Sterling handed a midweek start as Spurs exit EFL Cup

Seven Premier League teams were in Carabao Cup action on Tuesday night and we’ll run down the headline Fantasy news from each of those ties in our latest Scout Notes article.

Preston North End 0-3 Manchester City

• Goals: Raheem Sterling (£12.1m), Gabriel Jesus (£9.5m), own-goal
• Assists: Eric Garcia (£4.5m), Sterling, David Silva (£7.5m)

Raheem Sterling (£12.1m) was handed a 73-minute run-out as Manchester City breezed past Preston North End to reach the fourth round of the EFL Cup.

Sterling was an unused substitute in Saturday’s 8-0 win over Watford and was perhaps surprisingly given a start at Deepdale, although Pep Guardiola has treated the competition with enough reverence to have won it in both of the last two seasons.

The positive omen for Sterling’s owners was that he was withdrawn with just over a quarter of an hour of the match remaining, perhaps with one eye on the trip to Everton on Saturday – a match that City have four days to recover from.

Sterling looked in excellent nick, causing a number of problems from the left flank before racing from the halfway line to open the scoring with a deflected shot on 19 minutes.

The England winger then teed up Gabriel Jesus (£9.5m) for City’s second strike before ‘assisting the assister’ for the visitors’ third goal, which saw Preston’s Ryan Ledson turn a David Silva (£7.5m) cross into his own net.

Sterling would have collected another assist had Phil Foden‘s (£5.2m) 68th-minute effort not crashed against the crossbar, while home goalkeeper Connor Ripley had to be alert to keep out an effort from the former Liverpool man just minutes before the deadlock was broken.

Speaking after the game, Pep Guardiola said of Sterling:

He was 19 or 20 when he came here. In two or three years he will be a better player than now. I know his work ethic. He didn’t play last game, but he came here with incredible humility and played at an incredible level.

Even David Silva, won absolutely everything, came here in the Carabao Cup and played as captain, played in a difficult position like holding midfield.

That’s why when we lost to Norwich everyone is saying disaster. What are you talking about? These guys deserve incredible respect.

Owners of Ederson (£6.1m), Kevin De Bruyne (£9.9m), Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.5m), Kyle Walker (£6.0m), Sergio Aguero (£12.2m) would have been delighted to see their assets omitted from City’s matchday squad, while Rodri (£5.5m) and Nicolas Otamendi (£5.5m) were both unused substitutes.

Aguero’s prospects of starting at Goodison Park look even more promising given that Jesus was handed 90 minutes, with the Brazilian striker wasting good opportunities to add to his tally when nodding wide from close range and then firing straight at Ripley in the second half.

Angelino (£4.8m) turned in a decent display at left-back on his first start in his second spell at club, with Benjamin Mendy (£5.9m) stepping up his comeback with a half-hour cameo.

Joao Cancelo (£5.4m) lasted the full duration of the game, meanwhile, and while Walker and Zinchenko may now be in pole position to start on Merseyside, the long-term security of starts for the pair looks in jeopardy – as evidenced in the Ukraine international’s absence in Gameweek 6.

Guardiola said after full-time:

Kyle needed a rest and wasn’t fit, and Mendy has missed most of the last two seasons, so we had Angelino and Cancelo playing from the start and they did well, too.

Eric Garcia (£4.5m) and Taylor Harwood-Bellis (not priced) were both given starts at centre-back, meanwhile, with Garcia taking up the left-sided role that the injured Aymeric Laporte (£6.3m) has recently vacated.

Guardiola said of the pair’s performance:

I’m happy for them. They are training with us and we will need them, so they are going to help us. We defended well, and they gave a really good performance.

I think all the team helped them and they helped the team – it is not easy, but they did really well, and they are young, talented players with a strong mentality, and they complemented each other really well.

Riyad Mahrez (£8.5m) was only a substitute but there were second starts in four days for David Silva and Bernardo Silva (£7.8m), which might be of some concern to their owners in the run-up to Gameweek 7.

