Manchester City kicked off their Gameweek 36 double-header with a 3-0 win over Brentford.
It was a strong start to the Double Gameweek if you Triple Captained Erling Haaland (£14.7m), own City defenders and/or took a punt on Jeremy Doku (£6.5m).
Antoine Semenyo (£8.1m) and Rayan Cherki (£6.6m) owners were left frustrated for different reasons, however, while so high was Haaland’s effective ownership at most rank tiers that even those who captained the Norwegian (without Triple Captaining him) lost ground when he scored.
Here are our Scout Notes…
WHY DIDN’T SEMENYO GET AN ASSIST?
It was a mixed bag from Semenyo, who was largely stymied down the right flank but produced the occasional flash of inspiration. At least he lasted 90 minutes, after earlier substitutions in the previous two league games.
His one official ‘chance created’ was for Haaland in the first half, with the Norwegian seeing his header saved.
But Semenyo played a big part in City’s second goal, which was finished off with a scruffy backheel from their number nine.
Forced home by @ErlingHaaland 💪💥 pic.twitter.com/uv2Xv7szlW
— Manchester City (@ManCity) May 9, 2026
Why no assist?
For two reasons, actually.
Firstly, Opta recorded Haaland as having two bites at the cherry, the first one saved. So, no assist for anyone.
SCOUT: After review, there is no assist for Erling Haaland’s goal. Haaland’s initial shot was saved by Caoimhin Kelleher before he converted the rebound. https://t.co/ftDmC7TTgq
— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) May 9, 2026
And even if Haaland had finished at the first attempt, Omar Marmoush (£8.3m) would have got the assist; it turns out that the Egyptian inadvertently touched Semenyo’s deflected cross en route to the Norwegian:
CHERKI HOOKED EARLY
The most-bought player of the Gameweek, Cherki, didn’t even make the hour-mark.
The Frenchman and Tijjani Reijnders (£5.0m), a surprise starter in the middle of the park and the latest player to have a shot at Rodri‘s (£6.3m) vacated midfield role, both came off after 59 minutes.
The reason? Pep Guardiola wanted more natural goalscorers in the box. Brentford had largely been successful at frustrating City, with the score 0-0 at the time of Cherki’s departure. On came Phil Foden (£8.0m), in a deeper role but crashing the area, and Marmoush, who was effectively Cherki’s replacement.
Both of them had an impact. Foden burst into the box on a couple of occasions and drew smart stops out of Caiomhin Kelleher (£4.8m), while Marmoush rounded off the scoring in injury time.
“We didn’t have enough players in the box. To score a goal is simple. All the managers I had throughout the age [said the same thing]. To score a goal, you have to bring people closer to Kelleher, closer to Erling.
“The second goal, [Semenyo gets] right to the byline and it is Erling there, Omar, make a chaos, the deflection. When Erling is just alone, he has three central defenders against him. It is impossible to score a goal. In the second half, with Phil and Omar, they were there more. Phil had two chances, two shots, Kelleher saved it, but he was there, he has to be there.
“In the second half, it was much better.” – Pep Guardiola
“Omar, today again, I’m so incredibly pleased because he gave us energy and always is a guy who scores goals.” – Pep Guardiola
With Crystal Palace set to bring their three centre-halves to the Etihad on Wednesday, might Guardiola give Haaland more support (i.e. Marmoush/Foden) from the off? And will Cherki be the fall guy, or perhaps move to the right?
WHY DOKU, NOT HAALAND, GOT MAXIMUM BONUS POINTS
A goal and an assist is usually enough for a forward to scoop maximum bonus points.
Not so in this case, with Haaland owners forced to settle for two.
The man of the moment, Doku, instead took top honours. How did he manage that, and by quite some margin?
The breakdown below shows where Doku picked up his baseline bonus points (BBPS). He hoovered them up from a variety of sources, from key passes (KP) and big chances created (BCC) to dribbles (Dri) and fouls won (FW):
And, of course, he scored himself. It was a similar goal to his equaliser against Everton, a superb, curling effort into the top corner.
He’s playing with such confidence at the moment, and now has five attacking returns in as many starts since returning from injury.
“Everybody knows it, that he made an incredible step in the sense that he says, “I’m Jeremy Doku, I’m going to win games.”. The big players, the greatest players, always have that mentality.” – Pep Guardiola on Jeremy Doku
NO DISGRACE IN BRENTFORD’S PERFORMANCE
Just as 3-0 was a flattering scoreline for Brentford last week, the 0-3 result did a disservice to the Bees, no matter what the xG says!
The gameplan was working well until Doku’s goal, which involved the Belgian getting a fortunate run of the ball.
The Bees only registered four shots across the game but there were other scares for City besides; a long throw that had to be cleared off the line, and a decent penalty shout for Kevin Schade (£6.8m). Igor Thiago (£7.3m) twice went close, forcing Gianluigi Donnarumma (£5.6m) into saves.
Dango Ouattara (£5.7m) dropped to the bench as Keith Andrews went with a more conservative line-up, involving Aaron Hickey (£4.0m) in midfield, but you can bet that the Burkinabe winger will be back in the starting XI in Gameweek 37, when Crystal Palace visit west London.
