Frustration for Kane and Arnautovic’s owners as Spurs see off West Ham

Our penultimate set of Scout Notes from Gameweek 9 concentrates on three matches contested on Saturday afternoon.

There was another discouraging display for Harry Kane‘s owners as Erik Lamela stole the show at West Ham, with Marko Arnautovic repeatedly foiled by Spurs goalkeepers Hugo Lloris.

Aleksandar Mitrovic was another widely owned forward who – assist aside – had a frustrating Gameweek 9 as Josh Murphy and Cardiff took advantage of Fulham’s porous defence to register their first league win of the season.

Brighton recorded their second straight clean sheet at Newcastle, though there was little joy for owners of Glenn Murray and Anthony Knockaert.

We round up all the goals, assists, injury updates, Fantasy talking points and manager quotes from these matches in the article below.

West Ham United 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur

• Goals: Erik Lamela (£6.4m)
• Assists: Moussa Sissoko (£4.9m)

Fantasy football writers – ourselves especially – have got plenty of mileage from Harry Kane (£12.5m) already this season, so we are loath to dedicate too many more column inches to his sudden inclination to drop into deeper positions.

Suffice to say, that trend continued at the London Stadium on Saturday.

Kane’s average position was about level with West Ham left-back Aaron Creswell‘s (£5.2m), and the England striker managed only three touches and one shot inside the Hammers’ penalty area. Both of his attempts on goal in this fixture, indeed, were blocked before they reached Lukasz Fabianski (£4.5m).

Once again, it was the midfielders around Kane who benefitted from his toiling as the spearhead of the Spurs attack.

Erik Lamela (£6.4m) has turned in some fine performances for Spurs this season and it was somewhat of a surprise that it has taken until Gameweek 9 for the Argentinean international to be granted his first Premier League start of 2018/19.

Lamela was perhaps Spurs’ stand-out outfield player, nodding in Moussa Sissoko‘s (£4.9m) teasing cross having earlier fired into the side netting. A superb bit of wing-play from Lamela just before the interval almost led to Spurs’ second goal, with Fabianski parrying Lamela’s cross/shot and then the follow-up from Davinson Sanchez (£5.8m) too.

Lamela backed up his attacking play with some energetic pressing and drew positive words from his manager at full-time:

I think you know the form of a player can sometimes change or it’s difficult to explain. The most important thing is when you trust and you feel the confidence. We believe in him, we trust in him. He’s a player that is more mature every time he’s here after his sixth year. I think more mature. That is the key and he’s more relaxed and calm in front of the goal.

Now he needs to be consistent and play in his best and to manage him in the best way. We need to understand where he came from and it’s so important always to pay attention to that.

[He has had] a lot of injuries in five years and a half. The season before last was tough for him, but patience, belief, care about your player and that I think is the most important thing. It’s about managing circumstance.

Mousa Dembele (£4.9m) also lavished praise on his team-mate:

He’s on fire, my friend, it’s unbelievable! He’s helping us a lot – skills, goals, and work rate, everything we can ask from a top player like him.

Everyone knows he has a strong mentality and that’s why he’s improved a lot and you can see he’s so important for us and we always knew this.

We’re happy he’s showing the world what he’s capable of.

It is far too early to be talking of Lamela in terms of a viable FPL option, but the next five Gameweeks will perhaps serve as an audition for the long-serving midfielder ahead of Spurs’ turn in fixtures from Gameweek 15 onwards.

Lamela himself cast doubt on his ability to string a sequence of appearances together after the match on Saturday:

Will I be able to play in all of our upcoming matches? I don’t know. This is for the manager and staff [to decide], they know how to manage me after a lot of time together.

Sometimes I cannot go 80 per cent, even in training. I’m crazy sometimes but it’s like this. I play football like this and now I’m taking care about this.

I’m trying to manage myself, especially when we have a long week, to train hard of course but to arrive good to the game and take care about everything. Normally we train really hard here. It’s just because I want to play the games, it’s more important than training.

