There’s plenty to unpack from a busy Wednesday night of Premier League action, so let’s get started by picking out some key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points, including Bruno Fernandes‘ (£9.1m) earlier-than-anticipated return from injury.
Here are our Scout Notes from Burnley 2-2 Manchester United and Fulham 2-1 Chelsea.
BONUS-MAGNET BRUNO
Bruno Fernandes returned to the starting XI as the no 10 in Darren Fletcher’s 4-2-3-1 and was typically influential, creating five chances for his teammates.
One of those, a tidy through ball, earned the assist for Benjamin Sesko’s (£7.2m) first goal, and a few minutes later, Bruno struck the outside of the post from a similar position.
There were no defensive contribution (DefCon) points on this occasion for the Portuguese, but Bruno did bank two bonus points to take his season total of those to 19, a tally only Erling Haaland (£15.1m) can beat.
That’s now a joint league-high eight assists for set-piece specialist Bruno to go with his five goals, a tidy return in 18 starts so far.
Bruno was subbed off just after Sesko’s second goal, a minute after the hour mark, but interim boss Fletcher – who will remain in charge for at least Sunday’s FA Cup clash with Brighton and Hove Albion – revealed post-match that this was a planned change so as not to aggravate the hamstring issue that kept the midfielder out of the previous three-and-a-half games.
“It was planned before the game, we discussed it. 45 minutes was mentioned, 60 minutes, and I think we had agreed that 60 was probably a push. I didn’t want to take Bruno Fernandes off in that game, but that was the plan from the club, from the medical [staff], from the coaches. Bruno had an injury that we have to respect, and it’s a long season as well. So, it’s disappointing, but that was the plan before the game and we knew that was going to happen.” – Darren Fletcher reveals why he subbed Bruno Fernandes early
BACK FOUR BUT DORGU STAYS ON THE WING
One of the key contributors to Ruben Amorim’s downfall was his tactical inflexibility – namely, the former manager’s head coach’s near-permanent unwillingness to budge from a 3-4-2-1.
Darren Fletcher’s decision to, as expected, revert to a four-man defence more familiar to the club and its players was therefore met by general approval from those of a United persuasion. But what did that actually look like?
Well, it meant full-backs like Luke Shaw (£4.5m) and Diogo Dalot (£4.5m) in their more natural positions, with the former pushing on a little more than the latter. The most advanced full-back on the pitch, however, was Patrick Dorgu (£4.2m), who played on the left of United’s trio of attacking midfielders in this 4-2-3-1.
That may not continue for long, even with Bryan Mbeumo (£8.1m) and Amad Diallo (£6.2m) still at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), given Mason Mount (£5.9m) returned from injury with a second-half cameo, and Cunha typically looks better on the left than the right, where he began this match.
Still, this was another promising attacking display from the Danish defender, who created a joint Gameweek-high five chances – one of them a well-weighted cross to assist United’s second goal – and also fired off three shots, all of them from within the penalty area. One of those looked destined for the back of the net were it not for a last-ditch clearance by the back-tracking Maxime Esteve (£3.9m).
TWO (AND NEARLY MORE) FOR SESKO
That was the second goal-line clearance of the opening period, with the first of them denying Cunha’s headed effort becoming an equaliser after Burnley took an early lead via a cross that deflected in off Ayden Heaven (£3.9m).
Immediately after Cunha’s shot was blocked, United thought they’d drawn level again from the resulting corner, but would-be scorer Lisandro Martinez (£4.8m) was adjudged to have committed a foul in the build-up.
The Red Devils were, somehow, unable to ultimately find a winner in this tie, despite letting loose a whopping total of 30 shots, 20 of them inside the area and 10 of which were on target.
Sesko was responsible for eight of those efforts, including seven of the shots on target, and found the net twice in 10 second-half minutes to end a personal nine-game scoring drought.
