Scout Notes

FPL notes: Arteta’s plan for Saliba, Rice “fine” + Belloumi injury

8 November 2026 0 comments
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Not for the first time this season, Arsenal had to be patient to earn their three points on Saturday.

Their sixth Premier League victory by a single-goal margin came courtesy of Martin Odegaard‘s (£6.7m) 72nd-minute strike, after some stubborn Hull City resistance.

Here are our Scout Notes from the Emirates.

DEATH BY A THOUSAND SHOTS

Belloumi

This was a similar match to Arsenal’s win over Nottingham Forest, with the Gunners drawing a blank and not creating many/any gilt-edged opportunities until a late-ish winner. While the Arsenal faithful tends to get edgy, you never get the feeling Arteta’s side themselves are panicking that much. Their manager said after the game, indeed, that this was about “generating volume” of shots before one told – and it was very much quantity over quality.

The reigning champions have had more attempts (21) than any other team so far in Gameweek 10, but they didn’t carve out an Opta-defined ‘big chance’ till Odegaard pounced on Noni Madueke‘s (£6.2m) saved effort to score. Konstantinos Tzolakis (£4.7m) made a whopping nine saves, but there were no real wordlies in there.

Ezri Konsa‘s (£4.8m) flicked header was nearly turned in by Gabriel Magalhaes (£8.1m), while Declan Rice (£7.5m) probably went closest out of anyone, having a close-range header and a free-kick saved, and whistling another shot wide.

But this was another game that underscored why so many FPL managers consider Arsenal defensive triple-ups and barely give their attacking assets a thought. Bar a John Egan (£4.1m) header and a saved Elliot Stroud (£4.9m) shot, their clean sheet wasn’t seriously threatened.

The Gunners in a nutshell: they’re ranked 1st for fewest big chances conceded and a lowly 11th for most big chances created (per game) this season.

ODEGAARD ENJOYING HOME COMFORTS

Despite the so-so attacking numbers, Odegaard is posting some good underlying ones – on his own turf, anyway.

All three of his goals have come at the Emirates, and he’s ahead of all other FPL midfielders for expected goal involvement (xGI) in home matches:

Belloumi

The problem? He’s outside the top 50 in away games!

Madueke had one of his better matches, although it was the usual mixed bag when it came to end product. He had three decent-ish chances from the right edge of the box, two saved, before a great stoppage-time opportunity in which he couldn’t sort his feet out.

Above: Players sorted by xGI in Arsenal v Hull

Christos Tzolis (£6.1m) was quiet, however, and Kai Havertz‘s (£7.4m) poor form drags on. His major contribution here was to hit the turf and (probably rightly in one instance) ask for a penalty; you wonder how long it is before Viktor Gyokeres (£7.0m) gets his chance.

“The way he reacted to [not playing often], I think, is a great example for the rest of the squad, which is ‘I want to do more’. He went away, started to train, he came back and he was a different Noni. You could sense that he meant business. He wasn’t going to accept that situation. Since then, he has been incredible. Now you are in that position, he needs to hold it and improve it, and he can still do that.” – Mikel Arteta on Noni Madueke

TWO ARSENAL DEFENDERS NOT ENOUGH!

It was another successful day for the Gunners’ backline. Not many of us would have thought both Konsa and Gabriel would bank DefCon points in a home match against Hull, but that they did:

Belloumi

If you had anything other than an Arsenal triple-up at the back (or had captained one of their defenders), however, you may have been wishing for the clean sheet to go up in smoke!

The effective ownership of the Gunners’ defence is well over 200% at many rank tiers (such as the top 10k, below), so even a double-up wouldn’t have been enough to make up any ground.

Above: Top 10k effective ownership figures, courtesy of LiveFPL

ARTETA ON SALIBA’S ABSENCE + RECOVERY PLANS

There was no William Saliba (£5.9m) in the Arsenal squad on Saturday. The French centre-back had been named in the UEFA Champions League party on Wednesday but was absent here.

There’s no injury setback, however. Arteta explained before kick-off that Saliba would instead feature for the under-21s on Sunday against Aston Villa. That match gets underway at 2pm GMT.

A bit more breathing room for Konsa, then, who started here after a midweek fitness scare.

While we wait to see what happens over the break (both in terms of international injuries and minutes, and how Saliba gets on), the betting money would probably be on the Konsa-Gabriel partnership remaining in situ for at least Gameweek 11, given that Saliba hasn’t had any competitive minutes since July. There’s not a great deal ‘broke’ to be fixed at present, either.

RICE INJURY FEARS ASSUAGED

Starting his third match in seven days, Rice looked like he was running on fumes at times here.

Coming off just after the hour mark, Arteta confirmed that his midfielder was merely fatigued and not injured.

“Yeah, he’s fine.” – Mikel Arteta on Declan Rice

WHY BELLOUMI MISSED OUT

It was fairly positive news on the Hull fitness front, too.

The 10% owned Mohamed Belloumi (£5.3m) missed out, but it sounds like he’ll be back for Gameweek 11.

“He didn’t train since Ipswich. He tried to train on Thursday and then he didn’t feel good, his hamstring and glute. Then, our decision together is that he will skip this game and he will skip the international break and then we will use these three weeks to recover him good, so that he is ready for the Brighton game.” – Sergej Jakirovic on Mohamed Belloumi

And the 12% owned Semi Ajayi (£4.2m) is fine, too, despite hobbling off.

“He got cramp. He and Elliot Stroud. That was the reason why we made the substitution. No injuries, everything is fine. They gave everything today.” – Sergej Jakirovic on Semi Ajayi

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