This is what we’re doing now and I think the manager and the staff, they take care about me, and the rest of the team. They care about all the players.

I’m feeling good, my hips are feeling better. When you’re injured it’s really hard, and when you come back too. But now I’m happy with my feeling on the pitch and my place in the team.

Further competition and complications, of course, will arise when Christian Eriksen (£9.2m) and Dele Alli (£8.9m) are fit to start.

Eriksen made his comeback from an abdominal injury on Saturday with a fleeting substitute appearance, while Alli may be available for selection in a week or two as he continues his rehabilitation from a hamstring problem.

Despite starting all nine of Spurs’ Premier League fixtures so far in 2018/19, Lucas Moura (£7.3m) would arguably be the midfield asset most at risk based on current form.

The Brazilian midfielder has not delivered an attacking return in five matches and with Spurs’ fixtures taking a downward turn over the next month, coupled with Alli and Eriksen being back in the first-team picture, the time for Moura’s remaining 1.7 million owners to jump ship may have come.

Moura didn’t register a single shot on goal at West Ham on Saturday, though it should be noted that no player on show in this match created as many chances as the former PSG man.

Few Fantasy bosses will have any interest in Sissoko and Harry Winks (£5.5m), but the admirable performances of both players in the defeat of West Ham adds to the tangled picture in midfield.

Mauricio Pochettino said of Sissoko, who was substituted to a standing ovation:

I think he’s a very honest, professional player. You know what you are going to receive from him. I think the squad always in 25 players you need different type of players and I think Moussa provides the team with a very good balance.

I am happy that the fans are starting to see him like a player who helps the team and helps the club and recognise his value. Of course, we cannot ask him to do different things or things we can ask of another player, but he will always give you all that he has inside. That is very good for the team. I am so happy that the fans start to recognise his value.

There was a third straight clean sheet for Kieran Trippier (£6.3m) and the Spurs defence, though the England full-back’s ten crosses and two key passes failed to result in an attacking return this time.

With Jan Vertonghen (£5.9m) a long-term injury absentee, Sanchez appears to be fairly secure at the heart of the Spurs defence and that he had as many efforts from inside the West Ham box as any Spurs player on Saturday underscored his threat at set-piece situations. Only two first-choice centre-backs have a better minutes-per-chance average than the Colombian defender this season.

That Spurs kept a shut-out this weekend owed more to Hugo Lloris (£5.9m) than it did to their backline, however, and Marko Arnautovic (£7.0m) and his Fantasy owners would have been cursing the French goalkeeper’s excellent form after the match.

Arnautovic ranks second among FPL forwards for penalty box touches and attempts on goal in Gameweek 9 so far, but couldn’t find a way past Lloris in the Spurs goal. All four of the World Cup winner’s saves, indeed, were from West Ham’s talismanic striker.

The Austrian forward’s rate of chances at least should offer plenty of hope for his owners for their excellent run of fixtures between now and early 2019, with the Hammers meeting only Manchester City of the “big six” in the next 12 matches.

One player West Ham are set to be without for this run is Andriy Yarmolenko (£6.8m), who was withdrawn in the first half with what appears to be a serious injury.

Speaking of the Ukrainian midfielder after the match, Manuel Pellegrini said:

It is better to have the diagnosis of the doctor first to be more sure what has happened with his foot.

It’s his ankle. Between his foot and the ankle so it is better to wait for tomorrow. I don’t talk about it anymore, it didn’t look so good but still, we have to wait.

Reports on Monday morning suggested Yarmolenko has torn his Achilles, which could rule him out for up to six months – though nothing official has come from the club as yet.

Pedro Obiang (£4.4m), meanwhile, missed the game altogether, and Pellegrini was asked if the FPL bench fodder option had a serious problem:

No. I hope, no. We have five players who have long injuries, now if we see tomorrow about Yarmolenko it might be more. Obiang had a calf injury in the last day but I hope it will be a short one.

One other budget midfielder we will be monitoring over the coming weeks – particularly given West Ham’s fixtures – is Grady Diangana (£4.5m).

