Rodgers provides injury update on Vardy as Pukki suffers fitness scare

We continue our round-up of the Gameweek 21 fixtures with a look at the key Fantasy talking points from Newcastle v Leicester and Norwich v Crystal Palace.

Newcastle United 0-3 Leicester City

• Goals: Ayoze Perez (£6.0m), James Maddison (£7.7m), Hamza Choudhury (£4.3m)
• Assists: Perez, Wilfred Ndidi (£5.0m)
• Bonus: Maddison x3, Fuchs, Perez, Caglar Soyuncu (£5.1m) x2

Leicester confirmed their return to form with a crushing win over Newcastle, a victory that was achieved with Fantasy Premier League’s most popular player not even in the stadium.

Losses to Manchester City and Liverpool had taken some of the Fantasy shine off the Foxes’ key assets, while a weekend win at West Ham had been achieved without many of those stars, most notably the 50.9%-owned Jamie Vardy (£10.1m).

The striker was missing again at Newcastle after suffering an issue with his calf, although Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers was quick to talk down any idea of a long-term problem ahead of looming FA and Carabao Cup duties.

Rodgers said:

He’s done some work back at the training ground and we will see how he is for the weekend. If not, then he should be fine for our semi-final.

In a separate interview, the former Celtic and Liverpool boss added:

He’s got a tight calf, he was unavailable. He’s getting treatment. It’s not overly serious. He’s done some work back at the training ground today with our head physio, the reports back are that he came through it well.

It’s fair to say the forward wasn’t missed at Newcastle.

Rodgers brought back all of his other big guns for the game but tweaked the formation. Christian Fuchs (£4.3m) kept his place, swapping to centre-half in a three-man defence, with Ben Chilwell (£5.7m) and Ricardo Pereira (£6.4m) reinstated as wing-backs.

The result was a dominant display by the visitors, who would have won the game more emphatically were it not for the brilliance of Magpies keeper Martin Dubravka (£5.0m). He made six saves and only just missed out on bonus points for his efforts.

Ayoze Perez (£6.0m) came back to haunt his former club with the opening goal when gifted possession by Florian Lejeune‘s (£4.4m) awful pass.

The defender then doubled down on the errors, his poor clearance allowing Perez to set up James Maddison (£7.7m), who smashed home from the edge of the area.

The England midfielder’s ownership had stayed relatively stable, at around the 25% mark, despite four straight blanks. An 11-point haul at St James’ Park could well prompt further investment ahead of a kindly long-term schedule for Leicester.

The Foxes have already played runaway league leaders Liverpool twice this season and the toughest two tests over the next 12 Gameweeks – Manchester City and Chelsea – will both take place at the King Power Stadium.

The final scorer against Newcastle, substitute Hamza Choudhury (£4.3m), won’t be on many shopping lists, although his first-ever Premier League goal was a beauty. The midfielder collected Wilfred Ndidi‘s (£5.0m) pass on the edge of the area and curled his shot past the helpless Dubravka.

Instead, interest could centre on Leicester’s defenders. No team has kept more clean sheets than their eight this season, even if yesterday’s shut-out was their first since Gameweek 15. The backline’s most popular player, the 19.2%-owned Caglar Soyuncu (£5.1m), earned two bonus points at Newcastle – a welcome return to form after his previous two starts brought in no points at all.

As for Newcastle, 2020 couldn’t have started more disastrously.

The Magpies lost two defenders, Jetro Willems (£4.6m) and Javier Manquillo (£4.3m), to issues in the first half, while captain Jonjo Shelvey (£5.1m) had to be replaced at half-time.

Six minutes after the interval, Fabian Schar (£5.0m) became the third defender to succumb to injury, leaving the hosts to play most of the second period with just ten men.

Manager Steve Bruce now has 13 players – eight of them defenders – with injury problems. His post-match comments were, in the circumstances, a triumph of understatement:

Asking players to play four games in 10 days is ludicrous and today is the consequence of that. You don’t want to lose four players, (DeAndre) Yedlin has broken his hand too. It could have been five. In all the years I have been involved, I have not known a crazy 15 minutes like that.

Investment in Newcastle assets had been sluggish anyway. Now, it will most likely be non-existent.

Newcastle United XI (3-4-3): Dubravka; Lejeune, Fernandez, Schar; Willems (Yedlin 45′), Shelvey (S. Longstaff 46′), Hayden, Manquillo (Krafth 45′); Almiron, Joelinton, Muto.

