We round up the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from Saturday’s Gameweek 32 fixtures in our Scout Notes summary.
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You can read Tom Freeman’s notes on Friday’s clash between Newcastle United and Wolverhampton Wanderers here.
GOALS, ASSISTS AND BONUS
INJURIES AND BANS
Antonio Conte hopes to get positive news on Matt Doherty (£4.9m) after the in-form defender failed to recover from an early knock in his side’s win over Aston Villa.
The Irish wing-back was, however, spotted leaving the Midlands wearing a knee brace.
“The doctors are going to check him tomorrow. I hope nothing serious because he wanted to continue to play but then at the end, he preferred to go out. I hope so because Matthew is an important player for us.” – Antonio Conte on Matt Doherty
Lucas Digne‘s (£5.0m) season may be over, meanwhile, with Steven Gerrard fearing that the Frenchman has broken his collarbone.
“He is in a sling. It looks like a collarbone issue. If it’s what we fear, it could be season over for him. The doctors are concerned.” – Steven Gerrard on Lucas Digne
The much-improved Fred (£4.9m), who was even a Bench Boost possibility in Double Gameweek 33, is now a concern for Manchester United’s upcoming double-header after limping out of the defeat to Everton with a hip problem.
“It seems to be some muscular issue on his hip flexor, probably, I don’t know exactly what it is, but from the way that he explained it to me it seems to be a muscular problem. After Scott McTominay, missing a second defensive midfielder, let’s hope that they will not be out for too long.” – Ralf Rangnick on Fred
Cucho Hernandez (£5.1m), another semi-popular bargain-bin FPL pick, didn’t even make half-time in Watford’s match against Leeds United after pulling up with a muscle issue.
“I’m always worried by muscle injuries. Pulling up like he pulled up, I’m always concerned that it’s going to show something ugly, but I’ve got no idea at the moment and I don’t think we’ll know until the early parts of next week, because I don’t think they’ll scan it straight away, they have to wait for a few days. All I can hope for is some good news, that it’s not as bad a pull or tear as it could be.” – Roy Hodgson on Cucho Hernandez
Cesar Azpilicueta (£5.6m) missed Chelsea’s win over Southampton after a positive Covid-19 test.
FPL TALKING POINTS
GAMEWEEK 33 DOUBLERS DISAPPOINT
Arsenal, Manchester United and Southampton are among the seven clubs who play twice in Gameweek 33, and players from these sides will inevitably attract attention and investment from FPL managers this week as a result of their ‘doubles’.
Saturday was the final Gameweek 33 audition for these three teams and it went about as well as Tobias Funke’s for the South Coast Boutique fire sale. Ironically, it was the one doubling team that many of us will probably avoid in Gameweek 33, Brighton and Hove Albion, who tasted success.
ARSENAL
The Gunners are faltering at the wrong time, both for their Champions League push and in FPL. Their purple patch of form from Gameweeks 16-30, in which the only teams to beat them were the top two, was predicated on a settled starting XI in which 10 players started every match that they were available for.
With a very decent first team but not much behind them, injuries to Thomas Partey (£5.0m) and especially Kieran Tierney (£5.0m) over the last week or so have helped derail them. The lack of faith in Nuno Tavares (£4.3m) was evidenced by Mikel Arteta’s disastrous decision to play Granit Xhaka (£4.8m) at left-back on Saturday, while Partey’s skillset isn’t easily replaced in midfield.
“With all the team available we know how difficult the challenge we ahead was that’s for sure. Those two injuries make the situation more complicated, but we cannot look at that because we’re gonna be looking for excuses. What happened today is down to us and the players that we have and the way we prepared the game.” – Mikel Arteta
That attacking swagger has been missing since the international break, too, with Alexandre Lacazette (£8.4m) coming under fire again. When he’s not linking up play and the young guns around him effectively, he’s not much use at all. His expected goals (xG) output in 2022, minus penalties, is 3.80; his actual goal count is zero.
Luckily for the Gunners, it’s Southampton up first in Gameweek 33 – and they seem like the perfect opposition for rediscovering form or even just plastering over wounds.
SOUTHAMPTON
Another 9-0 thumping was on the cards midway through Southampton’s defeat to Chelsea, with the Blues eventually declaring on six goals.
Saints are a bit feast or famine, with a criticism of the otherwise impressive Ralph Hasenhuttl being that he doesn’t have a Plan B when things are going wrong.
Their recent run of one defeat in 13 league and cup matches has given way to six winless games and 19 goals conceded, and while the ‘on the beach’ excuse will be all too readily used, it’s not the first time we’ve seen such Jekyll-and-Hyde form.
There was the nine-game sequence without a Premier League victory in the second half of 2021/22, with the ‘second’ 9-0 part of that slump. That came immediately after Saints had lost only to the two Manchester clubs in a 15-game purple patch.
The point being that Southampton are good when they’re good but too easily stuck in a rut when they’re bad. Their defenders seem like a no-go for Double Gameweek 33, while the big winner from Saturday’s loss was probably Armando Broja (£5.5m), purely because he wasn’t involved.
Che Adams (£6.8m) continues to get opportunities: even during this winless run, he is joint-third among FPL forwards for non-penalty xGI.
“For us, today, the way we defended – not to defend – was very disappointing to see, to fall back into a behaviour what I thought was gone.
