The UEFA Champions League action continued on Wednesday night, as Arsenal and Liverpool continued the 100% win rate of English clubs.
The Reds, however, did it without Cody Gakpo (£7.2m), and the Dutchman’s fitness is among the main Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from the latest round of midweek games.
These Scout Notes contain graphics and stats from our UCL Fantasy Match Centre, which forms part of the UCL Fantasy Toolkit.
LIVERPOOL 2-1 ATLETICO MADRID
- Goals: Szoboszlai, Mac Allister
- Assists: Araujo, Isak
Liverpool XI: Alisson; Araujo, Jacquet, van Dijk, Kerkez (Tsimikas 88′); Szoboszlai, Mac Allister (Gravenberch 69′); Barcola (Frimpong 60′), Wirtz, Ngumoha (Munoz 60′); Isak (Koumas 88′)
GAKPO INJURY UPDATE
The most-bought players for Gameweeks 2 and 3 both immediately blanked, and Gakpo – already purchased by around 600,000 managers – might not even be fit for Gameweek 4 because an adductor injury kept him out of this victory.
Delivering in each encounter makes him FPL’s leading points scorer (28), but Andoni Iraola’s pre-match update doesn’t sound great.
“Cody finished the game the other day against Ipswich with some adductor issues. Both sides. Nothing specific.
“[It is] not a proper injury. But we didn’t want to risk him, and I think it makes sense he can rest and hope we can recover him.
“If it’s not for the weekend, it’s for the next one. But I think even for the weekend he has a chance.” – Andoni Iraola on Cody Gakpo
BARCOLA + KERKEZ ONLY SUFFERING FROM CRAMP
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s £123 million signing Bradley Barcola (£8.0m) entered the starting lineup in one of two changes: he and Rio Ngumoha (£5.8m) replaced Gakpo and Victor Munoz (£6.5m).
Placed on the right wing, the Frenchman’s biggest moment came when missing a 49th-minute one-on-one. Put through by Florian Wirtz (£7.4m), his shot looked like it would ripple the net but went slightly wide.
Around the hour mark, supporters were concerned to see Barcola signal that he needed to come off. But, thankfully, Iraola later confirmed that he and Milos Kerkez (£5.4m) only had a bit of cramp.
“No, it is cramp. It is just cramp, there is no injury. With Bradley, it’s about building his physical condition. We don’t really know – or we didn’t know until now, probably – how much he can play because he hasn’t had any minutes in pre-season for PSG.
“He played 30 the other day [and] today we had some question marks, how many minutes he can give us and probably now we know.” – Andoni Iraola on Bradley Barcola
SZOBOSZLAI SCORES
One of Barcola’s other shots set up the Reds’ equaliser, cancelling out the sloppy Kerkez defending that let Marcos Llorente put Atletico 1-0 up. Remarkably, that’s the former Spanish international’s fifth goal from three visits to Anfield – a stadium he named his dog after. True story!
In the 40th minute, Barcola struck straight at Jan Oblak, leading to a scramble that saw right-back Ronald Araujo (£5.4m) cleverly flick the ball into Dominik Szoboszlai‘s (£7.0m) path. The highly-owned Hungarian not only scored in open play, but from close range. He created five chances, too.
Early in the second half, the ball bobbled out to Alexis Mac Allister (£5.4m), whose lovely left-footer went beyond Oblak and into the bottom corner. It meant three points for Iraola on his managerial Champions League debut.
Apart from Gakpo, another potential FPL concern is that Wirtz had no shots.
NAPOLI 0-1 ARSENAL
- Goals: Odegaard
- Assists: Tzolis
Arsenal XI: Raya; White (Zubimendi 82′), Konsa, Gabriel, Hincapié; Rice, Merino (Guimaraes 66′); Saka (Madueke 73′), Odegaard, Eze (Tzolis 66′); Gyökeres (Havertz 73′)
ODEGAARD AGAIN
In Naples, we saw another win for Arsenal. And this one was much more dominant than the scoreline suggests – 3.60 expected goals (xG) from 26 attempts and eight shots on target.
At the back, it was just 0.31 expected goals conceded (xGC), meaning no opponent has reached 0.40 so far, or had a single shot be more than 0.15.
Bukayo Saka‘s (£9.5m) six efforts were responsible for 0.72 xG:
But it was Martin Odegaard (£6.6m) who once more stepped up to the plate, scoring an eventual 75th-minute winner when a 29-pass move involving 10 players. Christos Tzolis (£6.4m) assisted the Norwegian’s crisp left-footed strike that went in off the post.
Already on two league goals and double-digit hauls, here Odegaard also created six chances:
The Norwegian is so good right now, and Mikel Arteta hints that he’s being told to push higher. That’s good for FPL investment.
“Last year he missed so many games through injuries. He’s got that edge, and he’s got now different relationships around him as well, and that helps, and now he can start to occupy some very different heights in the team, especially in the attacking phase, and when we get him into those positions, he’s a very dangerous player.” – Mikel Arteta on Martin Odegaard
A FULLY-RESTED CALAFIORI
Following the Community Shield and Sunday’s win over Chelsea, that’s the third time that Tzolis has set up an Odegaard goal.
The Greek winger began this match on the bench, however.
Arteta’s four changes saw Piero Hincapie (£5.3m), Eberechi Eze (£6.4m), Mikel Merino (£5.9m) and Viktor Gyokeres (£7.3m) come in for Tzolis, Kai Havertz (£7.5m), Myles Lewis-Skelly (£5.5m) and Riccardo Calafiori (£5.7m).
The latter two weren’t used at all, which is good news for the Italian’s large FPL ownership.
Also, this was the third consecutive occasion where Bruno Guimaraes (£6.8m) was only a substitute.
HAS WHITE PICKED UP AN INJURY?
Elsewhere, 7.6% currently have Ben White (£5.5m) in their team. Although they’ll have been encouraged not to see Jurrien Timber (£6.5m) in the matchday squad, there’s some slight concern about White’s 82nd-minute removal.
Journalist Sam Dean said he was “walking very gingerly” at the end. We’d usually advise waiting until Arteta’s quotes before making a decision, but the head coach enjoys speaking in riddles.
