After running the rule over Chelsea’s 5-1 win over Southampton, we turn attention to Wednesday’s ‘other’ six-goal thriller: Newcastle United 3-3 Liverpool.
A resounding 4-0 win for the blue half of Merseyside is also tackled in this latest Gameweek 14 Scout Notes piece.
ALEXANDER-ARNOLD PRIMED FOR GAMEWEEK 15 START
After the unexpected concession of three goals on Tyneside, the narrative peddlers were predictably out in force. Alisson (£5.4m) wouldn’t have made the mistake that Caiomhin Kelleher (£4.6m) made for Newcastle’s stoppage-time equaliser. Ibrahima Konate (£5.3m) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£6.9m) wouldn’t have been quite so suspect as Joe Gomez (£4.8m) and Jarell Quansah (£3.9m) down the right. Kostas Tsimikas (£4.6m) is now a better left-back than Andrew Robertson (£5.9m).
While some/all of those may be more than half-truths, it’s impossible to know what would have happened in a parallel world had everyone been fit.
Newcastle, as they so often do in games of this magnitude (see Arsenal and Man City in the league, Chelsea in the cup) are a real handful against any side, full strength or otherwise, when they decide they’re up for it.
It’s also worth noting that other Liverpool regulars were short of their best. Ryan Gravenberch (£5.0m), so excellent this season, looked exhausted in the middle after a string of successive starts. Alexis Mac Allister (£6.2m) and Virgil van Dijk (£6.4m) were turned inside out for the opener.
Arne Slot made the point that Liverpool have just shut out Manchester City and Real Madrid with so-called understrength backlines, just to give Wednesday’s goalfest some context.
“[Kostas] Tsimikas was already out before we played [Real] Madrid and [Manchester] City, Conor [Bradley] was out before we played City and Ibou [Konate] didn’t play City as well and we kept a clean sheet two times against the best teams that have dominated Europe for so long. To go away to Newcastle is such a difficult game to play and they have so much quality, throughout the whole squad but especially up front as well. So that they are able to score a goal, that’s not a surprise for me and especially the first one, what a finish that was: from them I mean, ours was a great finish as well, but that shot from Isak, I don’t even know if Caoimh [Kelleher] saw that goal, as hard as it was.” – Arne Slot on his defence
The big winner out of this contest was Alexander-Arnold, who not only was benched but also came on to claim two assists. Nicely rested, he’ll surely start against Everton on Saturday.
Gomez was interestingly hooked, rather than stand-in right-back Quansah, when Alexander-Arnold came on – so there’ll be a nervy teamsheet wait for owners of the former ahead of Gameweek 15.
SENSATIONAL SALAH
“What makes him even more special for me is before we scored for 1-1 you thought, ‘He is not playing his best game today,’ but then to come up with a half-hour with an assist, two goals, having a shot against the bar and being a constant threat, that is something not many players can do if they’ve played the first hour like he did. So, that is also what makes him special, apart from if you just look at the goals. His finishing is so clinical.” – Arne Slot on Mohamed Salah
There’s no stopping Mohamed Salah (£13.2m) right now. A whopping 10 double-digit hauls for 2024/25 is more than he managed in the whole of last season. Remarkably, no one, not even Cole Palmer (£11.0m), could better that tally (in single matches, rather than Double Gameweeks) in the entirety of 2023/24. We’re only in Gameweek 14…
In delivering this 18-point haul (his highest of a stellar season) the Egyptian has reached 150 points quicker than any player in FPL history. Even in his record-setting 2017/18 campaign, it took him until Gameweek 20 to do so.
The history books may be being rewritten come May.
As Slot said above, Salah has an incredible knack for being clinical. On the periphery at times, two ruthless, instinctive finishes from Alexander-Arnold passes did the damage. He had also teed up Curtis Jones (£5.3m) for Liverpool’s first goal.
The superstitious might not like the fact that he’s playing in the early kick-off on Saturday. Fatigue may also be a consideration with the quick turnaround. But you can virtually guarantee that when our Gameweek 15 captain poll launches, he’ll be topping it.
Positional ‘rival’ Federico Chiesa (£6.8m) made his return to action for the under-21s on Wednesday, incidentally.
NEWCASTLE TURN UP
As mentioned above, Newcastle can compete with the best in the division when they fancy it. The problem is that the very best of the Magpies – particularly Alexander Isak (£8.4m), Anthony Gordon (£7.2m) and Bruno Guimaraes (£6.1m) – has only been seen in the so-called bigger games.
Poor against Crystal Palace and West Ham United in the previous two Gameweeks, and in other matches earlier in the season (even in victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers and Southampton), you would not be surprised in the slightest if they tanked at Brentford on Saturday.
A point was definitely deserved. Both sides hit the woodwork. Gordon and Jacob Murphy (£4.9m) missed one on ones, while Darwin Nunez (£7.1m) somehow failed to make contact with a headed cut-back from about a yard out.
Isak, shaking off a hip injury, was absolutely outstanding, scoring a rocket of an opener and assisting Gordon.
Opta had Newcastle edging it 2.09-1.99 on xG. StatsBomb had it 1.51-1.34 to Liverpool. Either way, it was neck and neck.
The challenge now for the Magpies: do it again in Gameweek 15.
FOREVER YOUNG
‘El Sackico’ (or is that Southampton v West Ham United) emphatically went the way of Everton on Wednesday.
To concede four goals to the joint-lowest scorers in the division was the most damning indictment yet of Wolves’ league-worst backline.
Certainly, the Toffees didn’t suddenly turn into Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United and rack up the xG.
Two own-goals, one Ashley Young (£4.6m) free-kick and one Orel Mangala (£5.0m) shot from the edge of the box did the damage.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.5m) didn’t transform into prime Ruud van Nistelrooy, either. Twice it looked like he had ended his goal drought. Twice it turned out that Craig Dawson (£4.4m) had put through his own net.
What was more typically Everton was the keeping of another clean sheet, their fifth in eight matches. That has helped Young up to joint-fourth in the FPL defenders’ points table.
Despite the form, it’s probably jumping-off time for Everton defenders thanks to this horrific run:
As for Wolves, where do they go from here? Gary O’Neil has clung on to his job for now, although there is still time for that to change by Gameweek 15.
The encouraging thing for owners of Matheus Cunha (£7.1m) and Jorgen Strand Larsen (£5.6m) is that three significantly worse defences – all in the bottom four for expected goals conceded (xGC) – than Everton’s are up next.
Wolves barely laid a glove on the Toffees barring an early couple of decent Strand Larsen opportunities (he now leads Cunha 10-3 in big chances this season) but, just to put things in perspective, O’Neil’s troops had scored in 12 successive games before that.