“It seems we have one game of this every season, this is not nice to watch and for such an afternoon hard to take, but we speak about a Champions League winner and when you play against them like we did today it looks like this.” – Ralph Hasenhuttl
MANCHESTER UNITED
A pretty poor defence, and an attack that is neither downright awful nor in any way exceptional would perhaps be a neat summation of United as they head into Gameweek 33.
Jordan Pickford (£4.9m) was kept busy in the opening exchanges of the Saturday lunchtime kick-off, with Bruno Fernandes (£11.6m) pulling the strings and Marcus Rashford (£9.4m) looking the Red Devils’ most likely source of goals, but any early positivity soon dissolved into another non-performance.
Norwich City, and not United themselves, are the biggest pull for Fernandes, Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.2m) et al in Gameweek 33. Fernandes has blanked in 10 of his 15 appearances under Ralf Rangnick, Ronaldo 10 in 14.
There’s always the chance that a rare haul is timed beautifully for a Double Gameweek, as Fernandes seems to have a knack for, but even United’s own manager was bemoaning a lack of attacking form after full-time.
“I said to the team we have to stick together, try to get better, to find more solutions in possession of the ball and our problem right now is not so much that we concede too many goals. Yes, with a clean sheet we would have had a point today but even a point would not have been enough. The last few games we’ve struggled to score goals and to create chances. I think we were better at that four or five weeks ago – even against Watford at home – but today we just didn’t create enough opportunities ourselves.” – Ralf Rangnick
SUPER SPURS
Gameweek 33 Free Hitters who are stacking their team exclusively full of ‘doublers’ might want to think twice, with Tottenham Hotspur among the ‘single’ Gameweek teams in excellent form.
Son Heung-min (£11.0m) stole the headlines with a hat-trick at Villa Park on Saturday night and Harry Kane (£12.6m) bagged another treble of assists but Dejan Kulusevski (£6.3m) continues to deliver for a much cheaper fee, with all three players leaving the Midlands with double-digit hauls.
Since Kulusevski made his first start in Gameweek 26, the Spurs front three are leading the way for FPL points (see above). They are also the top three for xGI overachievement but Kane and Son, like so many of the elite players, tend to make light of Opta’s predicted stats, and even a regression to the expected figures would still see them posting healthy returns: Kane, Son and Kulusevski are first, third and seventh for non-penalty xGI from Gameweek 26 onwards.
COUPLE OF BLANKERS
Leeds United and Aston Villa now take a backseat in Gameweek 33, with no Premier League fixtures to contest. The Whites were flattered by their 3-0 win over Watford, who gift-wrapped all three points with mistakes at both ends, but Villa were painted in an unfair light by their 4-0 trouncing against Spurs.
The Villans were the better team in the first half, spurning chance after chance, and perhaps the return of Marvelous Nakamba (£4.4m) – an unused substitute here – can help shore up a wilting backline in time for the back-to-back doubles in Gameweeks 36 and 37.
“The story of the game is pretty obvious. First half, we were outstanding across the board. We conceded a poor goal from a long, straight ball that we haven’t dealt with, but that aside, we were totally dominating Spurs, we created the best chances, we played the better football and we were the more aggressive team.
“But in the second half, they made it about our backline and we haven’t defended well enough. Good players punish you at this level and that’s what happened.”
“But I can’t be any prouder of the first 45 minutes because we were outstanding. Across the board, I think that’s the best we’ve played.” – Steven Gerrard
Villa’s record against the top eight is abysmal this season but, happily for Philippe Coutinho (£7.2m) and co, they now face only two such clubs in the run-in.
THE BEST OF THE REST
Everton are looking like a team to target at home and categorically avoid on the road, so Gameweeks 36 and 37 have contrasting appeal. The Toffees have the worst away record in the division in 2021/22 but have been much better on Merseyside, with Saturday’s 1-0 win over United meaning that they have conceded only three goals in the seven home league and cup matches that Frank Lampard has overseen.
Finally, a word or three on Chelsea, who may not be high on the FPL shopping list in the next two Gameweeks due to their lack of an immediate ‘double’ and a pair of tricky-ish fixtures against teams around them in the table.
Involvement in cup competitions at home and abroad continues to be a deterrent, with Reece James (£6.3m) benched for the second successive Gameweek in order to be preserved for the Champions League. The hope now, with apologies to Blues fans, is that Real Madrid see the job through on Tuesday and that Chelsea are knocked out of the FA Cup next weekend. That would leave them with no sideshow distractions and a ticker-topping run of games to finish the season:
Timo Werner (£8.6m) had a remarkable day, being presented with five big chances (that’s more than any other team had on Saturday, let alone an individual player), hitting the woodwork three times, scoring a brace and claiming an assist.
The German isn’t likely to be a long-term FPL target but others, including James, would only increase in appeal with a couple of cup eliminations.
Antonio Rudiger (£6.2m) and Mason Mount (£7.5m) have been the ‘safest’ picks this season, being the Chelsea defender and midfielder who have started the most matches that they were available for, and the latter reminded us of his potential with a huge haul at St Mary’s. He’s a bit of a flat-track bully, mind: nine of his 10 goals this season have come against the bottom eight, and he’d scored just once in 11 matches before Saturday.
The out of position Kai Havertz (£7.9m), meanwhile, made it six Fantasy returns in as many starts with a goal against Saints. He’s second for non-penalty xGI among all Premier League players in that time.
