Three Premier League clubs were in Champions League action on Tuesday. Here we take a look at how they got on, the main talking points and the implications for Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Gameweek 9 and beyond.
TUESDAY’S RESULTS
| Team | Opponent | Result | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 4-0 win | Gabriel, Martinelli, Gyokeres x2 | Rice, Lewis-Skelly, Gabriel, Eze | |
| Manchester City | 2-0 win | Haaland, Bernardo | Lewis, Savinho | |
| Newcastle United | 3-0 win | Gordon, Barnes x2 | Murphy, Pope, Gordon |
SELECTION/ROTATION
| Team | No. of starting XI changes made from GW8 | Players who kept their places (mins played) | Mins for other players |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 2 | Raya (90), Timber (83), Gabriel (72), Saliba (90), Zubimendi (72), Rice (90), Eze (72), Saka (90), Gyökeres (83) | Lewis-Skelly (90), Martinelli (90), Mosquera (18), Nwaneri (18), Nørgaard (18), Marino (7), White (7) |
| Manchester City | 4 | Donnarumma (90), Rúben Dias (90), Matheus Nunes (90), Nico González (57), Doku (72), Savinho (86), Haaland (86) | Gvardiol (90), Stones (90), Lewis (73), Bernardo Silva (90), Kovačić (33), Bobb (18), Reijnders (17), Marmoush (4), Cherki (4) |
| Newcastle United | 3 | Pope (90), Trippier (90), Thiaw (90), Botman (90), Burn (90), Bruno Guimarães (89), Woltemade (85), Gordon (85) | Ramsey (63), Miley (90), Murphy (63), Barnes (27), Joelinton (27), Elanga (5), Osula (5), Willock (1) |
CALAFIORI RESTED
Unlike his previous Champions League match against Olympiacos, Mikel Arteta did not change up his side too much at all, making only two alterations to the side that beat Fulham in Gameweek 8. Riccardo Calafiori (£5.7m), who was one of Arsenal’s star performers at Craven Cottage, made way for Myles Lewis-Skelly (£5.2m) and Leandro Trossard (£6.9m) was replaced by Gabriel Martinelli (£6.9m). Both players proved to be highly effective performers.
Arsenal’s squad depth is beginning to bare its teeth in both competitions. For every player who is rested, another one of comparable ability steps into the breach. Lewis-Skelly and Gabriel Martinelli both delivered top performances and Arteta was delighted with them.
“I think Myles and Gabby were superb. The impact, the team, the results, they were ready from the beginning, and the boys that come in again, and we use them in different ways again. I think we need to try to keep them all involved, and even if they have a chance to play, and if they play at that level, it’s a joy, because it’s going to elevate our daily training sessions. That will mean the standard will be higher and we will compete better.” – Arteta on Lewis-Skelly and Martinelli
“If you look at it from what he’s done from December last year to now, at his age, at this level, it’s incredible. But I said it before, he’s been really focused, really humble, and really good. When that happens and you have to play after, you are ready, and I thought he was really good today.
– Arteta on Lewis-Skelly
“This is what we need, and when you look at the top teams in Europe, that’s what they have. We have to manage that in a really cohesive system, when everybody understands that they’re going to have different roles throughout the game, or in different games. But at the end, the outcome is to earn the right to win games, and to win games. That’s the ultimate goal, and we are seeking the same thing.”
– Arteta on squad rotation
MORE SET-PIECE STRIKES, GYÖKERES BACK IN THE GOALS
Arsenal once again demonstrated their effectiveness at set-pieces, with Gabriel (£6.4m) heading in from a Declan Rice (£6.6m) free-kick. That was his fourth assist of the season in all competitions. Since 2020, no centre-back in Europe’s top five leagues has scored more goals than the Brazilian’s 22. Gabriel even assisted one of Viktor Gyökeres’ (£9.0m) goals, heading another Rice corner across goal for the Swede to score his second goal of the evening.
Only Bukayo Saka (£10.0m) had more shots than the centre-half on the night:
Gyökeres owners will be delighted that the forward grabbed his first goals in nine matches. He has been working selflessly for the team in recent matches and getting shots off but has not quite had the rub of the green.
“He deserved it, because everything that we were seeing in terms of what he was bringing to the team and how much he was helping the team in many areas, apart from scoring goals in the last few weeks, there was no debate about that.
“It was about keeping that belief in himself, that emotional state, that he can enjoy and play freely. I think he’s certainly done that today. Again, he was rewarded with two goals, and the biggest smile on his face. Look at his team-mates as well in the pictures and videos, they are all so happy for him because he fully deserves it.”
“He makes us a much better team. I think we’ve become much more unpredictable. He’s so physical, he opens the spaces for everybody, the way he presses the ball, holds the ball, he’s just phenomenal. And then there’s icing on the cake, and the biggest thing that we’re going to debate about him is goals. He has scored two very different ones today, and hopefully he starts to get some momentum and a good run of goals.”
Arteta on Viktor Gyökeres
With Kai Havertz (£7.3m) and Gabriel Jesus (£6.4m) still out injured, Gyökeres is a nailed-on starter for the next few matches. The question is, do you really want to use up an Arsenal slot on the Sweden international, when the Gunners’ defence is the best in Europe right now and there are other forwards scoring with greater frequency?
