The last two of Saturday’s Premier League matches get the Scout Notes treatment: Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Brentford and Newcastle United 2-1 Burnley.

• Scout Notes: AFCON exit latest, £3.8m defender + Bruno on top
• Scout Notes: Is Salah’s time at Liverpool coming to an end?
• Scout Notes: Munoz injury, Mateta’s minutes + £5.2m Wilson
• Scout Notes: Calafiori ban + Rice (briefly!) the top-scoring midfielder
• Scout Notes: Senesi update + Delap injury good for £4.2m Guiu?
• Scout Notes: Foden + Cherki shine in another Haaland blank
• Scout Notes: Three in four for Dewsbury-Hall + Moyes on Barry/Beto rotation
• Scout Notes: Minteh early sub, Rutter “boost” + Bowen’s shots

XAVI’S BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE?

Poor home record met poor away record on Saturday. Tottenham Hotspur won out, and surprisingly comfortably, too.

Finally among the attacking returns was Xavi Simons (£6.5m). It was from his centre that Richarlison (£6.4m) put Spurs ahead, while the Dutchman then embarked on a solo goal – under little challenge from any Brentford defender, admittedly – to double the Lilywhites’ lead.

“Yeah, definitely. I think every player needs that extra good performance, so happy for him. He’s been working very hard. He’s a top pro, he’s so determined, he wants it so badly in every aspect of his game and it’s just a little bit of adaptation, also that the team is a little bit out of sync. Now, it was more, for example, Kudos after a great start, a little dip because of the little injury, and a lot better today. As Xavi is in a good place, Kolo is in a better place, Richy. So, everything just coming more and more together, so now we need to build on it.” – Thomas Frank on if this could be Xavi Simons’ breakthrough performance

Forgive the mistrust but, as good as this was, we’ve become used to inconsistent displays from not just Xavi but the entire Spurs team. This was their first league victory in six Gameweeks, while Thomas Frank’s side have not strung together back-to-back wins since August. From the 3-0 win at Everton to the thrashing of Copenhagen in the Champions League, there have been more false dawns than a Lucy Davis tribute act convention.

Xavi, indeed, had gone 10 matches without an attacking return before Saturday.

Plenty more evidence is needed before we’re convinced that Spurs have hit their stride.

UDOGIE INJURY – GOOD NEWS FOR SPENCE

Catching the eye on Saturday was the excellent Djed Spence (£4.4m). With the news that Destiny Udogie (£4.4m) is out until January, Spence has a clearer run at the left-back slot.

He was eye-catchingly high up the field here, seeing a one-on-one opportunity of his own saved here and teeing up another for Pape Matar Sarr (£4.7m). Again, that was spurned. Spence had also slipped Wilson Odobert (£5.3m) in for a Spurs goal that was subsequently chalked off for offside.

“We worked very hard on the structure, how we want the structure to be, with which position we wanted for, let’s say, Xavi and Mo and Richy and Kolo and also the two sitters and how we pushed Djed a little bit higher.” – Thomas Frank

Defensive contributions (DefCon) have almost killed the budget full-back in terms of FPL appeal, so there’ll no doubt still be few takers. Were this another season, it might be a different matter entirely.

SCHADE BAN + BRENTFORD’S AWAY-DAY STRUGGLES

A very subdued performance from Brentford saw them register only two shots in the first 87 minutes. In total, they finished on a meagre four efforts.

“The performance levels have been pretty consistent, really, even when results have fallen one way or the other. Today we have to own the fact that we didn’t play particularly well in the first half, we didn’t hit the levels that we have been doing.” – Keith Andrews

Poor away results are nothing new to the Bees, however. Only goal difference is keeping them out of the bottom three for form on the road this season (below image from Soccerstats):

Luckily, the Bees are on home soil in four of the next six Gameweeks. They’ve lost only once on their own turf. On top of that, one of just two away matches is at a desperately poor Wolverhampton Wanderers outfit. Rob Edwards’ beleagured side may be able to give Brentford’s away form a shot in the arm.

Despite Brentford not being at the races, Igor Thiago (£6.9m) still encouragingly had chances on what was a quiet day for him. An early shot was well saved by Gugliemo Vicario, while the Brazilian fired into the side netting from a decent position late on. In between, Cristian Romero denied Thiago what looked like a certain goal with a well-timed tackle.

Nothing to worry about from his perspective, then.

Brentford will be without Kevin Schade (£7.0m) in Gameweek 16. He picked up his fifth booking of the season on Saturday, so serves a one-match ban. An ‘out of position’ Keane Lewis-Potter (£4.8m) on a Free Hit against Leeds United, anyone?

ANOTHER GORDON PEN + FLEMMING ON SPOT-KICK DUTIES

As if any doubt existed that Anthony Gordon (£7.2m) remained first choice on penalties at Newcastle, the last two Gameweeks have rubber-stamped that he is ahead of Nick Woltemade (£7.5m) in the pecking order.

Scoring a spot-kick in last Tuesday’s draw with Tottenham Hotspur, with Woltemade on the field, Gordon did exactly the same against Burnley.

The Clarets were awarded their second penalty of 2025/26, meanwhile.

And again, for the second time, up stepped Zian Flemming (£5.3m) to score. That’s remarkably now five goals in seven Gameweeks for the budget forward.

Flemming didn’t even start this one, with Armando Broja (£5.2m) instead leading the line. That perhaps had more to do with the minutes accrued in the busy week before the trip to Tyneside but nevertheless, Broja did offer more of the all-round play that Flemming doesn’t – so despite the form, it’s not a given who starts in Gameweek 16.

MORE BRUNO XG-BUSTING

Gordon also rattled the woodwork twice against the Clarets and was probably the pick of Newcastle’s attackers but in general, this was a disappointing display against a 10-man Burnley, a team with the worst defensive record in away games.

The Clarets, indeed, were not far behind their hosts for shots in the box (6-5) and xG (1.56-1.48, Statsbomb).

Howe (understandably) chose this game to rotate – he had three, potentially four second-string players in his front six, while he rested a slightly ill Lewis Hall (£5.2m) – but it almost backfired. The Clarets, a man disadvantaged from the point of Lucas Pires‘ (£3.8m) 43rd-minute red card, should have equalised with the last kick (or head) of the game, only for Flemming to take the ball off Josh Laurent (£4.8m).

Poor team performance or otherwise, Bruno Guimaraes‘ (£6.9m) good form continued. So did his xG-busting, and this one took the biscuit: a goal direct from a corner, with an xG of less than 0.01! None of his other four shots were from inside the area, either (see below):

He is the most overachieving midfielder in 2025/26: five goals from an xG of 2.20.

WISSA RETURNS

One bright spot for Newcastle was the first appearance of the season for Yoane Wissa (£7.3m). Don’t expect a Wissa start any time soon, Woltemade owners, but he will, at least, provide second-half relief for the big German, as he did against Burnley.

 “We’re going to have to build him up. He’s a quite a long way short of his best physical levels. Nothing aginst him, that’s just with the injury that he’s had and the time that he’s had out. We’re going to have to build him up slowly but surely and try and get him back to his very best.” – Eddie Howe on Yoane Wissa