Pellegrini surprisingly turned to the young winger over Michail Antonio (£6.8m) as Yarmolenko’s replacement and it will be intriguing to see how much game-time the 20-year-old winger is afforded in the near future.

Those considering Felipe Anderson (£6.8m) for this forthcoming sequence of matches would have been discouraged by his poor performance and it was interesting to note how much better West Ham looked when Javier Hernandez (£6.2m) was brought on at Anderson’s expense. If “Chicarito” was to be handed a start, of course, that would possibly impact on Arnautovic’s prominence in the opposition box with the Austrian perhaps asked to play in a more withdrawn supporting role.

Lukasz Fabianski‘s (£4.5m) owners were rewarded with neither a clean sheet or save point, but the commendable performances of Issa Diop (£4.3m) and Fabian Balbuena (£4.4m) in front of him hinted that a clean sheet or two mightn’t be too far away for the Hammers. That Kane didn’t trouble Fabianski once was a testament to the two centre-backs, who blocked both of the England striker’s efforts.

West Ham have faced Chelsea, Spurs and Manchester United in their last four matches, ranking joint-ninth for fewest big chances conceded over that tricky period and shipping only two goals in those three fixtures against the “big six” opposition.

West Ham United XI (4-2-3-1): Fabianski; Zabaleta, Balbuena, Diop, Cresswell; Rice, Noble (Antonio 70′); Yarmolenko (Diangana 40′), Snodgrass, Anderson (Hernandez 56′); Arnautovic.

Tottenham Hotspur XI (4-3-2-1): Lloris; Tripper, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Davies; Sissoko (Eriksen 89′), Dier, Winks; Moura, Lamela (Dembele 76′); Kane (Llorente 86′).

Cardiff City 4-2 Fulham

• Goals: Josh Murphy (£4.8m), Bobby Reid (£5.2m), Callum Paterson (£5.2m), Kadeem Harris (£4.5m) | Andre Schurrle (£5.9m), Ryan Sessegnon (£6.1m)
• Assists: Sol Bamba (£4.5m), Bobby Reid, Victor Camarasa (£4.5m) | Jean Michael Seri (£5.5m), Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.9m)

For those Fantasy managers pondering a sale of Ryan Fraser (£6.0m), Joshua King (£6.4m) or Callum Wilson (£6.4m) this week, the advice would be to at least hold fire until after Bournemouth’s Gameweek 10 encounter with Fulham.

Much has been made of the Cottagers’ defensive performances this season and mitigation has to be given to the fact they have just been promoted to the top flight (so too, it must be said, have Wolves), but Slavisa Jokanovic’s troops served up a particularly dismal showing in South Wales and their backline was culpable for at least three of Cardiff’s goals.

Josh Murphy (£4.8m) was allowed far too much space to curl home Cardiff’s first goal, before Andre Schurrle (£5.9m) was caught on the ball for Bobby Reid‘s (£5.2m) first league strike of the season.

City’s fourth goal was perhaps the worst of all, a slip by Tim Ream (£4.3m) ultimately leading to Kadeem Harris‘s (£4.5m) tap-in.

Fulham have now conceded more attempts on goal, shots in the box and big chances than the rest of the division and are the only Premier League club yet to keep a clean sheet in 2018/19.

The constant chopping and changing of personnel in the Fulham backline (the Cottagers have had six different centre-back partnerships this season) doesn’t seem to be helping, with Ream and Callum Chambers (£4.3m) particularly woeful at centre-half and right-back especially.

Jokanovic effectively started with four centre-backs in defence on Saturday and seemed no closer to finding a settled backline when interviewed after the match:

We conceded so easily, even when we defended in numbers.

Today we made mistakes and didn’t find solutions for this kind of the situation.

We played with four centre-backs today, even five, at the end when we are defending in numbers we make mistakes, we are slicing and miss the ball.

Cardiff used the weapons in this team, push us a little bit and were more solid in our box and found the way to score the goals.

