Transferred out by nearly 700,000 Fantasy managers and benched by nigh on a million, Joao Pedro (£7.8m) returned from injury on Saturday to plunder his third double-digit haul of 2026/27.
In doing so, he helped fire Chelsea to a thumping 5-1 win over Bournemouth, leaving the Cherries still winless after six Gameweeks.
Here are our notes from the match.
XG BUSTIN’
The above xG figures (Chelsea 1.10, Bournemouth 1.38) make it seem like this was an unmerited win for the Blues. That’s not the case; even Marco Rose admitted after full-time that the Cherries were “not good” and that it was a “deserved loss”.
Context is always key when looking at expected goals. Chelsea were 2-0 up after three minutes, so they didn’t need to attack with urgency thereafter. Bournemouth did.
It’s also worth noting that nearly 70% of the visitors’ expected goals tally came from one incident, and at 3-0 down. It was a freak occurrence, too, with Antonio Silva (£5.0m) shouldering the ball on the floor and an attempted clearance from Moises Caicedo (£5.3m) flying into the net off Evanilson (£6.0m). Both counted as shots!
But what the xG tallies do highlight is Chelsea’s ruthlessness. Only one of their five goals was a gilt-edged chance, specifically Pedro’s second.
The others, Jordan Henderson‘s (£4.9m) edge-of-box effort, Morgan Rogers‘ (£7.9m) deflected curler, Pedro’s clinical finish from a cut-back and Henderson’s free-kick, were just great strikes:
Henderson ended up with 18 points, his second-highest-ever FPL score since his 2008 debut!
Ideally, of course, you’d want to see the Blues creating a lot more and relying less on sustaining dead-eyed accuracy. Alonso’s side are ranked a lowly 13th for xG this season, and have ‘overachieved’ more than any other side.
Still, at the end of this all, Pedro, Rogers and two-time-assister Cole Palmer (£9.7m) ended with 12, nine and eight points, respectively. Not a bad day at the office.
ANOTHER MATCH WITHOUT A CLEAN SHEET
Chelsea’s run without a Premier League clean sheet now extends to a whopping 22 games.
While Evanilson’s goal was a fluke, the Cherries could have scored before that when Rayan (£6.3m) broke through the last line and spurned two chances.
Caicedo’s return did make Chelsea look more assured but the backline remains a work in progress.
“I couldn’t wait to have him back, to be honest, because with Moi on the pitch, everything looks more in place because he’s so, so important, so pivotal to everything around. Very good news for Moi to be back.” – Xabi Alonso
JAMES INJURY UPDATE + CAICEDO RETURNS
So, then, Alonso – a slippery customer in his first five pre-match pressers – was telling the truth. Pedro, Palmer and Caicedo were fit and “ready to go”. All started.
No surprise that wing-back Marco Palestra (£5.3m) didn’t; he’d been out much longer than the other three and had to make do with a cameo. He looked a tad rusty, too.
“It’s a pity that he missed the start of the Premier League when he was feeling so well after the pre-season. He needs time for adaptation but he has energy, he has power, so we are looking forward [now] that he feels great.” – Xabi Alonso on Marco Palestra
The one player unexpectedly missing out was Reece James (£5.3m). This sounds like a fresh injury picked up in training.
“He felt something. After we did the tests later in the afternoon, he had some little issues on the knee. So, we need to check how long it will be. We will assess it week by week.” – Xavi Alonso on Reece James
RAYAN UP TOP
Onto Bournemouth, and Marco Rose sprung a surprise by playing Rayan up top, with Evanilson just off him.
As mentioned earlier, the Brazilian had two very good chances, supplied by Marcus Tavernier (£6.1m) and Adrien Truffert (£5.4m).
“We were thinking about how to get physicality close to the goal. Rayan played it already in his former club. We watched some videos and when we spoke about it with him, he was quite happy. His eyes were shining and, of course, he didn’t train it. He didn’t play it for a long time but that was not a problem today. This approach was not the problem today. The problem was our attitude; this was the problem.” – Marco Rose on playing Rayan up front
KLUIVERT + KROUPI UPDATES
Part of the reason why Evanilson was in the hole, and Rayan was up top, was the shortage of fit ’10s’. Justin Kluivert (£5.9m) and Eli Junior Kroupi (£7.4m) are both currently out, while Ryan Christie (£5.0m) was needed further back in central midfield with Alex Scott (£6.0m) unavailable. Scott was certainly a miss on Saturday.
But, as Rose hinted in his pre-match presser, Kluivert and Kroupi are closing in on returns. The Dutchman should be back first.
“We get players back. Justin Kluivert, Amine Adli, Veljko [Milosavljevic] are in a good way. Even Junior Kroupi is back on the pitch.” – Marco Rose
FIXTURE SWING
While it was a chastening defeat at the Bridge, Bournemouth have generally competed well this season. They held the lead in their first four matches (against the likes of Man City, Brentford and Newcastle), and merited more from each of those games.
The fixtures get much better now, too:
Remember, Andoni Iraola had a nine-game winless run at the start of his Cherries tenure back in 2023.
The difference this time is that UEFA Europa League ties are dotted in between the above fixtures, a distraction that prospective FPL owners could do without.
DEFCON ROUND-UP
Antonio Silva (£5.0m) couldn’t add to his (then) joint-defender-best eight DefCon points this time, falling well short. Two decent sights of goal from set plays went begging, too.
James Hill (£5.5m) did meet the required number, however, and he is now level with Silva for both DefCon points (eight) and total contributions (61).
A surprise winner in the DefCon race on Saturday was Rogers. Palmer was only two away, too!
