In our penultimate set of Scout Notes from the weekend’s matches, we reflect on the Sunday lunchtime kick-off at the Emirates and two outstanding fixtures from Saturday.
Alexandre Lacazette (£9.4m) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.9m) were both on target as the pair started together for the first time this season, but there was unexpected misery for owners of Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£7.2m) as the Armenian winger was dropped to the bench.
The prophesied avalanche of goals for Sergio Aguero (£11.3m) and Manchester City failed to materialise at the Etihad as Pep Guardiola’s side ground out a 2-1 win over a stubborn Newcastle United on Saturday evening.
Aguero – owned by almost 50% of Fantasy Premier League managers at the Gameweek 4 deadline – and Benjamin Mendy (£6.4m) had to make do with a solitary assist apiece, as Kyle Walker (£6.5m) and Raheem Sterling (£11.0m) each marked their first home appearance of the season with a goal.
Adama Traore (£5.5m) hit a last-gasp winner as Wolves recorded their first win of the season – but West Ham United remain pointless at the foot of the Premier League table.
Cardiff City 2-3 Arsenal
- Goals: Victor Camarasa (£4.5m), Danny Ward (£4.5m) | Shkodran Mustafi (£5.4m), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.9m), Alexandre Lacazette (£9.4m)
- Assists: Joe Bennett (£4.5m), Sean Morrison (£5.0m) | Granit Xhaka (£5.4m), Alexandre Lacazette, Lucas Torreira (£4.9m)
A day of firsts at the Cardiff City Stadium: a first Premier League goal of 2018/19 for the hosts, a first start for Alexandre Lacazette (£9.4m) and a first league goal of the campaign for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.9m).
Lacazette’s inclusion in the starting XI, along with that of the returning Mesut Ozil‘s (£8.3m), came at the expense of Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£7.2m), the most-owned FPL asset in the Arsenal squad and the only Gunners midfielder or forward who had played all 270 minutes of their league campaign before kick-off.
Mkhitaryan’s benching was a reminder that the Armenian midfielder is far from nailed in this Arsenal XI and the performance of Lacazette in tandem with the players around him suggests Mkhitaryan might find it tough to break back into the side.
Unai Emery’s praise of Ozil – who played on the right flank in Mkhitaryan’s stead – after the match will put further doubt into the minds of the 20+% of FPL managers who own the benched midfielder:
I think today in the second half Mesut played a good match because he worked every minute that he was on the pitch.
Maybe with the control and possession [we had] in the second half, and the positions on the pitch, he feels better on the pitch.
I want to give every player the same condition and every player is very important. With Ozil and his quality, I think we need… his quality for the team.
Lacazette was, as anticipated when the team news broke, used as the focal point of the attack, with Aubameyang moving to the left flank – Alex Iwobi (£5.5m) dropping out of the squad – and Aaron Ramsey (£7.4m) once again deployed in the hole.
Lacazette set up Aubameyang for Arsenal’s second goal, before scoring the 80th-minute winner himself. The French forward had earlier hit the post, and recorded more attempts on goal than any other player on show in South Wales. Lacazette also registered more penalty box touches in this one fixture than Aubameyang has all season.
Speaking of the much-discussed strike pair, Emery said:
They are playing in the position, they are playing minutes in each match and today they started. We are continuing working on the combination on the pitch between the players, and also keeping our mentality and our ideas.
Today I think the performance of the two players, with their goals, helped us. We can continue to work to find the best individual performance and quality from each player.
I spoke with [Lacazette] because I knew him at Lyon. I know he has a great capacity to score when he’s in the box and when the team give him good chances. He has very good scoring data and today he showed us.
In keeping with his lack of involvement in the goalmouth, Aubameyang’s superb strike came from distance after Lacazette’s lay-off. Though the Gabonese striker is now off and running in 2018/19, his lack of prominence in the box has to be an ongoing concern: 17 FPL forwards have had more shots in the penalty area than him this season, while 27 players in his position have recorded more touches in the opposition box.
As good as the Gunners were going forward, they remain suspect in defence. Only Burnley and Huddersfield Town have allowed more shots on goal than Emery’s side this season and that their backline was breached twice by a team without a Premier League goal to their name in 2018/19 before kick-off says much about their fragility in defence.
Uncertainty over Petr Cech‘s (£5.0m) ability with the ball at this feet continues to grow and feeds a lack of confidence in FPL investment in Arsenal’s defence.
Cardiff clearly targeted Cech whenever the ball was played back to him and Harry Arter (£5.0m) spurned a glorious opportunity when one of Cech’s errant passes out went straight to the City midfielder.