HAALAND STILL HOT, LEWIS ‘OOP’
Pep Guardiola made four changes to the side that beat Everton in Gameweek 9, with Joško Gvardiol (£5.9m), John Stones (£5.5m), Rico Lewis (£4.9m) and Bernardo Silva (£6.3m) all returning to the side. Gvardiol was a surprise omission at the weekend – a particular frustration for many of the 280,000 FPL managers who played their Bench Boost but his return suggests that he may be being carefully managed following the injury that kept him out for the first three Gameweeks of the season.
Guardiola mentioned “fresh legs” when giving praise to Lewis after the game.
“I adore that player. He is so intelligent in small spaces. Maybe man-marking and more duels he struggles a little bit more, but when teams like Villarreal do zonal marking exceptionally, you need a top player like Rico who moves well in that position.
“Rico is a top-class player when you have to play in that way. We need fresh legs. We play Saturday, Tuesday and travel.”
– Pep Guardiola on Rico Lewis
Haaland scored his fourth Champions League goal of the season on Tuesday. We are reaching the point where it is a surprise when he doesn’t hit the net. In fact, that has happened only once this season (against Spurs in Gameweek 2). The Norwegian has 15 goals in 24 matches in all competitions and his 83 FPL points tally so far is already 10 more than he managed at the same stage in his 272-point season in 2022/23. Haaland is a must-have and everybody knows it.
Lewis, meanwhile, was deployed him in his preferred midfield role (as seen below) and produced an assist and an all-round excellent performance. However, he still hasn’t started a Premier League match since Gameweek 2.
REIJNDERS BENCHED – A CONCERN FOR GAMEWEEK 9?
Savinho (£6.9m) started again and produced a lovely assist for Bernardo’s goal. The Brazilian has started five of the last six matches in all competitions, which suggests he has earned his manager’s trust – for now! However, can we really second-guess Guardiola, especially now that Omar Marmoush (£8.3m), Rayan Cherki (£6.3m) and Oscar Bobb (£5.4m) are back in contention?
That may also now apply to Tijjani Reijnders (£5.7m), who was confined to a substitute’s appearance after a 59-minute display in Gameweek 8. Ignoring the EFL Cup when a second string was sent out, this was the first match in 2025/26 in which he’s been benched. That’s a possible worry ahead of Gameweek 9, especially as Lewis was so good in midfield.
Mind you, Phil Foden (£8.1m) and Nico O’Reilly (£4.9m) were also unused subs; this may simply have been the need for “fresh legs” that Guardiola mentioned earlier.
The City boss meanwhile played down Nico González‘s (£5.9m) injury as a “knock” afterwards.
STRONG SIGNS FROM GORDON
Eddie Howe’s XI made for interesting reading against Benfica, as midfielders Jacob Ramsey (£5.3m) and Lewis Miley (£4.4m) were selected ahead of Joelinton (£5.9m) and the ill Sandro Tonali (£5.3m). Anthony Elanga (£6.8m) missed out on a start, as again did Fabian Schär (£5.4m), who looks to have lost his place to Malick Thiaw (£4.9m) since suffering concussion. The Swiss centre-back has not started for the last four Gameweeks.
Benfica started brightly but Newcastle ran away with the match after Anthony Gordon (£7.4m) gave them the lead following an excellent run and cross from Jacob Murphy (£6.2m). Gordon has become the first Newcastle player to score in three consecutive Champions League matches, but his European form has yet to translate into FPL returns. The midfielder, who also scored his first England goal recently, still has no Premier League goals or assists.
POPE ASSIST!
Harvey Barnes (£6.4m) has not started a Premier League game in five matches but he did his cause no harm by coming off the bench in the second half to score two fantastic goals. The first came from an assist from Nick Pope (£5.2m) – an enormous throw into the Benfica half which prompted jubilant celebrations among his Newcastle team-mates.
Pope is the second-best goalkeeper in FPL with 43 points, so are assists something we should be looking out for?
“I am not sure I can take too much credit for that. We are working on certain things with Nick on his distribution – his throwing is a big strength of his actually and we have been working on that.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that was what we have worked on, but he is a very, very good goalkeeper, he showed that today from corners and the little bits that he had to do. I thought he did really well and of course distribution is so important in the modern game.”
– Eddie Howe on Nick Pope
Newcastle have only scored seven goals in their opening eight league games, and manager Eddie Howe is still at a loss to explain why they are struggling at the business end of the pitch.
“It’s a head scratcher. We know their [Gordon and Barnes] qualities, we know they’re goalscorers. We know how good a player they are, and that goes for another good few players in our squad as well.
“Everyone’s pointing to the fact that we haven’t been scoring enough in the Premier League, but when you see us play like this, how we attacked and the number of chances we created, it’s a difficult one for us to work out.
“All we can do is return to the Premier League with the same attitude. If the attitude is there, the quality will show.”
– Eddie Howe on Newcastle’s struggles up front
The only exception to Newcastle’s scoring woes remains Nick Woltemade (£7.4m), who has scored four of Newcastle’s last five goals in the Premier League. Though he was not on the scoresheet here, he remains a quality FPL asset and put in another solid performance against Benfica.
There are no such concerns in defence, though. Newcastle have kept the joint-most clean sheets in the Premier League (five) and registered another one against Jose Mourinho’s side. Only three teams have conceded fewer goals in the English top flight (seven) than Newcastle and only Arsenal have conceded fewer shots than their 75.
They conceded only 0.17 xG to Mourinho’s troops:
Managers looking for defenders could do worse than plump for Dan Burn (£5.1m), who is Newcastle’s top FPL points scorer.
