The Gameweek 18 Scout Notes continue with Arsenal 2-1 Brighton and Hove Albion.
- READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 18: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus + ‘DefCon’ points
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Dorgu ‘out of position’ + £3.8m Heaven praise
TIMBER + CALAFIORI INJURY LATEST – AND WHY WE’RE NOT EXPECTING AN UPDATE
On a rollercoaster afternoon for owners of Arsenal defenders, two flagged players recovered to feature and two unflagged teammates missed out!
Piero Hincapie (£5.5m) made light of a midweek injury scare to start and last 90 minutes, while Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.2m) reappeared sooner than expected as a second-half substitute.
Missing out were Jurrien Timber (£6.5m) and Riccardo Calafiori (£5.7m), who, it turns out, picked up injuries in training yesterday – three days after Mikel Arteta’s pre-match presser. Calafiori got as far as being named in the line-up for the Brighton game, only to pull out in the warm-up.
“Yesterday, we lost Jurrien. Today, we lose Calafiori in the warm-up.
“With Jurrien, he landed awkwardly, and there’s something with Ricci as well, very, very strange.
“It’s something that [Calafiori] felt yesterday, something very awkward that happened and today in the warm-up, he wasn’t comfortable.” – Mikel Arteta
Two fresh (and well-owned) doubts before the crunch clash against Aston Villa on Tuesday, then. Unfortunately for Timber and Calafiori owners, we’re not likely to get much of an update from Mikel Arteta ahead of Gameweek 19 (when do we ever?). Why? Because the Arsenal boss, like many of his peers, filmed his Gameweek 19 press conference today, with quotes embargoed till Monday (noon in Arteta’s case). Whatever quotes appear at that stage, then, are unlikely to be much more enlightening than what we’ve already heard.
GABRIEL RETURNS
He’s back.
As mentioned above, Gabriel – yet to resume training when Arteta faced the media on Tuesday, underscoring the limited value of press conferences over Christmas – made the bench against the Seagulls.
Introduced for the booked Myles Lewis-Skelly (£5.1m) in the 71st minute, he reunited with William Saliba (£5.9m) at centre-half. Hincapie moved to left-back.
So now, the race to buy him anew.
He’s averaging more FPL points per start (7.4) than any other defender in 2025/26, at least those who have appeared in a starting XI on more than one occasion. For most of us, it’s a question of when, not if.
The immediate fixtures aren’t great; an in-form Aston Villa and a nutty Liverpool side that has scored in 16 of their 18 league games this season, despite their deficiencies, come in the next three Gameweeks. Gameweek 22 might be the optimal hop-on point; others may not want to wait that long.
Even without Gabriel, Arsenal have been unlucky not to record more than two clean sheets in his seven-match absence from the first XI:
Above: Premier League teams sorted by expected goals conceded (xGC) since Gabriel was injured
On Saturday, the Gunners were utterly dominant against Brighton, not conceding a single shot in the first half. While Diego Gomez‘s (£4.9m) consolation forced a nervy finish, and David Raya (£6.0m) had to make a sensational save to maintain a 2-1 lead, the scoreline flattered the Seagulls.
With Gabriel bolstering the backline, could the Arsenal defensive double-up/triple-up be soon back on?
SAKA A THREAT, AGAIN – AND RICE MATCHES HIM, AGAIN
Further forward, it was basically rinse and repeat from previous weeks. Bukayo Saka (£10.3m) was again the main source of threat and the underlying numbers leader, but Declan Rice (£7.2m), again, mostly matched him for FPL output.
Saka bagged an extra couple of bonus points but otherwise, it was again one return apiece.
Above: Arsenal players sorted by chance involvement % on Saturday
Saka had more shots (seven) than any Premier League player on Saturday. Meanwhile, only Martin Odegaard (£7.8m) created more chances than the winger (four). Odegaard finished one of those key passes to put Arsenal 1-0 up.
Saka tested Bart Verbruggen (£4.4m) early on from a narrow angle from seven yards, while he took too long with a one-on-one late on. In between, a disappointing Viktor Gyokeres (£8.8m) should have nodded in Saka’s wayward shot, while Gabriel Martinelli (£6.8m) blazed over the England international’s low cross.
More points left on the table, with the nagging sense that a mega-haul is coming soon. It hasn’t yet arrived, and in the meantime, Rice keeps ticking over. This week’s fortunate assist, following on from last week’s, saw Georginio Rutter (£5.6m) nod in Rice’s corner.
In the absence of Timber, Rice was at right-back on Saturday.
HURZELER ON MINTEH’S BENCHING, MITOMA’S ABSENCE + WELBECK’S FITNESS
Brighton belatedly came into this game in the second half, with Gomez’s goal sparking some life into the visitors. It was Yankuba Minteh (£6.0m) who drew the world-class save out of Raya, while Mats Wieffer (£4.9m) nodded over a good chance a minute later.
Both Minteh and Wieffer were among the subs on Saturday. It seemed to be a tactical decision: Fabian Hurzeler went with a 3-4-2-1, which neither player really fits into. You’d naturally expect a more attacking system in Gameweeks 19 and 20, plus returns for these two.
Having said that, the Brighton boss sounded quite chilly on Minteh’s benching after full-time.
“I think the first decision was just to make sure that everyone who’s playing deserves to play.” – Fabian Hurzeler, when asked why Yankuba Minteh was benched
As for the benching of Danny Welbeck (£6.3m) and the no-show of Kaoru Mitoma (£6.1m), both were fitness-related.
“It’s a balancing act because it’s very difficult. He’s not training fully and I think Danny Welbeck has to be fully fit to really help us. We have to balance it, we have to modify him, we have to get an understanding what helps him, and then hopefully we get him back to his best shape.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Danny Welbeck
“He was ill.
“I don’t think that it’s long-term, so I hope he will be back on Tuesday.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Kaoru Mitoma
