m), Mikel Merino (£6.1m) and Myles Lewis-Skelly (£4.5m) all dropped to the bench against Brentford, and all five came on in the second half.
Unless disaster strikes in the Bernabeu, the minute management may continue for a while yet. Rotation could bite against Ipswich Town next Sunday (four days after the UEFA Champions League tie), while the Gameweek 35 visit of Bournemouth also looks like a red flag:
Above image from Legomane
Saka and co should get at least one start in Double Gameweek 33, however. Without a league or FA Cup tie on the weekend of Gameweek 34, you can’t imagine Arteta sends his star men into battle in a Champions League semi-final without having started in a fortnight.
If we’re guessing, Arteta probably sends his strongest side out against Crystal Palace, a week before the all-important Champions League last-four game.
SNOOZEFEST IN THE SUN
This match had all the intensity and action of an Emirates Cup kickabout, with Brentford setting out to contain and Arsenal unable to really prize them open without Odegaard or Saka.
The Bees had just three shots all game, while the only two saves that Mark Flekken (£4.5m) made were from efforts from out wide/distance.
The game’s biggest chances, at least based on the xG, were the two goals: Thomas Partey‘s (£4.9m) breakaway strike and Yoane Wissa‘s (£6.5m) hooked effort. Even then, neither were what you would call glaring opportunities.
What the stats don’t show is a shot that never was. Saka dispossessed Flekken late in the game and was briefly presented with an open goal but instead of shooting from the below position, he dribbled, dawdled and lost the ball.
The England international also flashed a shot narrowly wide in stoppage time.
The lack of intensity is perhaps as big a problem as the minute management going into Double Gameweek 33. Even though we can be confident of most of our Gunners getting at least a start and a sub appearance, will they be ‘turning it up to 11’ with the title gone and the Champions League the focus?
On the injury front, Arteta will make checks on Jorginho (£4.6m) and Partey, who came off in the second half. Ben White (£6.1m) also missed out with a knock.
“We don’t know. He could not be in the condition to be in the squad today and be selected. We have a few days, but we’ll have to wait and see.” – Mikel Arteta on Ben White
15 GOALS FOR WISSA
Brentford are the only club that can boast of having two players inside the top 10 goalscorers’ list.
Wissa netted his 15th of the season in north London (it shows as 14 in FPL as he was later credited with another). Impressively, not one of those was a penalty.
The back four were all solid, too, with the Sepp van den Berg (£4.1m) and Nathan Collins (£4.5m) partnership looking so much more secure than a backline containing Ethan Pinnock (£4.5m). Collins, remarkably, now has six assists for the season.
Amid the carnival of risky doublers and rotation elsewhere, Thomas Frank largely continues to name the same team and plug away at a top-half finish – and there’s a lot to be said for that continuity and commitment at this stage of a season.
FOREST SLIP UP AGAIN
Back-to-back losses have left Nottingham Forest’s Champions League push looking ropey.
While the Tricky Trees merited a point at Villa in Gameweek 31, this was a deserved – if last-ditch – defeat. It’s not often we’ve said that this season.
It’d be understandable if nerves were creeping in at this stage of the campaign, and that may be half the battle in the run-in.
“We cannot get away from the fact it is a decisive moment of the season. We were not comfortable and the fans also saw the boys were struggling.” – Nuno Espirito Santo when asked if he thought nerves were a factor
The good news is that Everton, despite what the ticker says, was one of Forest’s toughest tests of the run-in. The Toffees are resurgent under David Moyes, with their only defeat in 12 league games coming at runaway leaders Liverpool.
Tottenham ‘minds on Europe’ Hotspur are next, while there are eminently winnable games against Brentford, Leicester City and West Ham United beyond that. No need to panic just yet, then.
Chris Wood‘s (£6.9m) return didn’t enliven the attack, nor did Anthony Elanga‘s (£5.4m) second-half introduction. Both had been injury doubts for this contest.
It’s a struggle to think of a clear chance that anyone in red had.
A TRICKY TEST FOR MAN CITY IN GAMEWEEK 33?
Above image from Soccerstats
Everton’s solid form under David Moyes can be seen in the above 12-match table. Bear in mind they’ve played Liverpool (twice), Forest, Arsenal and an in-form Palace during that run, too.
It should maybe temper expectations for Man City’s first Double Gameweek 33 fixture: the Cityzens travel to Goodison Park next weekend.
Above: Everton have not conceded more than one goal in any of their last six matches
Everton assets themselves might come back onto the FPL radar in Gameweek 35. Two of the Championship-bound strugglers visit Merseyside in the final four Gameweeks:
The fit-again Iliman Ndiaye (£5.2m) and Dwight McNeil (£5.1m) should be fully up to speed by that point, you’d think. Ndiaye still looks rusty but nearly followed up his Gameweek 31 penalty with a goal here, being denied in a one-on-one with the typically solid Matz Sels (£5.1m).
McNeil has only had late, late substitute appearances since his comeback but it was the winger who set up the winner, taking his season tally to nine attacking returns from 13 starts and a couple of cameos. Impressive.
In the absence of a convincing striker from the Blues – Beto (£4.9m) was benched here to give Armando Broja (£5.3m) a chance – those two are probably the great budget Everton hopes for the final month.
Abdoulaye Doucoure (£5.1m) got the winner at the City Ground but he’s had a relatively poor season overall. That was only his third goal of 2024/25.