Emery was bullish after the match, however, when asked about the continued reliance on Cech’s short passing game and suggested he would proceed with this approach going forward:
He’s progressing. He has experience and he is intelligent and he is doing what we want to do to win with our jobs and work on the pitch.
It’s very important for me to continue doing this and improving. If you play every time long balls, you lose possession and momentum.
We take risks in moments of the match, but when you break their pressing on the pitch you can find space for attacking the opposition. It is for that it’s clear you can maybe do one mistake like today and one action, but we need to continue with this personality.
The Gunners were twice undone by crosses into the box, one of which came from a well-worked Cardiff free-kick, and the north London side are now one of just five top-flight clubs without a clean sheet to their name this season.
The Bluebirds and Neil Warnock will be buoyed by their performance against their visitors, having ended their barren run in front of goal.
Warnock ditched the usual 4-3-3 formation in favour of a 4-4-2, with “out of position” FPL midfielder Danny Ward (£4.5m) lining up alongside Bobby Reid (£5.4m) up front and Victor Camarasa (£4.5m) shifted out to the right of midfield.
The tactical moves paid dividends in attack, with Camarasa firing in City’s first league goal of the season before Ward nodded home following that choreographed set piece mentioned above.
Warnock’s comments after the match hinted that the adventurous approach and formation is something he is keen to continue going forward – which may open the game up at Stamford Bridge in Gameweek 5 and benefit the likes of Eden Hazard (£10.6m), Marcos Alonso (£6.7m) et al:
I don’t think we’re good enough to park the bus ‘cos I think we’d have lost 1, 2, 3-0 anyhow, so we decided last weekend that we’d have a go.
I’d rather, at my age, enjoy watching my team. Football’s too negative at times.
We’ve tried it in the Championship, one up front and it worked for us but at this level they’re too good a player and we’d never see the ball or create anything. So it was important that we tried the system out this week and I thought Victor [Camarasa] was super in his role.
I just want us to compete and try and score goals.
I was really pleased for Danny Ward. I thought him and Bobby complimented each other, really.
Ward’s goal and Warnock’s words after the match suggests that the “OOP” City player may enjoy more of a sustained run in the first team now and furthers his candidacy as a budget fifth-choice midfield pick should money be required to upgrade other positions.
Cardiff City XI (4-4-2): Etheridge; Manga, Morrison, Bamba, Bennett; Camarasa (Madine 89′), Ralls, Arter, Hoilett; Reid, Ward (Zohore 84′)
Arsenal XI (4-2-3-1): Cech; Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Monreal; Guendouzi (Torreira 70′), Xhaka; Ozil (Welbeck 84′), Ramsey, Aubameyang (Mkhitaryan 89′); Lacazette
Manchester City 2-1 Newcastle United
- Goals: Raheem Sterling (£11.0m), Kyle Walker (£6.5m) | DeAndre Yedlin (£4.5m)
- Assists: Benjamin Mendy (£6.4m), Sergio Aguero (£11.3m) | Salomon Rondon (£5.9m)
After the six-goal demolition of Huddersfield Town in Gameweek 2, the expected deluge of points for Manchester City’s most-popular FPL assets haven’t quite materialised over the past fortnight.
After a 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers last Saturday – with the little-owned Ilkay Gundogan (£5.5m) and Aymeric Laporte (£5.5m) combining for the latter’s headed equaliser – Pep Guardiola’s side were made to toil by a stubborn Newcastle United side who executed a similar gameplan to the one they implemented against Chelsea in Gameweek 3.
Sergio Aguero (£11.3m) and Benjamin Mendy (£6.4m) at least emerged with assists to their name, though there was once again no clean sheet for the league champions and Aguero’s impressive goal-scoring record against the Magpies counted for little as he even failed to force Martin Dubravka (£5.0m) into a single save.
This was Mendy’s fifth goal involvement of the season and his rate of assists continues to astound: the French left-back is now – after only four matches – just two short of Ben Davies, Kieran Trippier and Aaron Cresswell’s joint-defensive-high of seven assists in 2017/18.
Mendy was once again prominent in attack, having more touches in the final third yesterday than Aguero.
The Argentinean striker, meanwhile, had four attempts on goal but not one of them was on target. Aguero could have easily had another assist, however, after providing an inch-perfect through-ball to Fernandinho (£5.4m) – City’s midfield general being denied by Dubravka from close range.
