Finishing off Sunday’s Scout Notes, we run the rule over Leicester City 0-1 Liverpool and Manchester United 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers, as Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.2m) once again caught the headlines.
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TRENT IMPACT
Trent Alexander-Arnold climbed off the bench to score the winner at the King Power Stadium on Sunday, relegating Leicester in the process.
It means Arne Slot’s side will be crowned champions if Arsenal lose to Crystal Palace on Wednesday.
Otherwise, a win over Tottenham Hotspur in Blank Gameweek 34 will seal the title.
Conor Bradley (£4.7m) had a mixed afternoon before Alexander-Arnold’s introduction. In the first half, Stephy Mavididi (£5.0m) caused him plenty of problems with his quick feet and pace, but from an attacking perspective, there were moments of real quality, too.
His underlapping runs in particular stood out.
But with Bradley on a yellow card, Trent made his return to action on 70 minutes, with the substitute’s left-footed goal handing Liverpool the victory.
“I don’t think I deserve any credit for that because if you have Trent on the bench, knowing that Conor [Bradley] probably can’t play 90, I think every manager in the world would have brought Trent in. There are no credits for me over there, but definitely for Trent because he has worked so hard for five-and-a-half weeks – including the medical staff that worked so hard with him to get him back in the squad as soon as he could. That’s why we could use him today for [20] minutes, but I had to use him for 27 because of seven minutes of added time.
“Players with the quality of Trent, you know – you know – these players step up when you most need it. He did that when he came in against Newcastle, he did that in his second-half performance against Paris Saint-Germain, where I was just waiting for him to score a goal until the moment he had to go out with an injury. Now he is back and he has had his moment. All nice, but still one to go.” – Arne Slot
SALAH UNLUCKY
Prior to that, Liverpool had racked up countless chances, with Mohamed Salah (£13.8m) unlucky not to find the net.
Having been denied by the woodwork and bodies on the line, he produced seven shots (see below), including four big chances at the King Power Stadium, the most of any player in Gameweek 33 so far.
Luis Diaz (£7.5m), Cody Gakpo (£7.2m) and substitute Diogo Jota (£7.2m) all should have probably scored, too, with the Colombian taking up the central striker role before the latter’s introduction.
LEICESTER RELEGATED
It’s been a miserable season for Leicester, with Sunday’s defeat condemning them to an immediate return to the Championship.
Remarkably, they’ve now failed to score a goal in their last nine Premier League games at home.
On Sunday, they actually had the ball in the net courtesy of Conor Coady (£4.0m), but it was ruled out for a foul on Alisson Becker (£5.5m).
Mavididi was undoubtedly Leicester’s star man, however, as he started like he left off against Brighton and Hove Albion in Gameweek 32, causing Bradley plenty of problems.
It’s hard to get too excited about any Leicester asset in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) right now, but they do host Southampton and Ipswich Town in the next five Gameweeks, and subsequently sit third on our Season Ticker.
UNITED SLUMP TO DEFEAT/CUNHA ASSIST
It is fair to say that urgency was distinctly lacking from Sunday’s clash at Old Trafford.
Indeed, Man Utd and Wolves combined for just 1.25 expected goals (xG).
The dramatic extra-time comeback against Lyon in midweek prompted Ruben Amorim to make five changes to his line-up, with 20-year-old Tyler Fredricson (£4.0m) handed his debut and 18-year-old Harry Amass (£4.0m) also named in the starting XI.
Harry Maguire (£4.9m) and Bruno Fernandes (£8.5m) were among those on the bench, with Luke Shaw (£4.9m) rested and missing out altogether.
The youngsters certainly didn’t look out of place, but Rasmus Hojlund (£6.9m) once again failed to arrest his poor run of form, with a hat-trick of missed chances.
Alejandro Garnacho (£5.9m), meanwhile, will be wondering how he didn’t come away with an assist, having created three chances.
“If you don’t score goals you don’t win games. We need to score goals. There was a time we didn’t score, but we didn’t create. We have a lot of chances to score, but we didn’t score – that’s the biggest problem for our team.” – Ruben Amorim
As for Wolves, this was their fifth straight victory, and Matheus Cunha (£6.8m) made the difference, drawing the foul for Pablo Sarabia’s (£5.0m) free-kick winner.
The Brazilian, who made his first start since returning from a four-match ban, has now delivered an attacking return in five of his last six appearances, claiming a share of the bonus on each occasion, and faces Leicester City next.
Finally, Dan Bentley (£3.9m) was a late addition to the Wolves team sheet, replacing Jose Sa (£4.4m), who picked up an injury in the warm-up.
Vitor Pereira’s post-match presser unfortunately failed to yield an update, however.