Bernardo, indeed, lasted the full 90 minutes.

Man City XI (4-3-3): Bravo; Cancelo, Harwood-Bellis, Garcia, Angelino (Mendy 60′); Foden, Gundogan, D Silva (Bernarbe 63′); B Silva, Jesus, Sterling (Mahrez 73′).

Colchester United 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur (4-3 penalties)

Tottenham Hotspur slumped to an embarrassing penalty shootout defeat to Colchester United as the League Two side, who knocked out Crystal Palace in the second round, claimed their second successive Premier League scalp.

The positive news for owners of Spurs’ most-popular Fantasy assets was that most of them were handed breathers, either in the form of cameos off the bench or complete rests altogether.

Mauricio Pochettino indeed made ten changes from the side that lost to Leicester City on Saturday, with only goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga (£4.4m) keeping his place.

The likes of Harry Kane (£11.0m), Serge Aurier (£5.0m), Toby Alderweireld (£5.5m), Danny Rose (£5.5m) and Tanguy Ndombele (£6.0m) were all given the evening off and omitted from the matchday squad, while Jan Vertonghen (£5.3m) and Hugo Lloris (£5.5m) – back in the first-team fold following the birth of his third child – were unused substitutes.

Son Heung-min (£9.7m), Erik Lamela (£6.1m) and Christian Eriksen (£8.8m) were thrown on late in the game as Pochettino’s side struggled to break down their opponents from the Football League, registering only four shots on target all match.

What is even better news for the likes of Son, Lamela and Kane is that their understudies did little to impress, although the lively Lucas Moura (£7.3m) was perhaps the pick of a below-average bunch.

Moura tested home goalkeeper Dean Gerken with a free-kick in the first half but that was Spurs’ only shot on target until the final ten minutes, with the rusty-looking Dele Alli (£8.4m) screwing a shot wide and Kyle Walker-Peters (£4.9m) striking the post with a cross before that.

Pochettino used a wing-back system for the first time this season, with Alli and Lucas supporting young striker Troy Parrott (£4.5m) in a 3-4-2-1.

The Spurs boss said after full-time:

When you have an unsettled squad always it’s difficult and you lose time and then you need time to recover the time you lose. That’s where we are.

Maybe our performances are good but you need this extra, which is mental, connection, it’s energy to be all together, not to have different agendas in the squad. We need time again to build that togetherness that you need when you are competing at this level.

Spurs XI (3-4-2-1): Gazzaniga; Dier, Sanchez, Tanganga (Son 66′); Walker-Peters, Skipp (Lamela 78′), Wanyama, Davies; Alli, Moura; Parrott (Eriksen 66′).

Arsenal 5-0 Nottingham Forest

• Goals: Gabriel Martinelli (£4.5m) x2, Rob Holding (£4.5m), Joe Willock (£5.0m), Reiss Nelson (£5.4m)
• Assists: Calum Chambers (£4.4m) x3, Nelson, Hector Bellerin (£5.4m)

A much-altered Arsenal side put five goals past Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night to progress to the fourth round of the EFL Cup.

Unai Emery changed his entire starting XI, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m) and Nicolas Pepe (£9.4m) handed the evening off altogether.

Probably the headline news from a Fantasy perspective was the return from injury of three Arsenal defenders.

Rob Holding (£4.5m) and Kieran Tierney (£5.4m) got their first competitive starts of 2019/20, with Hector Bellerin (£5.4m) also making his comeback when replacing Tierney in the 77th minute.

Holding marked his return with a goal, heading in Reiss Nelson‘s (£5.4m) 71st-minute corner, before Bellerin teed up Joe Willock (£5.0m) within a minute of his arrival off the bench.

Asked about Bellerin after full-time, Emery said:

I think Hector’s attitude is a very big attitude to help us. When he was injured he was still a big mentality in the dressing room helping us. He assisted for Willock to score and also to have different options in the squad and first XI is good.