Leicester City XI (3-5-2): Schmeichel; Fuchs, Evans (Morgan 84′), Soyuncu; Chilwell, Maddison (Choudhury 76′), Ndidi, Tielemans, Pereira; Iheanacho (Gray 63′), Perez.

Members Analysis

Norwich City 1-1 Crystal Palace

• Goals: Todd Cantwell (£4.8m) | Connor Wickham (£4.4m)
• Assists: Emiliano Buendia (£6.0m) | Wilfried Zaha (£6.8m)
• Bonus: Buendia x3 Cantwell x2 Wickham x2

A late equaliser from Connor Wickham (£4.4m) broke Norwich hearts and kept the Canaries well adrift at the bottom of the Premier League table.

The result was a cruel blow for the hosts, who were punished for failing to take full advantage of their first-half supremacy.

Todd Cantwell (£4.8m) had struck early for Norwich, finishing smartly when the ball bounced off Emiliano Buendia (£6.0m) and into his path.

It was the cut-price midfielder’s second goal in four Gameweeks, further confirming his fantastic Fantasy Premier League value. Only three players can better his points per million (PPM) average of 17.5 – all achieved, lest we forget, while playing in a side with just three wins to their name this season.

A fourth victory looked very much on against Palace, with Cantwell and Buendia outstanding throughout. The latter really caught the eye, topping the chances created charts and having only one attempt fewer than Cantwell’s match-leading total of four.

That the Canaries failed to see out the game was down, as ever, to their defence.

Norwich have kept just two clean sheets all campaign – a league-worst record they share with Spurs – and once Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson shuffled his pack in the second half, it felt like only a matter of time before they succumbed yet again.

Even then, the hosts could have been a couple of goals to the good, with Mario Vrancic (£6.2m) missing a good chance at the back post following a corner and Kenny McLean (£4.9m) hitting the bar with a shot from the edge of the area.

The Canaries stayed ahead until the 85^th minute when Wickham pounced. Hodgson had brought the striker on in a change of formation to a 4-4-1-1, with Jordan Ayew (£5.0m) dropping deeper and Wilfried Zaha (£6.8m) hugging the left flank ever tighter.

The winger, who was easily the most potent attacking threat for Palace, promptly burst into the box and saw his cross-shot swept home by the substitute. The goal was initially ruled out for offside, only for VAR to intervene, correctly, and reverse the decision.

It was Zaha’s one and only Fantasy contribution of a lacklustre Christmas schedule. And, post-match, Hodgson confirmed that his star player hadn’t been expected to play at Carrow Road at all:

Wilf was another one today that until this morning we weren’t certain he’d be able to play – he hasn’t trained since the last game. We were concerned he wouldn’t get on the field but because he’s got such a big heart for the club and such a love for football he declared himself fit, but that was a bit of a surprise to me that he declared himself fit.

Zaha’s ownership and price have fallen as a result of his recent blanks. Matches against Arsenal and Manchester City are up next, suggesting no change in that state of affairs.

At the back, Palace’s prospects of keeping a clean sheet anytime soon won’t have been helped by the news that centre-half Mamadou Sakho (£5.0m) had to be withdrawn at half-time with a hamstring issue.

Investment in Norwich assets is similarly unattractive.

The Canaries have a brutish eight-match run incoming, with Manchester United, Tottenham, Liverpool, Leicester and Sheffield United among their opponents.

Cantwell and Buendia might produce attacking returns, but the lack of service being offered to former Fantasy favourite Teemu Pukki (£6.5m) remains a major concern.

The Finland international had just one attempt against the Eagles and has now blanked for four straight Gameweeks, during which he’s managed just four shots on target. Just to add to his woe, coach Daniel Farke confirmed he took the striker off late in the game because of an injury worry.

I had to substitute Teemu Pukki because he felt something in his hamstring, so we won’t take any risks in the cup.

I hope it’s not too bad for Teemu. We have to wait for the doctors and physios but it’s too early to judge it.

There’s no immediate suggestion that Pukki will be injured long-term, but even with him in the side, Norwich look doomed and their Fantasy prospects are not exactly encouraging either.

Norwich City XI: Krul, Byram, Hanley, Zimmermann, Aarons, Vrancic, Cantwell (Hernandez 78′), Buendia, McClean, Tettey (Idah 90′), Pukki (Stiepermann 82′).

Crystal Palace XI: Guaita, Kelly (Pierrick 82′), Tomkins, Sakho (Kouyate 45′), Riedewald, Milivojevic, Meyer (Wickham 45′), McArthur, McCarthy, Zaha, Ayew.

Members Analysis