Our final Scout Notes from the opening weekend of the 2018/19 Premier League season analyses the Sunday tea-time match between Arsenal and Manchester City at the Emirates.
The reigning champions began their title defence with an impressive 2-0 win over Unai Emery’s side, with one name in particular attracting the attention – and subsequent investment – of many Fantasy managers.
Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City
- Goals: Raheem Sterling (£11.0m), Bernardo Silva (£7.5m)
- Assists: Benjamin Mendy (£6.0m) x2
For the 60,000 Fantasy Premier League managers who benched Benjamin Mendy (£6.0m) for Manchester City’s 2-0 win at the Emirates on Sunday, the match turned into a painful watch.
The French left-back delivered a superb performance that was Marcos Alonso-esque in its ambition, both impressing and infuriating his manager in equal measure and culminating with two assists, three bonus points and a clean sheet. Mendy’s total score of 15 points was the highest of any defender in Gameweek 1.
Mendy has already matched the total assist count of Fabian Delph (£5.5m) and Danilo (£5.5m) for last season, both of whom deputised at left-back in the Frenchman’s injury-enforced absence.
Pep Guardiola’s words after the match tempered Mendy’s appeal, suggesting that the City head coach would possibly seek to reign in the former Monaco man’s attacking instincts a little in future – though most of his beef seemed to be with Mendy’s prolific use of social media:
That is not good [when he is acting like a centre forward].
Sometimes you want to kill him. Sometimes you say, ‘Wow, what a player we have.’ He gives this extra energy with Kyle [Walker], helping the attack so consistently . . . Hopefully we can convince him to be calm and focus on what he has to do.
Kyle Walker (£6.5m), who has delivered six assists in each of his last two seasons, was as gung-ho as his opposite full-back at times, though his performance was more disciplined in its scope – the England defender at least stuck to the right flank, while Mendy persistently popped up in a central position.
Guardiola had set his team up in a 4-3-3/4-1-4-1 formation, with Fernandinho (£5.5m) the deepest of the three central midfielders alongside Ilkay Gundogan (£5.5m) and Bernardo Silva (£7.5m). Guardiola had teased the prospect of a start for Kevin De Bruyne (£10.0m) in his press conference on Friday, but the Belgian midfielder had to make do with a half-hour cameo off the bench.
Raheem Sterling (£11.0m) did make a surprise start, however, but not in his customary right wing role. With Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m) stationed ahead of Walker on his City league debut, Sterling was forced to patrol the opposite flank as Guardiola overlooked Leroy Sane (£9.5m) for their season opener.
Sane’s full pre-season with the league champions would ordinarily have seen him favourite to start ahead of Sterling, who only returned to training last Monday, but Guardiola’s cautionary words about the German over the summer were perhaps a clue that all is not completely well between the pair.
That Sterling impressed and scored from the left wing – cutting in from the flank and firing past an unsighted Petr Cech (£5.0m) for City’s opening goal – adds further doubt as to Sane’s short-term prospects of a start.
Sterling was only the seventh-most popular City midfield asset in FPL before kick-off, with his price hike, World Cup-affected pre-season and increased competition on the wing all contributing factors to his ownership of just 2.1%.
The England international quickly gave us a reminder of what he is capable of, however, registering more penalty box touches than any Premier League midfielder this weekend.
Sergio Aguero (£11.0m) led the line as expected for City, though the afternoon was a frustrating one for his owners – the Argentinean striker should have registered an attacking return just before Silva’s goal, wasting a two-on-one opportunity with De Bruyne only a square ball away from a tap-in.
With either one (or both) of Walker and Mendy advancing in such cavalier fashion, a fluid City resembled a 3-4-3 or even a Jorge Sampaoli-esque 2-3-5 at times and FPL managers have been quick to react to the Frenchman’s attacking performance in particular: Mendy has attracted well over 100,000 new owners since the Gameweek 1 deadline passed.
Mahrez did enough in his hour on the pitch to suggest he could be worth the £9.0m outlay, forcing Cech into a fine save from a free-kick and whistling another shot just wide of the Arsenal goalkeeper’s right-hand post. Mahrez took six corners for City too, though it has to be said that his prominence at set-piece duties was in part due to De Bruyne watching on from the bench. How the two will share dead-ball responsibilities when both are on the pitch remains to be seen.
Arsenal began the match with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m) as their nominated striker, with Alexandre Lacazette (£9.5m) dropping to the bench and Mesut Ozil (£8.5m) and Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£7.0m) flanking the Gabonese forward.
Aaron Ramsey (£7.5m) was handed a start in the midfield three, though the biggest surprise was Matteo Guendouzi (£4.5m) – who admittedly has had a fine pre-season for Unai Emery’s side – being preferred to the more experienced Lucas Torreira (£5.0m) in the engine room.
With Sead Kolasinac (£5.0m) and Nacho Monreal (£5.5m) missing through injury, FPL midfielder Ainsley Maitland-Niles (£4.5m) deputised in the back four – though the curse of the left-back slot struck again as the Arsenal youngster limped from the field just after half an hour to be replaced by the veteran Stephan Lichtsteiner (£5.0m).
Emery gave an update on Maitland-Niles’ injury afterwards and hinted that Monreal could feature at Stamford Bridge next weekend:
Today we are going to do the medical analysis with the doctor. Nacho is starting with the group, working yesterday and maybe he can come in, maybe, for the next match. I think every day is important to know how they are.
Emery’s insistence that Arsenal play out from the back made Cech’s inclusion in the starting line-up all the more surprising, given how he struggled with the ball at his feet – the experienced goalkeeper almost made a horrendous hash of one back-pass as he rolled the ball inches wide of his own post – and Bernd Leno‘s (£5.0m) showing in 2-0 win over Lazio last weekend.
Cech did, at least, make some fine saves to keep the scoreline respectable and Emery’s post-match comments suggested that the veteran shot-stopper is his current preferred option between the posts:
We want the competitiveness from the goalkeepers and also every player in the squad. The pre-season is the same opportunity, the same chances for the goalkeepers.
We spoke also Petr did a very good pre-season, also today I think he played good also. Also he has this experience to continue defending our goal.
Leno is starting with us, he’s working very well, he played well in pre-season. But he can wait to arrive in this moment.
Lacazette’s introduction early in the second half saw the Frenchman play up top and Aubameyang switch to the left flank, with Ozil dropping back to become the most advanced midfielder in the central three.
This set-up is one Emery has experimented with in pre-season, though it must be noted that the former Seville and Paris Saint-Germain manager fielded the same front three in his starting XI at the Emirates yesterday as he did when the Gunners met next weekend’s opponents Chelsea at the beginning of the month.
Lacazette did have a noticeable impact on Sunday though, registering more shots on goal and penalty box touches in 36 minutes than Aubameyang did over 90.
Arsenal XI (4-3-3): Cech; Bellerin, Sokratis, Mustafi, Maitland-Niles (Lichtsteiner 35′); Guendouzi, Xhaka (Torreira 70′), Ramsey (Lacazette 54′); Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Aubameyang
Manchester City XI (4-3-3): Ederson; Walker, Stones, Laporte, Mendy; Fernandinho, Gundogan, Bernardo Silva; Mahrez (De Bruyne 60′), Sterling (Sane 86)’, Aguero (Jesus 79′)
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