We are going to play a lot of matches and tonight was his first 15 minutes (with us), which is really important. He wanted to play 90 and yesterday he told me he’s ready and wanted to play, but we decided to give him less minutes than 90. He played with the under-23s on Friday and also they are the first matches for him. We need to do it progressively and the doctor said to us that we are going to do it like that.

Questioned about whether Bellerin could step in for Ainsley Maitland-Niles (£5.1m) and play 90 minutes at Old Trafford on Monday, Emery replied:

I think no. Maybe in his mind yes, but we need to listen to the doctor and the doctor wants to do it progressively. Really tonight is the first day and the first minutes, and we are going to maybe share some minutes with the under-23s.

It depends how he’s feeling, but in his mind, he’s feeling very well and I think the first minutes tonight were amazing for him. We are going to use him with Ainsley and Calum Chambers to help us in this position. The most important things about Hector are his attitude and experience. He’s wishing to help us.

Calum Chambers (£4.4m) collected an unlikely hat-trick of assists from full-back with his all-round display perhaps putting him in contention for a start in Gameweek 7.

Chambers first supplied an excellent volleyed cross for Gabriel Martinelli (£4.5m) to head in before teeing up Nelson after switching flanks late on.

The former Fulham loanee’s hat-trick was completed in admittedly fortuitous circumstances, with Martinelli embarking on a solo run and unleashing a curling shot from 25 yards.

Speaking of the budget FPL forward, Emery said:

Martinelli is a very young player. But he came here and we were waiting and watching him, how he could improve with us and really, really in the pre-season he played very well.

He was working in each training with a big spirit and with a big performance and I spoke with him to have some passion for when he gets his opportunity to play, to do like he was doing in the training and the matches in the pre-season. Tonight he did that.

Really, he deserved it because he is very humble, a humble player and he fights, he is hungry to have that opportunity to help us and really it was perfect, his work tonight.

Tierney may not have banked any attacking returns but there were very promising signs from the summer signing, who put in an impressive performance down the left flank and looked a real attacking threat.

Holding didn’t have a great deal to do at centre-back, meanwhile, but Emery said after the game:

Perfect to have more options with the centre backs. After, his spirit is positive, like the minutes he played tonight.

Every day in training, he helps us for having more performances like a team and after he needed to take minutes, take confidences and I think tonight, the first match after playing with the under-23s for him is perfect.

He was a little tired at the end of the match but he scored and I think he is happy tonight. And we are happy for him.

Mesut Ozil (£7.3m) played the first 71 minutes of this tie in ‘the hole’ of a 4-2-3-1, with Dani Ceballos (£5.7m) replacing him for the remainder of the game.

Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Martinez; Chambers, Mustafi, Holding, Tierney; Willock, Torreira; Ozil 7 (Ceballos 71′), Smith Rowe (Saka 45′), Nelson; Martinelli.

Luton Town 0-4 Leicester City

• Goals: Demarai Gray (£5.3m), James Justin (£4.9m), Youri Tielemans (£6.4m), Kelechi Iheanacho (£5.8m)
• Assists: Ayoze Perez (£6.1m), Tielemans, Gray, Marc Albrighton (£5.3m)

Leicester City assistant manager Chris Davies revealed that James Maddison (£7.1m) is a “doubt” for the visit of Newcastle United on Sunday.

Maddison picked up an ankle injury in the win over Spurs on Saturday and, speaking after his side’s 4-0 victory over Luton on Tuesday, Davies said:

Madders, he obviously has a knock on his ankle – he looks a doubt for the weekend. We will see how he goes and how he recovers next week.

Maddison was one of seven players to make way from Brendan Rodgers’ starting XI in Gameweek 6, with Jamie Vardy (£8.9m), Kasper Schmeichel (£5.0m), Harvey Barnes (£5.9m) and Ricardo Pereira (£6.0m) all unused substitutes.

Ben Chilwell (£5.4m) and Caglar Soyuncu (£4.6m) were handed the night off altogether, meanwhile.