Both goals were well-taken, first-time strikes by the young Slovenian, who grew into the game and nearly bagged a maiden United treble had it not been for a few saves from his powerful headers.
“I was so happy for him. I spoke to him yesterday and we presented a video showing his movement and showing his goals, just showing how it is coming and he needs to keep believing and the players need to get more service to him. He did that tonight and scored two great goals. A real positive night for Ben.” – Darren Fletcher on Benjamin Sesko
Burnley, without a win in 12 games now, managed to score twice despite having just one shot on target at Turf Moor!
After centre-back Bashir Humphreys’s (£3.9m) attempted cross looped in via Heaven in the 13th minute, the Clarets went close through left-back Lucas Pires (£3.8m) – still keeping Quilindschy Hartman (£4.0m) out of the XI – but only scored again in the 66th minute when second half substitute Jaidon Anthony (£5.1m), given far too much space by United’s backline, curled the ball in from the edge of the area.
Martin Dubravka (£4.0m) remains the ideal cheap ‘keeper and made six saves here, while ahead of him Esteve – seemingly fully recovered from injury now, judging by his 90-minute run-out – bagged his latest DefCon haul and Humphreys did the same, for the third time in as many starts (all of which have come in the last four Gameweeks).
WILSON KEEPS SCORING
Down in the capital, meanwhile, a London derby at Craven Cottage went the way of hosts Fulham, and who else but Harry Wilson (£5.8m) to provide the winner?
The in-form Welshman netted near the end to down Chelsea, registering his 11th return (six goals, four assists) in 12 matches since the start of November (only Haaland has more in that time, with 12).
FPL points have by no means been in short supply for Wilson’s backers recently, then, but owners will still have felt relief after the winger saw a goal ruled out for an offside against Raul Jimenez (£6.2m) in the build-up.
The Mexican striker, for his part, opened the scoring shortly after the interval with what was his ninth attacking return (five goals, four assists) in 16 Premier League starts this season.
In total on Wednesday, Wilson – his team’s most advanced player, as illustrated by the StatsBomb passing network below – managed a joint Gameweek-high eight attempts, with three of them on target.
Elsewhere, this was the second match in a row that Marco Silva has fielded a back three of Jorge Cuenca (£4.3m), Issa Diop (£4.3m) and Joachim Andersen (£4.6m), with Antonee Robinson (£4.9) and the notably high-positioned Timothy Castagne (£4.3m) deployed as wing-backs.
CHELSEA’S ILL-DISCIPLINE COSTS THEM… AGAIN
Another week, another red card for Chelsea!
This one came in just the 22nd minute, when Marc Cucurella (£6.0m) brainlessly hauled down the dangerous Wilson with a professional foul that saw the Spaniard given his marching orders.
The Spaniard will notably serve his suspension in the FA Cup third round, so he will be available for selection in Gameweek 22.
A further indication that incoming head coach Liam Rosenior – who watched from the stands this time, with U21s boss Calum McFarlane remaining in the dugout – needs to give this young squad some disciplinary direction pronto is the fact that Cole Palmer (£10.4m), Enzo and Tosin Adarabioyo (£4.1m) were all booked for dissent in the aftermath of the red card.
Until then, it had been a relatively even game, with Wilson firing at Robert Sanchez (£4.9m) a few times and Enzo Fernandez (£6.4m) testing Bernd Leno’s (£4.9m) reflexes straight from the corner flag before another dead-ball delivery by the Argentine bounced off Andrey Santos (£4.5m) and hit the crossbar.
The game inevitably changed after the red card, but here’s how Chelsea lined up:
On paper, it was a 4-2-3-1 with Palmer positioned on the right side of the attacking trio, Pedro Neto (£7.1m) on the left and Enzo in the ’10’. That could be promising for the Blues’ joint-top Premier League goal-scorer, but we’ll have to see whether Rosenior changes things up.
On Wednesday, neither Enzo nor Palmer lasted the full 90, with the duo subbed after 65 and 75 minutes respectively.
