Leeds United edged Nottingham Forest in unquestionably the least memorable game of Gameweek 1 so far.
But what can Fantasy managers take from the low-scoring, low-quality contest at the City Ground?
Here are our Scout Notes from the game.
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SET PIECES… AND LITTLE ELSE
We won’t need long to write up this match.
Very little materialised from open play, with much of the threat (and 15 of the 23 shots) coming from set pieces.
In fact, the only saves that James Trafford (£5.0m) and Matz Sels (£5.0m) made from efforts taken inside the area were from long-throw situations. Igor Jesus (£6.0m) forced a flying Trafford stop from Aina’s hurl into the box, while Tarik Muharemovic (£5.0m) did likewise from Sels from a recycled throw-in routine.
Nikola Milenkovic (£5.5m) struck the post from James McAtee‘s (£5.5m) delivery; again, that stemmed from a corner. McAtee’s crosses were pretty impressive.
And it was fitting that the winner was a set piece. Anton Stach (£6.0m) scored three free-kick goals in 2025/26, and he opened his account for this season from the same source.
Jesus nodded off-target from close range and Chris Wood (£6.0m) skewed a pretty good opportunity wide in the two major opportunities from open play. Even then, the total xG outside of set-piece situations was a miserable 0.33.
A good advert for both defences; not so for the attacks.
CALVERT-LEWIN DENIED A TAP-IN BY OFFSIDE WILSON
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m) had three efforts in total, all of them pretty innocuous.
His best chance at finding the net wasn’t even a recognised shot. The striker would have tapped in a near-certain goal had an offside Harry Wilson (£6.5m) not stolen in and converted Jayden Bogle‘s (£4.5m) low cross.
Frustration for his owners, which was compounded by a yellow card.
AINA’S THREAT
Above: Nottingham Forest’s average position map on Saturday
Oliver Glasner loves his wing-backs pushed high upfield, and much of the pre-season talk was over how Neco Williams (£5.0m) could prosper under his new boss.
But Ola Aina (£4.5m) went closest to an attacking return on Saturday. It was the Nigerian’s long throw that Jesus headed at Trafford, and it was from his teasing cross that the Brazilian striker nodded wide after the interval.
No player created more chances (CC, below) than Aina at the City Ground:
Aina – who flirted with a red card in the first half – even got to bank clean sheet points, being taken off before Stach’s winner.
USUAL SUSPECTS RACK UP THE DEFCONS
While Muharemovic had plenty of pre-season attention for his DefCon-amassing numbers at Sassuolo, it was the usual suspects in the defensive contributions mix on Saturday.
Stach, Ethan Ampadu (£5.5m) and Jaka Bijol (£5.0m) had Leeds’ best rates of DefCons per 90 minutes in 2025/26, and all delivered the goods again here. James Justin (£4.5m) got in on the act, too.
And, sticking with the familiar faces, Murillo (£5.5m), a DefCon machine in the season before they became ‘a thing’, smashed through the threshold for Forest. It could have been a double-digit haul for him, as it was the Brazilian stopper who also assisted Wood for his excellent chance. Then the clean sheet went up in smoke…
As it was, it was Stach who walked off with the big return. The Leeds man was the best-value midfielder based on last season’s points and this year’s prices – and he’s started in fine style in 2026/27.