Jonny Evans (£5.0m) and Youri Tielemans (£6.4m) were the only starters in Gameweek 6 who completed 90 minutes at Kenilworth Road, with the Belgian midfielder setting up right-back James Justin (£4.9m) for his first Leicester goal with a superb pass and then getting on the scoresheet himself when volleying in Demarai Gray‘s (£5.3m) cross.

Gray – who had eight of Leicester’s 28 shots on goal – had earlier opened the scoring when latching onto Ayoze Perez‘s (£6.1m) flick from a corner.

With Vardy benched, Perez led the line for the Foxes in their usual 4-1-4-1 system but was unable to break his goal drought, registering only one shot on target.

Perez’s replacement on 71 minutes, Kelechi Iheanacho (£5.8m), rounded off the scoring when latching onto Marc Albrighton‘s (£5.3m) interception and chipping home goalkeeper James Shea.

Leicester City XI (4-1-4-1): Ward; Justin, Morgan, Evans, Fuchs; Ndidi (Choudhury 77′); Gray, Tielemans, Praet, Albrighton; Perez (Iheanacho 71′).

Sheffield Wednesday 0-2 Everton

• Goals: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.8m) x2
• Assists: Djibril Sidibe (£5.3m), Alex Iwobi (£5.9m)

Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.8m) is responding well to the challenge of Moise Kean (£6.7m), following up his goal in Gameweek 5 with a brace against Sheffield Wednesday in the EFL Cup on Tuesday.

Calvert-Lewin – an unused substitute in the defeat to Sheffield United – crashed in a half-volley off the underside of the bar before turning in Alex Iwobi‘s (£5.9m) pass to put the Toffees 2-0 up inside the first ten minutes at Hillsborough.

The England under-21 international missed the chance to seal his hat-trick when nodding Richarlison‘s (£8.0m) cross straight at Cameron Dawson.

Calvert-Lewin’s work ethic has never been in question but his finishing ability very much has, so last night’s goals were a nice response to his critics and a message to Marco Silva ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Manchester City.

The Everton boss said after full-time:

If you look, Dominic was the striker who started more games for me this season, he has more time on the pitch, playing more games.

It was important for Dominic to score twice. He did well to score in important moments. It gives him confidence. Let’s hope he continues in that way.

Silva made five changes to the side that lost against the Blades, with Jordan Pickford (£5.6m), Yerry Mina (£5.5m), Fabian Delph (£5.4m) and Lucas Digne (£6.1m) keeping their places and all playing 90 minutes.

Richarlison and Bernard (£6.5m) both started and were withdrawn midway through the second half but there was a night off for unused substitutes Kean, Seamus Coleman (£5.5m) and Michael Keane (£5.5m).

Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.7m) only emerged off the bench in the 76th minute.

Digne is being widely sold by Fantasy managers in the run-up to Gameweek 7 but he at least recorded a clean sheet here and should have emerged from the win with at least one attacking return: Richarlison nodded the Frenchman’s cross wide from close range before the premium defender drilled an effort narrowly wide of Dawson’s post.

Djibril Sidibe (£5.3m) banked the assist for Calvert-Lewin’s first goal and went close to getting on the scoresheet himself, although is still perhaps a little way from challenging Coleman at right-back in the top flight.

Iwobi deputised for Sigurdsson in the number ten role and Silva said after full-time:

When we signed Iwobi we knew he could play behind the striker and tonight was a good moment to see him there. He can play in both positions and do well in both.

Everton XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Sidibe, Holgate, Mina, Digne; Delph (Schneiderlin 90′), Davies; Richarlison (Walcott 67′), Iwobi, Bernard (Sigurdsson 76′); Calvert-Lewin.

Portsmouth 0-4 Southampton

• Goals: Danny Ings (£5.9m) x2, Cedric Soares (£4.9m), Nathan Redmond (£6.3m)
• Assists: James Ward-Prowse (£5.8m), Michael Obafemi (£5.0m), Jan Bednarek (£4.5m)

A strong Southampton side swept past local rivals Portsmouth in the first meeting between the two clubs in seven years.

