Fulham and Newcastle United were two sides that Fantasy managers flocked to in their droves for favourable early-season fixture runs.

The results have been, largely, underwhelming, and any residual interest in their players was probably laid to rest in Gameweek 10.

The mid-table pair played out a 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage that, while not a terrible watch, fittingly ended on a bum note for most of the key FPL players.

And now, (mostly) unfavourable fixture runs for both teams:

Here are our Scout Notes from west London.

BETTER FROM NEWCASTLE – BUT NOTHING TO STOP THE EXODUS

This was an improvement from the Magpies after a poor 0-1 loss to Everton.

They created the game’s better opportunities, finishing 3-1 ahead on ‘big chances’ and 1.14-0.70 up on xG.

Harvey Barnes (£6.1m) was twice repelled by Bernd Leno (£4.5m), once after racing clear on goal, and fired narrowly wide after the break. Leno thwarted Lewis Hall (£5.2m) with a superb stop late on. The Magpies’ two main Fantasy assets, denied an attacking return in the last-chance saloon. Hall did, at least, end with DefCon points.

Dan Burn (£4.8m) also had a goal chalked off for a contentious foul.

Above: Players sorted by expected goal involvement (xGI) in Fulham v Newcastle

At the other end, the Magpies kept it fairly tight. There was a scare in the 13th minute, when Oscar Bobb (£5.5m) forced Lukas Hornicek (£5.0m) into a fine save, and Gonzalo Garcia (£5.9m) nodded the corner onto the top of the bar. After that, Fulham’s main attempts came from outside the box, until Rodrigo Muniz‘s (£5.3m) deflected shot cancelled out Jacob Murphy‘s (£5.9m) stunner.

Better from Newcastle, then, but not nearly convincing enough to hold their players through Arsenal (h) and Brighton (a) for a decent Gameweek 13-15 run.

And certainly not persuasive enough to argue against fielding your full complement of Arsenal and Brighton players in Gameweeks 11 and 12.

FULHAM MAKING DEFENSIVE STRIDES – CAN THEY PLAY PARTYPOOPER?

The Cottagers have even fewer tempting fixtures than Newcastle for what remains of 2026. In fact, all of their next eight matches are against sides sitting 11th or higher in the Premier League table.

They’ve actually been pretty decent over the last two months, with the draws at Anfield and Villa Park high points. Defensively, especially, they’ve made big strides – although facing the three newly promoted teams and Newcastle always helps:

Above: Premier League teams sorted by fewest goals conceded in the last seven Gameweeks

“For me, the best thing about this team is that we are learning. In the first two or three games, we played well, but we had some problems with the transition. We are controlling much, much better now.

“Against Man United, against Ipswich, we had some problems when we scored the first goal, and the last minutes, we didn’t control the game as we wanted to do it. Now, I think we are playing much better to the last minute.

“We are a new team. We are progressing, small steps, but for me as a coach, I like what I see from my players. They are learning, they are improving; we are working hard.” – Alvaro Arbeloa

While their players are now disposable in Fantasy terms (Garcia is a big fat ‘sell’ if you have the misfortune of still owning him, having again fluffed his lines and seen his positional rival, Muniz, come on and score), it’ll be interesting if they can affect FPL in other ways. More specifically, can they take their new-found defensive solidity and play partypooper against the likes of Manchester City and Bournemouth in the coming weeks?

The jury remains out, given the chances they gave up to a bang-average Newcastle.

KING INJURY UPDATE

Joshua King (£5.5m) and Ryan Sessegnon (£4.3m) stung Hornicek’s palms with efforts from the distance, and the former was again bright, as he has been all season. Ultimately, though, this six-match run of favourable games has resulted in just one assist and zero goals for King.

His earliest substitution of the campaign occurred in the 71st minute – but there was a reason for that.

“I think he felt some pain, but it looks like nothing serious. We will see tonight. We will see tomorrow if they have to do some scans.

“I think he felt a little bit tired, tight on the groin. We will see.” – Alvaro Arbeloa on Joshua King

Hopefully, for King’s sake, it doesn’t rule him out of England duty.

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