Gabriel Jesus (£10.4m) joined Aguero up front, as Guardiola rolled out a 4-1-3-2 for the Magpies’ visit. David Silva (£8.5m) and Raheem Sterling (£11.0m) were joined by Riyad Mahrez (£8.8m) in the midfield trio ahead of Fernandinho, with Bernardo Silva (£7.6m) and Gundogan dropping to the bench.
Fernandinho is now the only City midfielder who has started all four of City’s league matches this season, underscoring the irksome rotation risk associated with the Sky Blues’ more attack-minded midfield assets.
With the midfield such a Fantasy minefield, some FPL managers have taken to doubling up in the league champions’ defence. Ederson (£5.6m) is perhaps the only rotation-proof asset in this City squad and is by some distance the third-most-popular FPL player in Guardiola’s side behind Aguero and Mendy, sitting in 22.9% of our squads.
For the second match running, however, Ederson was beaten by one of the two shots on targets that he faced, depriving his owners and those who had a playing City defender of another clean sheet.
It is somewhat ironic that the Sky Blues’ only shut-out this season came on the opening weekend at Arsenal, with that match seen as the difficult prelude to an appealing run of six fixtures that City are now halfway through.
Ederson has conceded more goals than he has saved shots in the last three Gameweeks and while he can’t be held personally accountable for any of those strikes, the leaky nature of the defence in front of him is cause for concern.
Fulham are next up for the 2017/18 title winners, a side that has racked up more attempts on goal (60) than any of the four sides they have already faced this season.
While City’s defenders can compensate for said loss of clean sheet with attacking returns – Kyle Walker (£6.5m) and Mendy were involved in the two City goals on Saturday evening – Ederson’s appeal is heavily reliant on his clean sheet potential, with save points few and far between. Having said that, of course, the Brazilian goalkeeper did register an assist for Aguero’s opener in the 6-1 win over Huddersfield in Gameweek 2.
Leroy Sane (£9.3m) failed to make the substitutes’ bench yesterday evening, but Guardiola reiterated that his continued omission from the City team is a tactical, rather than personal, decision:
Last game Phil Foden was not in the squad and I was so sad for Phil, like I’m so sad for Leroy now.
But we have a squad. We have six strikers and I decided to play with two strikers. We have two wingers plus another one on the bench, and that’s why we decided this game he would not be there. Try to work hard again and in the next games he will be ready to play.
Guardiola added diplomatically – or perhaps ominously – to BT Sport:
Another day it will maybe be Rash [Sterling] out or Riyad [Mahrez] or Bernardo [Silva] or Sergio [Aguero] or Gabriel [Jesus].
David Silva started his third successive league match and was the stand-out City asset from a statistical point of view: the Spaniard had more penalty box touches, attempts on goal and shots in the box than any player on show at the Etihad. No-one on either side created more chances than Silva, either.
Mahrez was somewhat wasteful on the right flank, meanwhile, and has failed to register more than two FPL points in his four appearances this season. Sterling’s deployment on the left led to another goal though, his strike against the Magpies (cutting in onto his right) mirroring his effort in the 2-0 victory over Arsenal.
Newcastle were much as they were last week: dogged and lacking in much ambition going forward. This was the third straight match against one of the “big six” in which they have succumbed to a 2-1 defeat, but their smothering performances in the last two league fixtures are noteworthy for those considering an attacking Arsenal asset in Gameweek 5.
That the Magpies have only lost these daunting fixtures by the odd goal this season suggests they will continue with this approach, and indeed Benitez was relatively upbeat in his post-match presser:
They won because they are a good team, but we were in the game. We were close to maybe getting something and that is the positive thing for the future – to see a team that is trying to do what they have to do to maximise what we have.
We have to do what we did, and we did well but still we need something more if we want to get points against this team, especially away. The team effort was there, the mentality was there – you could see the players fighting for each other.
I’m really pleased with that but really disappointed because we have to manage better to get results here.
Salomon Rondon (£5.9m) registered the assist for DeAndre Yedlin‘s (£4.5m) first ever Premier League goal and his bustling hold-up play was a positive for the Magpies in defeat. Only Harry Kane had more shots than Rondon among FPL forwards in the second half of last season and the Venezuelan striker, while never prolific, is perhaps a budget forward to monitor from Gameweek 9 when United’s fixtures take a turn for the better and the 5-4-1 has been shelved.
Dubravka was Newcastle’s stand-out player, making six stops – three of them in quick succession – and only narrowly missing out on a bonus point. His £5.0m price tag is something of a shame, as he is one of the more dependable goalkeepers outside of the top six and would be another name to consider for that excellent run of fixtures after the October international break.
