Crystal Palace defenders were the big winners as the Eagles spoiled Rob Edwards’ first game in charge of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
There was a scare or two along the way for some of the Palace backline, however, as we’ll discuss in these Scout Notes.
MUNOZ ON THE SUSPENSION TIGHTROPE
Marc Guehi (£5.1m) provided the biggest alarm by getting booked early and then flirting with a dismissal for a second caution.
In the end, though, FPL’s most-owned defender survived. He’s now returned something – an attacking return, clean sheet and/or defensive contribution (DefCon) points – in 10 of his 11 starts this season.
Daniel Munoz (£5.8m) was also cautioned – and now there’s a different kind of suspension concern surrounding him. This was his fourth booking of 2025/26, so, like Marcos Senesi (£5.0m), he’s now one caution away from a ban.
And, like Senesi, he has to get past Gameweek 19 without another yellow card to avoid a one-match suspension:
Yellow card aside, this was another great advert for his offensive attributes. Only Yeremy Pino (£5.8m) had more touches in the box than Munoz (four), while no one had as many shots in the area (two). Finishing smartly (even if it was into an empty net) from a set-piece situation, he had another close-range effort blocked later on.
In this season of DefCon machines, Munoz now stands second in the FPL defenders’ points table, chiefly through the old-fashioned route to points.
It should be said that he has also banked DefCon points on three occasions in 2025/26, going close to a fourth set on Saturday:
RICHARDS INJURY UPDATE
Continuing the theme of Palace defender scares, Chris Richards (£4.6m) owners had one of their own.
The USA international hit the deck late on in Saturday’s game at Molineux, coming off shortly afterwards.
However, what looked like a hamstring injury seems to be just cramp.
“He said he was cramping. Maybe we gave him too long off because he wasn’t called up for the United States and had the first week of the international break off! Hopefully it’s nothing serious.” – Oliver Glasner, via News Shopper
So, injury fears possibly allayed, a clean sheet banked and an overnight price rise thrown into the bargain.
MATETA INTO THE ’59 MINUTES CLUB’
It wasn’t such an enjoyable afternoon for owners of Palace’s two most-owned attackers. Ismaila Sarr (£6.7m) blanked for the fifth straight match, while Jean-Philippe Mateta (£8.1m) had one of his semi-frequent profligate afternoons.
He only had one chance but it was a huge one – a one-on-one opportunity that he screwed wide:
Mateta has now missed 11 of the 14 non-penalty (Opta-defined) big chances he’s had this season:
A forgettable afternoon was made all the more ignominious by a substitution seconds before the hour mark.
We’ve not seen or heard any quotes from Glasner on why the Frenchman was taken off so early but it’s worth mentioning that he’d returned from international duty with a “minor knee issue”, so that could be part of the rationale. Mateta was having a bit of a stinker in general, too, and Eddie Nketiah (£5.4m) was available again after injury. The hope will be that Nketiah gets Thursday’s UEFA Conference League game against Strasbourg, allowing Mateta to rest up before Gameweek 13.
The much lesser-owned Pino scored Palace’s second goal. It’s been a long time coming: this superb curling strike was his very first attacking return of 2025/26.
HOW WOLVES LOOKED UNDER EDWARDS
The magnitude of Edwards’ task was laid bare on Saturday, as Wolves fell even further behind the teams ahead of them. They are now nine points adrift of safety.
Edwards set his side up in a Luton-esque system, with the wing-backs high and wide.
The xG (1.79-1.27 in Wolves’ favour, according to Opta) made it sound like an even match that the hosts shaded.
In reality, though, two close-range, instinctive chances (the large red circles below) accounted for a big portion of Wolves’ xG. Ladislav Krejci (£4.5m) and Jhon Arias (£5.1m) both couldn’t adjust their feet when the ball fell their way.
Otherwise, Wolves didn’t carve out much of quality with the ball.
“It’s not going to be done in a week. We knew it was never just going to be a click of your fingers and that’s it. There’s probably quite a lot there that has been the story of our season so far, fairly tight, maybe a little bit of a lack of confidence and belief, but not much in the game, and then you get punished.” – Rob Edwards
