Harvey Barnes (£5.9m) and Newcastle United blew Manchester United away on Sunday, while Chelsea had to settle for a draw against Ipswich Town.
Rounding off the Scout Notes from Sunday, we look back on the action at St James’ Park and Stamford Bridge.
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BARNES BRACE
Harvey Barnes inspired Newcastle to an emphatic 4-1 win over Man Utd on Sunday, as the Magpies got their Double Gameweek 32 underway in style.
The winger came alive after the break, first converting a close-range finish, before a fine solo goal completed his brace.
Having served up 15 points, Barnes is currently the highest-scoring outfield player in Gameweek 32, and it’s only half-time for the 1.9%-owned midfielder.
Barnes, who has now produced five attacking returns in the last four Gameweeks, has certainly stepped up in the absence of Anthony Gordon (£7.4m), who was fit enough to come on as a substitute on Sunday.
Barnes switched to the right upon his introduction, but certainly on this evidence, looks undroppable right now.
“Harvey is a fantastic player who scores a lot of goals. He’s gone out and delivered a performance nobody is surprised by. I’m delighted for him, he’s had to wait for his chance.” – Jason Tindall
ISAK FRUSTRATION
The 412,981 FPL managers who backed Alexander Isak (£9.5m) with the Triple Captain chip had a mixed afternoon.
The Swede started well and created a sumptuous assist for Sandro Tonali’s (£5.5m) opener, but failed to build on that, first heading wide from a Bruno Guimaraes (£6.2m) cross, before Altay Bayindir (£4.3m) produced a decent stop to keep out his volley.
You could sense his frustration in the second half, too, when he was ready to pounce and put the ball into an empty net.
Guimaraes, however, went for the goal himself and found the bottom corner.
And while Newcastle stepped up a gear after the break, Isak’s threat generally tailed off: he failed to register a shot after the 33rd minute.
Not the best of starts, then, but also not the worst, with an assist with one more game to go.
Like Isak, Jacob Murphy (£5.3m) also served up five points thanks to yet another assist, his eighth since the start of December, when he put it on a plate for Barnes to sweep home.
Meanwhile, it’s good news for Dan Burn (£4.5m) owners. He avoided a booking and therefore won’t reach 10 yellow cards by the end of Gameweek 32 (he’s currently on eight), so he is subsequently in the clear.
NO ONANA… BUT MORE UNITED MISTAKES
As for United, they have now won just two of their last nine Premier League games, with both wins coming against teams in the relegation zone.
With the error-prone Andre Onana (£4.9m) dropped, Bayindir made his first Premier League start alongside team-mate Harry Amass (£4.0m).
United continued to make mistakes, however, with Newcastle able to capitalise and make their domination count.
Only Southampton (19) and Aston Villa (13) have made more errors leading to goals in the Premier League this season than United (12), who made another two on Sunday.
“We did a lot of mistakes and they were better than us, stronger than us. Suffering the second goal in the beginning of the second half hurt us a lot and then we did mistakes during the game that helped Newcastle to win.” – Ruben Amorim
Alejandro Garnacho (£5.9m) levelled it up with a smart finish after a slick United counter, but Amorim lost Joshua Zirkzee (£6.5m) to a hamstring injury in the second half. He now looks set to miss United’s crucial UEFA Europa League quarter-final second leg with Lyon on Thursday.
Bruno Fernandes (£8.6m), meanwhile, was subbed off early (81 minutes) for the first time since Gameweek 15. There is no cause for alarm: Ruben Amorim was simply wrapping him in cotton wool ahead of Thursday’s clash.
LIVELY ENCISO
The big news from the Ipswich line-up was that Liam Delap (£5.6m) was benched, having missed some training last week.
Explaining the situation prior to kick-off, Kieran McKenna said:
“Liam has got a nasty rib injury that he picked up in the last game. He’s been in pain this week, not been able to train uninhibited. He’s done well to make the bench, to be fair. He’s a tough boy. There’s some who wouldn’t be here today. He’s tough and committed. If we can make the game competitive and find a way to be in the game in the later stages I know he’ll be itching from the sideline to come and make the difference.” – Kieran McKenna
In his absence, George Hirst (£5.4m) impressed with some lovely centre forward play. When he received the ball, he often sucked in the Chelsea centre-backs, creating space for No 10 Julio Enciso (£5.4m) and out-of-position defender Ben Johnson (£3.8m) to exploit.
Indeed, Enciso and Johnson ended the match with double-digit hauls.
Enciso has now produced three attacking returns in his last three matches.
“Big credit to him. It’s been unfortunate for Julio. He could have made a huge impact for us in terms of results. He could have been a difference maker for us. I think the spirit we showed from Julio and the rest of the players summed up the group.” – Kieran McKenna
PALMER UNDERWHELMS AGAIN
With some tricky fixtures to come (ful/EVE/LIV/new/MUN/nfo), this will go down as a missed opportunity for Chelsea.
They admittedly fought back from 2-0 down, but once again, they weren’t clinical enough in attack, despite peppering the Ipswich goal with 34 shots.
Six of those attempts came from Cole Palmer (£10.7m), who has now failed to score in 14 consecutive league and cup appearances since netting against Bournemouth in Gameweek 21. That run now includes home matches against all three promoted sides.
Palmer did at least provide the assist for Jadon Sancho’s (£6.2m) equaliser, but having been booked for dissent, ended Gameweek 32 with just four points.
Elsewhere, Nicolas Jackson (£7.7m) hit the post, but only Noni Madueke (£6.0m) came out of this clash with any real credit.
The winger was handed a start after scoring two off the bench in Europe, and it was his fine run and cross which forced Axel Tuanzebe’s (£3.9m) own goal, which initially looked like it had been turned in by Marc Cucurella (£5.4m).
Overall, however, this was another underwhelming Chelsea display, with much tougher match-ups on the horizon.
