We begin our analysis of the Gameweek 33 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) action in our Scout Notes series.
Here, we focus on three Tuesday night matches – Wolverhampton Wanderers v Crystal Palace, Aston Villa v Fulham and Leeds United v Leicester City.
Any numbers you see in this article are taken from our Premium Members Area, where you can access Opta player and team data from every single Premier League fixture.
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- READ MORE: FPL General: Players and teams to target for the run-in
- READ MORE: Do big players do well in big games?
15 POINTS FOR MINGS
Around a fifth of the top 100k managers were delighted to receive a 15-point haul from Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings (£4.6m). England’s centre-back scored the only goal of a dull match with Fulham, rising high to head home a John McGinn (£5.1m) corner.
Just like left-back Alex Moreno (£4.5m), he was part of Villa’s seventh clean sheet in ten matches – five in a row at home. Truth be told, Fulham posed very little goal threat, with their only shot of the night coming from an acrobatic Andreas Pereira (£4.4m) effort in the first minute.
A late Daniel James (£5.9m) strike was ruled out for offside, allowing Villa to hold on and leapfrog Spurs into fifth place.
IS WATKINS’ RUN OVER?
For those FPL squads without a Villa defender, our Season Ticker suggests that the time might have passed. Villa have the third-worst fixture run until the end, where they’ll face four of the top eight.
Then again, it’s hard to rule against a side in such strong form. They have now scored in the first 20 league games under Unai Emery, thanks to Ollie Watkins (£7.7m) netting 11 times between Gameweeks 21 and 31.
However, at a time when many managers are looking for the downgrade that enables a Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) purchase, Watkins has blanked in successive matches before poor fixtures.
Those wanting to take the 3-5-2 route could risk moving Watkins to the likes of Dominic Solanke (£5.6m) or Sam Greenwood (£4.0m), although Odsonne Edouard‘s (£5.0m) appeal was dented by being benched for Crystal Palace tonight.
Despite all this, he still mustered four shots versus Fulham, with three from inside the penalty area.
A MADDISON ASSIST
PALACE BLANKS
The first match brought Roy Hodgson’s first defeat since his return to Crystal Palace. It came from a Joachim Andersen (£4.5m) own goal and a stoppage time Ruben Neves (£5.2m) penalty, giving Wolves their third consecutive clean sheet.
There were blanks throughout the Eagles’ squad, for names like Sam Johnstone (£4.4m), Michael Olise (£5.6m) and Marc Guehi (£4.5m). A bright spark was midfielder Eberechi Eze (£5.6m), who led the way for chances created (4) and goal attempts (5) but only one of these shots was from inside the box, meaning his xGI was just 0.18.
While he forced a superb save from Jose Sa (£5.0m) in the 75th minute, the 24-year-old couldn’t find a way past the Portuguese stopper.
The final five Palace matches look good on paper but, as seen tonight, their good start under Hodgson has put them in a safe mid-table position that may bring similar no-shows.
GAMEWEEK 33 LINE-UPS
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Sá; Semedo, Dawson, Kilman, Bueno (Toti 79′); Nunes (Neto 89′), Neves, Lemina; Hwang (Traore 79′), Diego Costa (Collins 89′), Cunha (Joao Gomes 68′)
Crystal Palace: Johnstone; Richards, Andersen (Ward 46′), Guéhi, Mitchell; Milivojevic (Schlupp 65′), Sambi Lokonga (Edouard 65′), Hughes (Mateta 90′); Olise, Ayew, Eze
Aston Villa: Martinez; Young (Chambers 85′), Konsa, Mings, Moreno (Digne 77′); McGinn, Dendoncker, Douglas Luiz, Ramsey (Traore 77′); Buendia, Watkins
Fulham: Leno; Tete (Cedric 68′), Tosin, Ream, Robinson; Reed (Kebano 83′), Palhinha; Wilson (Decordova-Reid 17′), Andreas (Cairney 68′), Solomon (Vinicius 68′); James
Leeds United: Meslier; Ayling, Koch, Cooper, Firpo; Roca, McKennie; Harrison, Rodrigo (Aaronson 68′), Sinisterra (Summerville 32′); Bamford
Leicester City: Iversen; Castagne, Faes, Soyuncu, Kristiansen; Soumare, Tielemans; Tete (Vardy 70′), Maddison, Barnes (Daka 70′); Iheanacho (Praet 82′)
