We conclude our Gameweek 35 round-up with a recap of Manchester City’s enthralling 3-3 draw at Everton, a match that could have huge ramifications on the Premier League title race.
Here are our Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Scout Notes from the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
DOKU – A DOUBLE GAMEWEEK 36 DIFFERENTIAL
Two players bagged braces during this engaging, end-to-end affair on Merseyside.
One ‘double’ came from Everton’s substitute striker Thierno Barry (£5.7m), to equalise and then give his side a brief two-goal lead. The other came from City’s increasingly clinical winger, Jeremy Doku (£6.4m), breaking the deadlock and then rescuing a point in the 97th minute.
Barry only came on shortly after the hour mark, replacing Beto (£5.0m). Four minutes later, the French forward pounced on a loose Marc Guehi (£5.1m) backpass to draw Everton level. Some 13 minutes after that, he slotted home his second Opta-defined ‘big chance’ of the night to make it 3-1.
But after City quickly pulled one back straight from the restart, another moment of curling magic from Doku at the death then dealt the hosts’ European hopes a blow and gave the visitors a glimmer of hope in the title race with the points split.
Post-match, Guardiola was full of praise for his Belgian wide man, who also created a match-high four chances:
“He made a big step up with that, winning games. He is starting to be a winning player.
“He’s always been incredible but in the final third, maybe he misses the last pass, but he arrives there many times.” – Pep Guardiola on Jeremy Doku
Now boasting four attacking returns from four successive starts, could Doku upset the template City picks ahead of Double Gameweek 36?
EVERTON CONCEDE LATE AGAIN
This was a game of two halves, in many respects.
The Toffees soaked up their visitors’ pressure reasonably well for much of a tense opening period, having just a quarter of possession, before Doku outdid them minutes before the break.
After the interval, Everton delivered a much-improved display during an open second half and were deserving of their temporary advantage.
They were outshot by 21 attempts to 14 but had six shots on target to City’s four and four Opta-defined ‘big chances’ – scoring three of them – to City’s one, ending up with a superior expected goal (xG) total.
The Toffees have now shipped nine goals in four matches.
Of note is the fact that this was Everton’s third time conceding a decisive stoppage-time goal in as many fixtures, following back-to-back late losses against West Ham and Liverpool.
Good news for Palace attackers in Double Gameweek 36 – and even those who come off the bench, based on the above stat.
“We were as poor as we’ve been all season, I thought, in the first half, but much, much better in the second half.” – David Moyes
CITY’S SETTLED XI CONTINUES
With Rodri (£6.3m) missing out again through injury, and both Ruben Dias (£5.5m) and Josko Gvardiol (£5.8m) still similarly sidelined, City’s relatively settled first XI continued on Merseyside.
Guardiola’s only starting line-up change from his side’s previous league outing was to deploy Nico Gonzalez (£5.9m) in the Rodri-shaped hole in central midfield. Nico O’Reilly (£5.2m) consequently returned to left-back.
The latter Nico, in such good form of late, blanked for just the second time in eight Premier League matches, despite finishing with one chance created and three shots of his own, all of them taken from inside the penalty box.
HAALAND DROPS DEEP
Further forward, Erling Haaland (£14.6m) was once again flanked by Doku and Antoine Semenyo (£8.1m) with Rayan Cherki (£6.6m) in support. The City frontman got his 25th Premier League goal of the campaign, a cheeky chip to make it 3-2 after running through on goal.
Haaland has now scored in three straight league matches. However, that was his only shot on target on a night where he often dropped deep to help link up play as Guardiola’s men struggled to break Everton down.
In fact, as can be seen in the StatsBomb pass map above, Haaland’s average passing position was farther from the goalmouth than that of O’Reilly, Cherki, Doku or Semenyo.
TWO EVERTON TWEAKS
Within Everton’s ranks, there were two changes to the XI that started last weekend’s loss at West Ham. Tim Iroegbunam (£4.8m) replaced Idrissa Gueye (£5.4m) – absent through injury – and Merlin Rohl (£5.0m) made just his third league start of the season, lining up on the right wing in place of Dwight McNeil (£5.5m).
Typically a central midfield player, Rohl impressed out wide, earning an assist after his breakaway shot deflected neatly into Barry’s path in the 81st minute. He was also denied a penalty by VAR after coming together with Bernardo Silva (£6.2m) during a corner.
On the other wing, Iliman Ndiaye (£6.2m) unleashed a match-high four shots but ended up empty-handed, having been denied on a few promising occasions. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£5.2m) took three shots but all were from outside the area and wide of the mark, ending his recent run of successive attacking returns.
In terms of Everton’s frontline moving forward, whether Barry’s brace here is enough to earn him a start away to Crystal Palace on Sunday remains to be seen.
ANOTHER GARNER ASSIST
The Toffees’ second, go-ahead goal in their mad 13-minute second-half spell came from the head of right-back Jake O’Brien (£4.9m), who registered his second attacking return in four matches.
It was a chance from a corner taken by James Garner (£5.2m), who is now up to seven assists this term. There have been four of those – plus six lots of defensive contribution (DefCon) points, which he missed on Tuesday – coming in his last eight appearances.
The only DefCon earners from this tie were Michael Keane (£4.5m), who escaped with only a yellow after a rash challenge on Doku, and Abdukodir Khusanov (£5.4m), who has now hit the threshold three times in a row.
CHERKI VS SEMENYO
Elsewhere, Tuesday marked another recent instance of Cherki outshining Semenyo.
The Frenchman fired off four shots (though only one was on target) to his teammate’s two and created two chances – one of them, a simple pass to Doku on the edge of the area, earning him an assist – to Semenyo’s one.
Semenyo’s two efforts on goal – each of them in the first half – both missed the target. One he dragged wide after he collected a rebound from Cherki’s saved shot. The other he blazed over following a Doku cross.
Over their last four Premier League matches, Cherki also comes out on top for all of total shots (17, a joint-high with Haaland among all players, to Semenyo’s 10), shots in the box (13 to Semenyo’s seven), shots on target (five vs two), ‘big chances’ (two vs zero) and chances created (14, the second-most of any player in the division, to Semenyo’s three).
