We’ve got notes from two more of Saturday’s matches to bring you now in our latest Gameweek 25 post-mortem.
Three of this season’s surprise packages, Bournemouth, Fulham and Nottingham Forest are covered in this article.
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- READ MORE: FPL notes: Villa injuries, Emery explains subs + Rogers unlucky
SILVA THE GIANT-KILLER?
It was a second successive 2-1 win for Fulham on Saturday – and a second successive 18-point haul for Marco Silva (£1.1m).
The Fulham boss replicated Gameweek 24’s manager win table bonus and is the only Premier League boss to have two of those to his name since FPL started keeping tabs on Assistant Manager scores in late January.
It continues an ongoing trend for Fulham, who seem to raise their game facing the big guns.
Just looking at December alone, Silva would have picked up manager bonus points for the win at Chelsea and draws with Liverpool and Arsenal.
Fulham are now up to eighth in the table, so there aren’t too many more opponents left for Silva to giant-kill.
Any devil-may-care FPL managers with the Assistant Manager chip still intact could, if desired, back Silva in Gameweeks 30 + 31 before switching to a ‘doubler’ in Gameweek 32. Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner (£0.8m) may well be eligible for table bonus in both of the Eagles’ fixtures then.
You’re going against the laws of probability chasing most upsets, of course, but Silva does seem to get a tune out of his troops when facing the elite.
DESERVED WIN FOR FULHAM
Make no mistake about it, Fulham fully merited this latest victory. The same was true at Newcastle United a fortnight ago.
The Cottagers had more shots in the box (20) than any other team on Saturday. Opta had their xG (2.24) as the division’s highest, too, with StatsBomb recording it at a still-dominant 1.78.
No Premier League player had more shots (seven) than Raul Jimenez (£5.6m) on Saturday. No one created more chances (six) than Sasa Lukic (£4.8m), either. Just to ram home the same point, Mats Sels made more saves (eight) than any other top-flight ‘keeper.
Sels was inspired. The Forest goalkeeper was the main reason why Jimenez didn’t score, the best of his three saves from the Mexican being a superb fingertip stop from a 20-yard effort. Equally as good was a low save from a Lukic attempt and a 90th-minute double-stop to keep the score at 2-1. What a season the Belgian custodian has had.
Sels was beaten twice, however. Jimenez at least claimed an assist for Calvin Bassey‘s (£4.5m) set-piece winner, while Emile Smith Rowe (£5.2m) had earlier nodded the Cottagers in front from an Adama Traore (£4.6m) cross.
Traore was up there with Lukic and Sels in the Man of the Match stakes. With Harry Wilson (£5.2m) and Reiss Nelson (£5.0m) out for a long period, the cut-price Traore has a chance of a sustained run in the first team – providing he can see off the challenge of the recaptured Willian (£5.0m).
POLISHED FINISH FROM KIWI
This was a second successive away defeat for Forest. At least it wasn’t another 5-0 but the margin of Fulham’s victory should have been bigger.
Pretty much everyone bar Sels had an off-day, including Nuno Espirito Santo himself. The Forest boss hinted that he regretted sticking with the wing-back system he used in Gameweek 24, abandoning that set-up in the second half. With Callum Hudson-Odoi (£5.2m) back fit, we might see a return to 4-2-3-1 at Newcastle next weekend.
“The idea of the formation was to have an extra body and try to control things better. What we anticipated, and what was the reality, was that Fulham’s strength is having good players in wide areas. And then they occupy the box well.
“The idea of having an extra body to control that situation didn’t happen. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”
“There are so many things I would do differently now. Now it is about looking at the game and preparing for the next one. It is always the same.” – Nuno Espirito Santo, via the Nottingham Post
You can keep Chris Wood (£7.1m) quiet for 89 minutes but one opportunity is often all he needs. One opportunity is all he got at Fulham, and it was barely a half-chance when he received the ball. Some brilliant footwork later and the Kiwi striker had created enough room to curl his 18th league goal of the season past Bernd Leno (£5.0m).
Morgan Gibbs-White (£6.5m) claimed the assist for Wood’s strike. That was his 11th attacking return in as many Gameweeks.
BOURNEMOUTH MIDFIELDERS DELIVER
Providing you didn’t go rogue with a David Brooks (£4.9m) or Tyler Adams (£4.9m) pick, your Bournemouth midfielder probably delivered on Saturday.
The ‘out of position’ Dango Ouattara (£5.1m) nodded the Cherries in front at Southampton before Justin Kluivert (£6.0m) and Antoine Semenyo (£5.7m) assisted the visitors’ second and third strikes.
The unlikely figure of Ryan Christie (£4.9m) outscored them all with a goal and an assist, while even substitute Marcus Tavernier (£5.4m) got in on the act by scoring off the bench.
So much analysis has gone into the three main Bournemouth attacking midfielders. Are we now at a point of acceptance that they’re all pretty damn good picks and you just choose your lane and stay in there – or even double up? A different name seems to impress every week, with Semenyo the most eye-catching at St Mary’s.
The winger was devastating down Southampton’s right flank, only being denied a twinkle-toed wondergoal by Aaron Ramsdale‘s (£4.4m) fingertip. He created a glorious chance that Ouattara spurned, too.
Despite Semenyo passing the eye test with flying colours, it was makeshift centre-forward Ouattara who logged the better numbers with four shots in all. Semenyo’s Ricky Villa impersonation and Kluivert’s effort from distance were their only shots.
Yet, go back a fortnight, it was Kluivert getting into the more dangerous shooting positions.
Above: £6.0m-and-under FPL midfielders sorted by shots since Evanilson became unavailable. Dango has logged more big chances despite trailing in overall attempts.
TWO MORE CHERRIES RETURN
Bournemouth welcomed back Alex Scott (£4.7m) and Luis Sinisterra (£4.8m) on Saturday. That news may greeted with a ‘Partridge shrug’ by many but, along with Tavernier, those are two more names that Andoni Iraola can call upon in the midfield positions.
Kluivert’s minutes, for example, may start heading back down towards the 70-75 minute mark, where they’ve typically been all season.
The starting XI should be safe for now, at least.
“I think they are performing well and for me it is difficult to take a decision [to change anything] but we go game by game.” – Andoni Iraola when asked about naming the same team for the fourth Premier League game in a row
