The battle of the budget Fantasy picks went the way of Hull City on Saturday, as Coventry City‘s first Premier League home match in 25 years fell flat.

Here are our Scout Notes from the CBS Arena.

£4.0M DEFENDER INJURY UPDATES…

Bobby Thomas (£4.0m) and Nobel Mendy (£4.0m), owned by 7.9% and 4.8% of FPL managers respectively, both failed to finish the game on Saturday.

It was a good thing for Thomas’ owners, as his 78th-minute withdrawal came four minutes before Hull scored. A clean sheet and two points banked – and not even a proper injury to worry about.

“Bobby had some cramp, so felt better to get Ethan [Pinnock] on. Good that he gets on the pitch for us because he’s going to bring us experience and quality. It was a change that had to be made.” – Frank Lampard on Bobby Thomas’ substitution

Mendy, however, came off 90 seconds before he could snaffle clean sheet points. The consolation is that, again, he doesn’t seem to be seriously injured.

“Nobel, fatigue in both quads.

“[These early withdrawls for players] are also because they missed pre-season. This is the problem. Like last season, when they joined us after [pre-season], then you have problems. But I know that and I expected it also.” – Sergej Jakirovic

Another bargain pick at the back, Lewie Coyle (£4.0m), came off at half-time.

“Lewie got a kick and a dead leg, he was struggling there. He has a yellow card in that moment and it’s better to go out.” – Sergej Jakirovic on Lewie Coyle

Elsewhere on the injury front, Sky Blues midfielder Frank Onyeka (£5.0m) had a “small problem around his hip” but Frank Lampard hopes “he’ll be ready for next week.”

…AND ANOTHER £4.0M DEFENDER TO STAY WITH HULL

Sticking with the theme of £4.0m defenders, Friday saw curious reports linking Hull’s first-choice left wing-back, Ryan Giles (£4.0m), with a move to Championship side Burnley.

Don’t worry, though, Giles owners, as his manager is having none of it.

“He is a first XI player and he will stay, of course. I spoke with Mr Chairman, very nice, I just said, ‘No way’. And he respects this, of course.

“He is our best left full-back, left wing-back.” – Sergej Jakirovic on Ryan Giles

MORE EGAN DEFCONS

While we’ve still got more Premier League matches to come in Gameweek 2, John Egan (£4.0m) is one of just three defenders who’ve banked DefCon points in both league matches so far this season:

Above image from our DefCon page

In fact, Egan was the only player involved at the CBS Arena on Saturday who registered DefCon points.

PRAISE FOR £5.5M FORWARD AWONIYI

Above: Taiwo Awoniyi and Hull substitute Liam Miller were the only players to have more than one shot at the CBS Arena (via our Match Centre)

Coventry struggled to break down a stubborn backline.

Jay Dasilva (£4.0m) had a good late headed chance for the Sky Blues but the rest of the hosts’ threat, and 0.93 of their 1.29 xG, came from Taiwo Awoniyi (£5.5m).

Handed his first league start for Coventry, he replaced Ellis Simms (£5.0m) up top. The Nigerian lasted 90 minutes, too.

And Lampard was very happy with his display.

“He was good, Taiwo, very happy with him. Held the ball up really well, he was a threat around the box. We needed to get more balls into him to help him and get players around him more but really pleased with him, and he’ll get better.” – Frank Lampard

Awoniyi couldn’t get power on a first-half header and narrowly missed another cross before he had Coventry’s best chance of the match, failing to bundle the ball past an impressive Konstantinos Tzolakis (£4.5m).

A starting £5.5m forward is always worth keeping an eye on – but can Coventry supply him with enough ammo?

CHAMPIONSHIP QUALITY?

In truth, this was a poor match and, you’d have to say, Championship-quality.

Hull’s threat was non-existent for the first 70-odd minutes, with Ollie McBurnie (£5.5m) not given a sniff and a long-range drive from Mendy about the best they could muster. Two breakaway chances for substitute Liam Millar (£5.0m), the second converted, proved key.

Coventry’s goal threat evaporated after Awoniyi’s big chance. Between minutes 38 and 90, they had just two shots for a combined xG of 0.03.

The Tigers, sitting second in the Premier League table and keeping successive clean sheets, will not care a jot, of course. Their gameplan will likely remain the same all season: they’ve averaged just 29.6% possession in the first two Gameweeks, and all three of their goals have come from set pieces or counter-attacks. It’s a style of play that should lend itself to lots of DefCons!

• READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 2: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus + DefCon points
• READ MORE: Liverpool 2-2 Forest – Scout Notes: Gibbs-White on pens, Gakpo City-bound + Szoboszlai at right-back