Completing Blank Gameweek 34’s Saturday round-up is a look at West Ham United and Fulham’s home wins over Everton and Aston Villa.
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There was plenty of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) interest, but very little success.
BOWEN KEEPS ASSISTING
The joy mainly came from Jarrod Bowen (£7.8m), bought by over 1.3 million managers before Friday’s deadline. Though his goalless run extended to 10 matches, a pair of crucial assists means he’s set up nine in nine.
With Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur picking up wins in this relegation battle, West Ham needed to do the same.
Above: The most FPL assists between Gameweeks 26 and 34 (so far)
0-0 at the break, a lively second-half cross from Crysencio Summerville (£5.5m) created a big Taty Castellanos (£5.5m) effort that Jordan Pickford (£5.6m) blocked.
No penalty was given for the goalkeeper’s horrible follow-through tackle but, from Bowen’s resulting corner, Tomas Soucek (£5.7m) broke the deadlock on his 200th Premier League start.
Pegged back towards the end, West Ham desperately needed another. And it arrived in stoppage time, when Bowen nodded the ball across, allowing Callum Wilson (£5.8m) to calmly slot home.
It means the Hammers are on three wins and 11 points from six matches. The momentum they’ll take into closing fixtures against Brentford (a), Arsenal (h), Newcastle United (a) and Leeds United (h) makes Bowen extremely appealing for Gameweek 35 Wildcard users.
DEWSBURY-HALL WIPES CLEAN SHEET
The FPL forward was only denied maximum bonus points by Soucek, as the Czech international cleared a ball off the line. He deflected Thierno Barry‘s (£5.7m) header onto the crossbar and away, not long after making a huge interception to deny a tap-in.
However, with West Ham on the verge of a sixth clean sheet in 10, Konstantinos Mavropanos‘ (£4.5m) owners eventually lost this one in the 88th minute.
James Tarkowski (£5.7m) knocked a cross down to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall‘s (£5.1m) fierce strike. So the cheap midfielder has delivered an attacking return in three consecutive matches.
At least Mavropanos nabbed a reward for defensive contributions (DefCon). On a weekend like this, four points doesn’t feel terrible!
CRAVEN COTTAGE BLANKS
Elsewhere, the only player purchased more than Bowen was Ollie Watkins (£8.8m). Naturally, to the frustration of 1.8 million new owners, the Aston Villa man produced nothing at Fulham.
His best moment came when he held off a defender to create half a yard of space, but the subsequent effort dragged beyond the far post.
In fact, Watkins, Morgan Rogers (£7.5m) and Harry Wilson (£6.0m) each had three attempts without scoring.
The latter two are well-known for shooting in quantity, rather than quality. 19 league goals but just 11 big chances between them. Think of this duo as the opposite of Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.7m).
Above: Morgan Rogers’ best effort versus Fulham, shown by Statsbomb
Receiving the ball out wide, Rogers dribbled inside to a great central position, but put his shot narrowly off-target. Rubbing salt into the wounds, Wilson then picked up a yellow card in stoppage time.
“We had four very good chances: two for Watkins and one for Tammy [Abraham] and Morgan [Rogers]. Normally, with those circumstances, we could expect before the match to achieve something.
“We must be clinical when we are creating chances like today. I was a little bit frustrated because in Nottingham two weeks ago, we had the same chances as today. This is something we must keep improving, to be clinical in the attacking third.” – Unai Emery
POSSIBLE SESSEGNON INJURY
Additionally, there was a second successive clean sheet for Fulham defenders like Joachim Andersen (£4.5m), whose popularity has dropped during chip season. 11 points for the Dane.
All it took to win the game was a goal from Ryan Sessegnon (£5.4m), slotting in a rebound after Sasa Lukic‘s (£4.9m) header forced a save.
Yet the 25-year-old had to come off in the 81st minute. Marco Silva is waiting to hear if he’s injured.
“Back-to-back clean sheets, crucial for us, and it was a massive, massive win. I congratulate the players for the great and hard work from them, from the back line, the great job in our right-hand side with Harry Wilson and Timothy Castagne.
“The only bad thing is the possible injury for Sess[egnon]. Let’s see what’s going to happen. We have been very unlucky recently with some key players for us being out. Let’s hope it’s nothing special with Sess.” – Marco Silva