The hosts had made a very bright start – all four of their shots on target came with the score at 0-0 and Alex McCarthy (£4.4m) made a superb stop from Brett Pitman – but a first-half double from Danny Ings (£5.9m) effectively killed the contest, with Cedric Soares (£4.9m) and substitute Nathan Redmond (£6.3m) rounding off the scoring late on.

Ings lined up on the left of a front three with Che Adams (£5.7m) and Michael Obafemi (£5.0m) and carried much of Southampton’s threat, with his two strike partners not registering a single shot between them.

Ings had stung the hands of Craig MacGillivray just seconds before he curled in an excellent opening goal and doubled the Saints’ advantage when latching onto a fine Obafemi pass just before half-time.

The impressive Ings, whose contribution to the cause was not just about goalscoring, played a huge part in Southampton’s third strike, with a tackle on the former Liverpool forward falling kindly into the path of Cedric.

Ralph Hasenhuttl said of Ings’ display:

I think it was a fantastic performance from Ingsy. He worked hard, he deserved to get his two goals and he helped us out massively today.

The fit-again Redmond came off the bench and capitalised on some hesitant Pompey defending to score a well-taken fourth goal.

Cedric, Jan Bednarek (£4.5m), Adams and Southampton’s central midfield three kept their places from Gameweek 6 and all of those players lasted the full 90 minutes.

Southampton XI (4-3-3): McCarthy; Cedric, Bednarek, Yoshida, Bertrand; Hojbjerg, Romeu, Ward-Prowse; Ings (Long 83′), Obafemi (Redmond 72′), Adams.

Watford 2-1 Swansea

• Goals: Danny Welbeck (£5.9m), Roberto Pereyra (£5.8m)
• Assists: Pereyra, Gerard Deulofeu (£6.2m)

Watford bounced back from their mauling at Manchester City as they edged past Championship side Swansea City at Vicarage Road.

Quique Sanchez Flores made ten changes from the side that were defeated 8-0 at the Etihad, with only Abdoulaye Doucoure (£5.7m) keeping his place.

Danny Welbeck (£5.9m) had already gone close to nodding Watford in front before he met Roberto Pereyra‘s (£5.8m) corner to break the deadlock but Sam Surridge levelled things up soon after.

Pereyra sealed the win when getting onto the end of substitute Gerard Deulofeu‘s (£6.2m) deflected cross.

Sanchez Flores revisited Javi Gracia’s 4-2-2-2 for this encounter, with Pereyra and the impressive Domingos Quina (£4.5m) playing behind a strike pairing of Welbeck and the below-par Andre Gray (£5.9m).

The Watford boss said of Welbeck’s performance after full-time:

I said two weeks ago we have a plan for him. We are taking care with him and are very passionate about him coming back to the team. I just want the fans to see the good version of Danny, not the kind of Danny who goes to the pitch with some pain. I want Danny 100 per cent so we can enjoy this Danny.

Watford’s much-changed defence didn’t have as bad a day as their teammates experienced in Manchester but there were still moments of panic, with Christian Kabasele (£4.4m) having to perform acrobatics to hook a goalbound effort off the line in the second half.

Watford XI (4-2-2-2): Gomes; Janmaat, Prödl, Kabasele, Masina; Chalobah, Doucouré (Sarr 60); Quina (Cleverley 56), Pereyra; Gray (Deulofeu 76), Welbeck.

Lessons learned from Gameweek 6:

• Southampton 1-3 Bournemouth
• Leicester City 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
• Burnley 2-0 Norwich City
• Everton 0-2 Sheffield United
• Manchester City 8-0 Watford
• Newcastle United 0-0 Brighton and Hove Albion
• Crystal Palace 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
• West Ham United 2-0 Manchester United
• Arsenal 3-2 Aston Villa
• Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool