Lacazette in fine form heading into Blank Gameweek 33

One of just three Gameweek 32 matches not to feature a team with a “double”, Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Newcastle United won’t live long in the memory.

Only two Premier League matches in the last 16 years have seen fewer shots than the ten attempted at the Emirates on Monday night.

Both of these clubs have unaffected league fixtures in Blank Gameweek 33 but there was little new that Fantasy managers will have learned from this audition: Newcastle reserve this kind of backs-to-the-wall performance for matches against “big six” sides, while the Gunners proved yet again that they are a formidable force on their own turf – but are less than impressive on the road and next face Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday.

The main talking point concerns a benching for one premium Arsenal striker and another goal for the other.

Arsenal 2-0 Newcastle United

• Goals: Aaron Ramsey (£7.1m), Alexandre Lacazette (£9.3m)
• Assists: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.8m)

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.8m) was benched for the third time in five Premier League matches in north London on Monday night, further denting his appeal for Gameweek 33.

The Gabon international is the only £10.0m+ FPL forward with a league fixture this coming weekend but Fantasy managers with money to burn, either using their Free Hit chip, second Wildcard or just regulation transfers, will have understandable reservations about the second-highest-scoring forward of 2018/19.

There were, however, mitigating circumstances for this latest substitute’s appearance, with Unai Emery commenting in his post-match press conference that Aubameyang had been ill in the days leading up to the game.

The Arsenal boss said:

Aubameyang, he has had a temperature for two days and was doubtful to play today. But also, he is coming for us to start in the bench and after his impact was good and he felt good in his 30 minutes.

Aubameyang did emerge from the bench to register an assist, too, with Alexandre Lacazette (£9.3m) capitalising on hesitation from Jamaal Lascelles (£4.7m) to latch onto his team-mate’s flicked header and lob the advancing Martin Dubravka (£5.0m).

The 3-4-1-2/3-4-2-1 formation that Emery has favoured in Arsenal’s last three competitive matches at least allows for Aubameyang to slip seamlessly back into the starting XI at the expense of “placeholder” Alex Iwobi (£5.4m), who, along with Mesut Ozil (£7.9m), provided the main support for Lacazette on Monday night.

The Nigerian winger didn’t register a single shot or key pass despite Arsenal’s total dominance but Aubameyang tested Dubravka’s reflexes ten minutes after his introduction and was inches from connecting with a cross before combining with Lacazette for Arsenal’s second goal.

Lacazette is a striker in fine form and owned by just over 8% of FPL managers going into Gameweek 33.

The Frenchman has registered a goal and/or assist in 14 of Arsenal’s last 18 Premier League fixtures while Monday’s strike means that he has now avoided a blank in the Gunners’ last eight league matches at the Emirates.

Lacazette has also only failed to start one of Arsenal’s 11 top-flight games in 2019.

The France international had more than twice as many penalty box touches as the entire Newcastle team put together and only a superb goalline clearance from Matt Ritchie (£5.8m) stopped Lacazette from getting on the scoresheet just before half-time.

The French striker also played a part in Arsenal’s opener: Aaron Ramsey (£7.1m) sweeping home a low finish after Lacazette had been dispossessed on the edge of the box.

If ever a game was made for Ozil, this was it.

The German’s vision was vital as Arsenal probed and probed for an opening and Emery said of his playmaker’s man-of-the-match display:

I like how every player is playing but also Mesut with his quality is helping us and giving us his work. Also individual moments and skills, he has the capacity to help us.

Mesut is playing like we want, with the system and tactically. He is working a lot and after that work he is also giving us his quality.

Questions remain over Ozil’s appeal as a Fantasy asset, however, particularly given that four of the Gunners’ next five league matches are away from home: Ozil has one solitary attacking return to his name on the road in 2018/19 and that came back in Gameweek 5.

Arsenal’s form in general is poor on their travels and they have won only one of their last eight away Premier League fixtures – and that was against relegated Huddersfield Town.

Ramsey doesn’t have long left as an FPL asset but he is finishing with a flourish and was excellent on Monday, getting forward to support the Arsenal attack despite playing in a deeper role in central midfield.

The Welshman limped off in the second half, however, and Emery sent out mixed messages in his post-match interviews.

In his press conference, Emery said:

It’s only cramp but I think it’s not more and I hope he is going to be ready for Sunday.

Speaking to Match of the Day, however, the Arsenal boss said:

I hope [it is not serious]. The doctor said to me, he is thinking it’s a small injury.

Emery also provided updates on Granit Xhaka (£5.2m) and Laurent Koscielny (£5.4m), who weren’t part of the match-day squad:

We started Friday with not good news with Xhaka, because he has a small injury and he cannot play today. Today he was coming with us in the group, Koscielny, but with some pain and he said to us he is not ready to play the match.

Even an unconvincing display from Koscielny’s understudy Shkodran Mustafi (£5.4m) didn’t jeopardise this easiest of clean sheets for Arsenal’s backline, although Sead Kolasinac‘s (£5.0m) owners would have perhaps been disappointed with only shut-out points: the Bosnia and Herzegovina international was denied an assist for a disallowed Ramsey goal and set up Lacazette for the shot that Ritchie cleared off the line.

Lacazette was the only player on show who registered more penalty box touches than Kolasinac.

As for Newcastle, the team once known as “the Entertainers” have become unapologetic spoilers when it comes to matches against the top six.

This was an away performance like so many others against a Champions League-chasing club: workmanlike, impressively well-organised and entirely lacking in attacking ambition.

The Magpies had only three shots on goal, one of which was a Salomon Rondon (£5.9m) effort from the centre circle.

The Venezuelan striker had United’s only serious attempt of the match, bundling Sokratis (£5.1m) out of the way and firing straight at Bernd Leno (£4.8m) on the half-hour mark.

Owners of Liverpool assets will know exactly what to expect when the Reds visit St. James’ Park in Gameweek 37 but we should at least see more attacking intent from Rondon et al in the Gameweek 33 encounter with Crystal Palace this Saturday: while Newcastle are winless on the road since mid-December, they have won five on the bounce on Tyneside.

Benitez said of the game:

I am proud of the players because they are trying very hard.

The reaction of the team was fine, we were well organised and a little bit dangerous on the counter-attack, but we were missing the final pass.

The final pass could have made the difference, but we had a chance with Rondon when Ayoze was waiting there, and when you do not take these chances and are not precise when you regain the ball in a good situation against these kind of teams, you know it is maybe a question of time until you make a mistake like we did in the second half and concede the second goal.

Before we conceded the second goal, we were pushing and you could feel their fans were a little bit nervous because we were still in the game.

But the second goal made the difference.

Arsenal XI (3-4-2-1): Leno; Mustafi, Sokratis, Monreal; Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Ramsey (Elneny 67′), Kolasinac; Ozil (Mkhitaryan 84′), Iwobi (Aubameyang 60′); Lacazette.

Newcastle United XI (5-4-1): Dubravka; Yedlin, Lejeune, Lascelles, Dummett, Ritchie (Kenedy 75′); Perez (Muto 76′), Hayden (Ki 67′), Diame, Almiron; Rondon.