Manchester City XI (4-1-3-2): Ederson; Walker, Stones, Laporte, Mendy; Fernandinho; Mahrez (Gundogan 76′), D Silva (Kompany 89), Sterling; Aguero, Jesus (B Silva 58′)
Newcastle United XI (5-4-1): Dubravka; Yedlin, Lascelles, Fernandez, Clark (Murphy 81′), Dummett; Kenedy (Atsu 54′), Diame, Ki, Perez; Rondon (Joselu 73′)
West Ham United 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
- Goal: Adama Traore (£5.5m)
- Assist: Leo Bonatini (£4.9m)
For the first 91 minutes of the game at the London Stadium on Saturday, the goalkeepers were on top.
Lukasz Fabianski (£4.5m), who trailed only Jack Butland last season in terms of Premier League saves, continued where he left off in 2017/18, registering another five stops – one of which was a “big chance” for Wolves’ Leo Bonatini (£4.9m). No top-flight goalkeeper has racked up more saves than the Polish international this season.
Rui Patricio (£4.5m) was equally impressive, denying Felipe Anderson and Michail Antonio (both £6.9m) before capping his performance off with a sprawling, head-first stop from Marko Arnautovic (£7.0m).
Wolves’ defence in general was solid and, though this was their first clean sheet of the season, their underlying statistics hint at further shut-outs to come: only two Premier League clubs have conceded fewer big chances than Wolves this season, while just three teams have allowed fewer shots inside the box.
Jonny (£4.5m), Conor Coady (£4.5m) and Willy Boly (£4.5m) – along with goalscorer Adama Traore (£5.5m) – walked off with the bonus points, but Matt Doherty (£4.4m) was eye-catching from an FPL perspective: the Wolves’ right wing-back had two attempts on target and created as many chances for his team-mates, one of which was a sitter that Raul Jimenez (£5.5m) fluffed when unmarked eight yards.
Joao Moutinho (£5.4m) excelled in midfield and from a Fantasy perspective, given his set-piece deliveries and passing ability, could prove to be as productive as the more widely owned Ruben Neves (£5.2m) this season. No Premier League player has taken more corners than Moutinho in 2018/19, with the more experienced of Wolves’ midfield pair also creating more chances than any player on show in east London on Saturday.
It was from the Wolves’ central midfield’s high press that Traore’s stoppage-time winner came about, as Neves dispossessed a dawdling Carlos Sanchez (£4.5m) to set the decisive attack on the way.
Speaking after the match, Nuno Espirito Santo highlighted that effective pressing and his side’s threat posed from wide positions:
The moment of recovering the ball with two minutes to go was huge. After 90 minutes one of our midfielders went high to press and won the dual.
We know about West Ham on the counter-attack, with the speed of the players, but we were fortunate to get on the counter attack with the high pressing of Ruben and deserved it.
If you look at the game, both teams could have won it, but I felt we were more in control of the game. When we have the ball we know to keep it and create chances in wide areas.
Wolves were unchanged for the fourth league match in a row, but the performance and goal of Traore upon his introduction may now place more pressure on Diogo Jota (£6.3m) and Helder Costa (£4.9m) on the flanks.
There was little positive to report from a West Ham perspective, who are now pointless at the foot of the table.
Arnautovic winning his fitness race was an initial boon for his circa 18% owners, though the Austrian was an isolated figure up front again and the save he drew from Patricio was his only real clear chance in the match.
Fabian Balbuena (£4.5m) was a stand-out name from an FPL point of view and had the Hammers held on for a first clean sheet of the season the Paraguayan centre-back might well have claimed maximum bonus points, given that he bossed the recoveries, tackles, and Clearances, Blocks and Interception (CBIs) statistics – all key factors on the Bonus Points System. Balbuena also had a clear headed chance from a West Ham corner in the second half.
West Ham have neither the form nor the fixtures (three of their next five league matches are against last season’s top six), however, and any investment in their assets is surely ill-advised at the moment.
West Ham XI (4-2-3-1): Fabianski; Fredericks, Balbuena, Diop, Cresswell; Sanchez, Wilshere (Obiang 64′); Snodgrass (Yarmalenko 46′), Anderson, Antonio (Hernandez ’75); Arnautovic
Wolves XI (3-4-3): Patricio; Bennett, Coady, Boly; Doherty, Moutinho, Neves, Jonny; Costa (Bonatini 72′), Jota (Traore 62′); Jiminez (Vinagre 87′)
Our Scout Notes return tomorrow morning with the FPL fallout from the two 16:00 BST fixtures at Turf Moor and Vicarage Road.
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