We start with four centre-backs but without finding a good solution.

Next game is ahead of us, we must make analysis and be ready for everything.

FPL managers are, of course, wisely giving the Fulham backline a wide berth (not one of their defenders or goalkeepers is owned by more than 1.0% of Fantasy bosses), but there were at least returns for four of their most popular attacking assets.

Jean Michael Seri (£5.5m) and Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.9m) assisted strikes for Andre Schurrle (£5.9m) and Ryan Sessegnon (£6.1m), though for Mitrovic and his owners it was an otherwise frustrating afternoon in which he failed to register a single penalty box touch or shot.

For Cardiff, Murphy and Victor Camarasa (£4.5m) were two names we had picked out in our Digest piece last week but we take absolutely no credit in tipping up Fantasy assets who are up against a defence as welcoming as Fulham’s and it’s unlikely the pair will enjoy a match as open as this all season.

Murphy and Camarasa were perhaps Cardiff’s stand-out players, with the former tormenting Chambers in the first half and racking up another five attempts on goal – taking his tally to 14 shots in three Gameweeks.

Camarasa was once again City’s main threat from set pieces and created three chances for his team-mates, one of which led to an assist for Harris’s goal.

After the “out of position” exploits of Danny Ward (£4.5m) earlier in the campaign, midfielder Callum Paterson (£5.2m) started his third straight match up front and capped off his performance with Cardiff’s third goal. No player at the Cardiff City Stadium registered more shots or penalty box touches than Paterson.

Bobby Reid (£5.2m) walked off with maximum bonus, meanwhile, after his goal and assist.

Paterson and Reid were among the players name-checked in Neil Warnock’s post-match interview, suggesting they will continue as the front pairing in the short term at least:

Everybody was fantastic, especially Paterson. Many have said that he’s not a centre-forward, but a lot of strikers wouldn’t have scored that goal, so I’m delighted for him. All you can do is your best and he put in a tremendous effort.

Bobby Reid and Josh Murphy were also outstanding. They’ve taken time to settle in the Premier League and they’re both maturing. Bobby’s contribution was excellent and Murphy took his goal well – he was running on empty!

[Víctor] Camarasa was also brilliant and Kadeem has been like that all week in training. He’s been scoring goals for fun at the back post and we’ve encouraged him to do that in matches, so that goal will not do him any harm. It’s good to see four different scorers.

Cardiff City XI (4-4-2): Etheridge; Manga, Morrison, Bamba, Bennett; Camarasa, Gunnarsson (Richards 77′), Arter (Damour 86′), Murphy (Harris 82′); Paterson, Reid.

Fulham XI (4-3-3): Bettinelli; Chambers (Mawson 45′), Odoi, Ream, Le Marchand; Seri (Ayite 58′), McDonald, Johansen (Vietto 82′); Schurrle, Mitrovic, Sessegnon.

Newcastle United 0-1 Brighton and Hove Albion

• Goal: Beram Kayal (£4.4m)
• Assist: Jose Izquierdo (£5.9m)

In the battle of the two sides at the top of our Season Ticker between now and Gameweek 16, the Seagulls came out on top.

For those Fantasy managers backing Brighton’s two top-scoring midfield and forward options, however, there was no joy.

Glenn Murray (£6.6m) lasted only 15 minutes of the match on Tyneside before being carted off with a sickening head injury, which Chris Hughton confirmed was a concussion after full-time:

He was out cold. The good news is that he’s going to be discharged from hospital this evening and it’s nothing more than a concussion.

He’s going to be sore for a short while and this week we will do the appropriate things we need to do with him. We are just happy he’s okay.

The striker himself said he was “feeling much better” after hospital treatment and while local media prematurely ruled the veteran forward out of the Gameweek 10 match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, the protocol of a six-day rest would still make him available for the match at the Amex next Saturday.

Anthony Knockaert (£5.5m) was dropped to the bench for the first time this season, meanwhile, with Alireza Jahanbakhsh (£6.8m) and Jose Izquierdo (£5.9m) given roles on the flanks and Solly March (£5.0m) lining behind Murray/Jurgen Locadia (£5.3m) in attack.

