Four Premier League clubs were in EFL Cup action in midweek. We’ll bring you up to speed with all you need to know from a Fantasy perspective, from minutes played and injuries to any wider talking points, including Oliver Glasner’s latest quotes on Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.6m).

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RESULTS

SELECTION/ROTATION

There were wholesale changes for Nottingham Forest and Brentford, who each made 10 alterations from the teams who lined up at the weekend.

Aston Villa kept a core of four, while Crystal Palace played it safest of all by keeping seven. Every manager played their reserve goalkeeper.

GLASNER ON MATETA

Crystal Palace required penalties to get past Millwall, who forced the shoot-out with an added-time equaliser. In truth they should have been home and hosed by then, but Jean-Philippe Mateta contrived to miss a sitter at the end of normal time to make the tie safe. 

Palace had taken the lead through defender Chris Richards (£4.5m), on for Marc Guehi (£4.7m) in the second half, who turned in a loose ball at a corner.

This clash – Palace’s 16th consecutive unbeaten match in all competitions – was further evidence of the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) value of their defenders. Richards scored and Daniel Munoz (£5.6m) would have had an assist but for Mateta’s mishap. They also came within seconds of keeping another clean sheet.

Debutant Walter Benítez (£4.0m) came good in the shoot-out and did nothing wrong between the sticks in regulation time, but Dean Henderson’s (£5.0m) place as number one is not in jeopardy.

Apart from Benítez’s star turn in goal and Palace’s defenders shining once again, the chief talking point from an FPL perspective is the performance of Mateta. His miss was symptomatic of his slow start. Only four forwards have had more shots on goal than Mateta this season, yet Mateta has scored just once.

Palace manager Oliver Glasner suggested that Mateta is suffering from tiredness, having played every minute of the season so far.

“JP honestly needs a break; you saw his chance was just fatigue from playing every game, every minute. In the second half, I looked who could play striker: Clyne, Cardines, or Rodney.” – Oliver Glasner on Jean-Phillipe Mateta

JESUS STAKES A CLAIM

Forest’s trip to Swansea gave Ange Postecoglou an opportunity to get a good look at his second-string players, having seen his first XI get beaten by Arsenal in his maiden match in charge. It will have been a long trip back from Wales for the new head coach, whose side raced into a two-goal lead only to lose 3-2.

The encouraging news for Forest is that summer signing Igor Jesus (5.8m) scored twice in the first half to stake a claim for Chris Wood’s (£7.6m) shirt up front. The Brazilian, whose last goals came at the FIFA Club World Cup for Botafogo, was in the right place at the right time to pounce after Omari Hutchinson’s (£5.5m) shot deflected into his path. His second was a tap-in from Hutchinson’s cross following clever approach play by James McAtee (£5.4m). 

This was a goal straight out of the ‘Ange-ball’ playlist and Igor Jesus will have certainly done his prospects no harm. The South American forward was replaced at half-time by another summer signing Arnaud Kalimuendo (£6.0m), who also had a couple of shots on goal.

Wood has not scored since Gameweek 1 and his owners are getting twitchy fingers over whether to transfer out the New Zealander. Even with two promising deputies breathing down Wood’s neck, Postecoglou is unlikely to discard a player who scored 20 goals last season, particularly as the Kiwi was starved of service against Arsenal. 

However, this is a situation worth monitoring, as the mobility of Jesus might play into Ange’s game plan in the medium term. Hutchison’s goal contribution will have also impressed his new coach, who might be considering bringing him in in the near future, but with matches against Burnley and Sunderland to come it’s hard to see Postecoglou making such a drastic change yet.

Of greater concern to the Australian will have been his side’s second-half capitulation. Forest were watertight in defence last season but have now conceded three goals in three successive matches. In mitigation, this was a makeshift backline in Swansea with Matz Sels (£5.0m) replaced by Brazilian goalkeeper John Victor (£4.0m), while Oleksandr Zinchenko (£4.9m) got a run out after being ineligible to face his parent club in Gameweek 4. If Postecoglou taps into Zinchenko’s creative instincts, the Ukrainian could well be one to watch. Elsewhere, Hutchison and McAtee looked bright and might soon get starts should Forest fail to catch fire.

ELLIOTT OFF THE MARK

A miserable season for Aston Villa got worse in midweek as Unai Emery’s team were knocked out of the EFL Cup on penalties by Brentford. On the plus side, summer signing Harvey Elliott (£5.4m) did score Villa’s first goal in eight hours of football, but that owed more to a blunder by Brentford’s reserve goalkeeper Hakon Valdimarsson (£4.0m) than the quality of the shot, which squirmed through his legs.

If FPL managers were hoping to see an injection of creativity from Elliott, who was playing centrally just behind Donyell Malen (£5.2m), in for the rested Ollie Watkins (£8.8m), it was sorely lacking here. The same applies for Jadon Sancho (£5.9m), who had a quiet night on the left, albeit he did strike a post.

On the right summer signing Evann Guessand (£6.4m) was also peripheral and Villa only really looked like scoring again once Watkins and Morgan Rogers (£7.0m) had come off the bench in the second half. Late saves by Valdimarsson, from Matty Cash (£4.5m), and Rogers denied Villa, who looked slightly more solid in midfield with Boubacar Kamara (£4.9m) back from injury.

“We have to get strong defensively and offensively and get in combination good performances. Today is one part of the way. Not with the result we wanted but we have to accept it.

“There is still a lot of work to do, a lot of practice and matches. I think we are watching some improvement. Not enough but a lot of things will be positive.” – Unai Emery

BEES PLAYING THE LONG GAME

From Brentford’s perspective, things are looking up. After earning a last-gasp draw against Chelsea, they scraped through here with the help of the same method. The Bees’ long-throw takers are assets Fantasy managers should keep an eye on as they are getting results for Keith Andrews’s side.

Michael Kayode (£4.5m) teed up Fabio Carvalho (£4.9m)  for his goal against Chelsea in Gameweek 4 and Frank Onyeka (£5.0m) was the man to launch it on this occasion, with Aaron Hickey (£4.0m) capitalising on Pau Torres’s (£4.4m) inadvertent flick-on for his first goal in an injury-ravaged two years.

Hickey was outstanding for Bologna before joining Brentford and getting injured almost immediately. If he can put his injury nightmare behind him, he could challenge for a first-team place, so the goal will have done his chances no harm.

Meanwhile, it is worth bearing in mind that goals from long throws tend to get a touch off another player before reaching the goalscorer. Defenders with an aerial threat such as Sepp van den Berg (£4.5m) and Nathan Collins (£5.0m) can capitalise from such scenarios. 

Andrews decided to keep centre-back van den Berg in the side from Gameweek 4, and it proved a shrewd decision as he made two crucial blocks to keep his side in the game and had a header saved superbly by Marco Bizot (£4.5m). Brentford’s chief goal threat came from Dango Ouattara (£6.0m), who has already scored against Villa in the league, and this time round had a shot blocked and a header from a corner whistle just over the bar.

There is little to learn from the shootout other than Valdimarsson was the hero of the hour, redeeming himself for his earlier error by denying John McGinn (£5.5m) and Cash.