Arsenal and Aston Villa both made it through to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night.
Their progress was expected as both teams carried handsome leads from the first legs last week.
Villa aren’t in Gameweek 29 action, of course, as they’re one of four teams blanking. Meanwhile, Arsenal’s line-up this weekend won’t bear much resemblance to the mostly second-string side they sent out last night.
Nevertheless, there are interesting nuggets to report on for Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.
WATKINS INJURY
Ollie Watkins (£8.9m) lasted only 45 minutes of Villa’s 3-0 win over Club Brugge on Wednesday.
The striker needed treatment towards the end of the first half at Villa Park, failing to return after the interval.
Unai Emery didn’t seem unduly concerned after full-time.
“Ollie Watkins, he told us to change him because he wasn’t feeling good. I don’t exactly know his injury, but I think it is small.
“We used at that moment the chance to use Marcus Rashford as a striker. Really, he played the second half performing well as a striker.” – Unai Emery, via the Birmingham Mail
It’s virtually three weeks till Villa are next in league action. Those FPL managers holding Watkins through Blank Gameweek 29 will be hoping that the domestic lull gives him plenty of time to recover.
There should be numerous updates on Watkins before we even get to Gameweek 30, from Thomas Tuchel’s squad announcement on Friday to Emery’s pre-FA Cup presser at the back-end of March.
DOUBLE GAMEWEEK 33 IMPLICATIONS + MORE
Above image from Legomane
So, then, Arsenal and Aston Villa will both be in midweek European action on either side of Gameweek 32.
If they make it to the semi-finals, Gameweek 35 will also be sandwiched by a Champions League double-header.
It means that, should both clubs’ Gameweek 34 league fixtures be postponed as a result of an FA Cup clash (as seems very likely in Villa’s case especially), those matches will probably move back into Double Gameweek 33 – as depicted on Legomane’s graphic above – as no other midweek slots are guaranteed to exist until we get past Gameweek 36. Even then, those later free midweeks may be needed for postponed Gameweek 37 matches.
While we wait for the FA Cup results to resolve the blanks and doubles, it’s worth posing the question about what Emery and Mikel Arteta will do in Gameweek 32.
Does Emery rotate massively given that the gimmie of a Southampton game is the middle fixture in a Wednesday-Saturday-Tuesday run? Does Arteta admit the inevitable defeat in the title race and rest the big guns for the visit of Brentford?
Something to consider after the international break.
ANOTHER ASENSIO BRACE – EVEN THOUGH HE’S NOT FULLY FIT
Marco Asensio (£6.1m) loves a brace. This was his third in three weeks, taking his total number of Villa goals to seven since his deadline-day arrival.
He had a superb chance in between his two poacher’s strikes, hitting the woodwork when clean through.
Asensio has scored 7⃣ goals in 8⃣ games since joining Aston Villa …
Only Dembélé has netted more in Europe’s top-five leagues across all competition in that time 🥊🔥 pic.twitter.com/5OL6c5jLGo
— LiveScore (@livescore) March 13, 2025
And, of course, he’s not even Greek fully fit.
Benched in the first leg, absent in Gameweek 28 and a substitute again on Wednesday, the on-song loanee has been handled carefully by Villa recently because of a niggling injury.
“We are happy with him. We are protecting him because he is not feeling 100 per cent in the last matches he played.
“Today he was feeling good. He wanted to start the match, but I decided to protect him as well. How he played for 45 minutes was fantastic for us.
“He took the responsibility to do his task like we planned, scoring goals. How he is connecting with other players, keeping possession and getting in good positions is really important for us.” – Unai Emery on Marco Asensio, via the Birmingham Mail
If you could guarantee game-time, he’d be on the FPL watchlist already. As it is, especially with Villa progressing in Europe, you can never be quite sure when further benchings will arrive post-Gameweek 29.
Really, this tie ceased to be a contest after Brugge were reduced to 10 men in the 16th minute – as you can see by the xG race chart below:
The careful Emery kept the handbrake on until the second half to avoid any unnecessary scares, with Villa turning it up a notch after the interval.
Marcus Rashford (£6.7m) went up front after Watkins’ exit, teeing up Asensio yet again for one of his goals. The on-loan United man was bright and direct once more.
Morgan Rogers (£5.5m), who assisted Ian Maatsen‘s (£4.5m) deflected strike, was even afforded the luxury of a rare breather. He was taken off midway through the second half.
ARTETA WITH AN EYE ON GAMEWEEK 29
Arsenal had it even easier, 7-1 up from the first leg. Arteta could have used Gunnersaurus, Piers Morgan and 81-year-old David Dein in a front three on Wednesday and still progressed.
A non-event of a game saw Arteta make seven starting XI changes. The Arsenal boss cobbled together a side that included Jakub Kiwior (£4.8m) at centre-half, Oleksandr Zinchenko (£4.8m) in midfield and Kieran Tierney (£4.3m) as a left winger.
Ben White (£6.1m) got his first start since returning from injury, while Gabriel Martinelli (£6.5m) was afforded more minutes as a substitute after his own recent comeback.
Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.3m) was the only outfielder from the Gameweek 28 line-up to get 90 minutes.
While there were some unexpected star turns from Zinchenko and Raheem Sterling (£6.7m), this match will, ultimately, have little bearing on what happens in Gameweek 29.
Sterling really can’t catch a break. Impressing on the right flank and assisting both of Arsenal’s goals, scored by Zinchenko and Declan Rice (£6.2m), he now won’t get a chance to build any momentum as he’s ineligible to face his parent club in Gameweek 29. You wonder if he would’ve been in with a shout of starting, too, with Mikel Merino (£6.0m) again ineffective up top.
Sterling spurned two excellent chances of his own to get on the scoresheet on Wednesday.
At the rear, a defence containing Kiwior and a rusty White were predictably not as watertight as usual. It mattered naught: a two-all draw didn’t even give the aggregate 9-3 scoreline a veneer of respectability for PSV.