Hughton said after the match that Knockaert’s omission was nothing to do with his form, but it does serve as a warning that the winger is set to face occasional bench duty over the coming months:

Anthony, overall, has done well for us this season. But we have at the moment Solly (March) playing at ten, who is really a wide player, Anthony, Ali (Jahanbakhsh) and Jose, four wide players and good competition.

I left Anthony out not because of performances but because I can, I can use that competition that we’ve got.

Brighton’s winner was somewhat fortuitous, Beram Kayal (£4.4m) deflecting an Izquierdo shot past Martin Dubravka (£5.0m) on 28 minutes.

That was one of only two shots on target that the visitors had all match, with the Seagulls having to rely on a rearguard effort to preserve their narrow lead.

Matthew Ryan (£4.5m), Shane Duffy (£4.5m) and Lewis Dunk (£4.4m) deservedly walked off with the bonus points and Hughton praised his backline after the match:

Our two central defenders were outstanding, as was the whole of the back four and the goalkeeper.

You know what you’ll get from those two and they’re the type who are happy to head crosses into the box away from danger.

They’ll put their bodies on the line and get in the way of the ball and to get this type of victory away from home it’s exactly what you need.

Duffy and Dunk’s CBIs (clearances, blocks and interceptions) were unsurprisingly way ahead of the numbers recorded by any FPL defender this weekend, though that Newcastle racked up more shots than any other team in Gameweek 9 would be a slight concern for those Fantasy bosses who own a Brighton defender.

Bruno (£4.4m) picked up a back injury late on and is a slight doubt for Gameweek 10.

As for Newcastle, this was their fourth league match of the season against a non-“big six” club and the Magpies have yet to find the back of the net in any of them.

Ryan saved well from Jonjo Shelvey (£5.4m) and Ayoze Perez (£6.1m), but a lack of clinical finishing in front of goal continues to dog Newcastle and doesn’t encourage Fantasy investment in their midfielders and forwards.

Shelvey, Matt Ritchie (£5.9m) and Kenedy (£4.9m) each had more shots this weekend than any other FPL midfielder but in reality neither came that close to scoring, with the desperately poor Perez and Yoshinori Muto (£5.7m) wasting the best of United’s chances.

Available for under £5.0m, Kenedy is at least a fairly risk-free punt as a fifth midfielder and was perhaps Newcastle’s best player for the second league match running.

Ritchie, meanwhile, fired over more crosses than any other FPL midfielder this weekend, as Rafael Benitez highlighted in his post-match comments:

Today, we were so much in control, we were making crosses. We put Ritchie on the left-hand side to be sure that we could deliver some crosses and then we put Joselu on.

But we had control of the game, so they were not a threat at that time.

Then to change something when you are in control, we did with a striker to have more presence in the box and after, we were conceding more things.

But I will repeat, we were so much in control that it was better to carry on doing what we had to do.

We knew it could be like that (playing long balls forward) because they were waiting and pressing and especially Jonjo (Shelvey), trying to stop him playing.

Despite not facing much in the way of ambition from Brighton, the likes of Jamaal Lascelles (£4.8m) and DeAndre Yedlin (£4.5m) looked a little ragged in the Newcastle defence and there must be a degree of concern about their capability of keeping a clean sheet in their forthcoming favourable fixtures.

Yves Bissouma (£4.8m) probably had the game’s best chance when clean through on goal late on, but could only poke wide.

Newcastle United XI (4-4-1-1): Dubravka; Yedlin, Lascelles, Fernandez, Dummett; Ritchie, Diame, Shelvey, Kenedy; Perez; Muto (Joselu 74′).

Brighton and Hove Albion XI (4-4-1-1): Ryan; Bruno (Bernardo 68′), Duffy, Dunk, Bong; Jahanbakhsh, Stephens, Kayal, Izquierdo (Bissouma 80′); March; Murray (Locadia 15′)

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