A bunch of high-profile Gameweek 14 benchings took place at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night, while last-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers suffered a seventh successive defeat.
Here are a few Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from Arsenal v Brentford and Wolves v Nottingham Forest.
SUB SAKA SCORES
Due to the quick turnaround between Gameweeks 13, 14 and 15, we expected some shock rotations to occur. Several of these took place in North London.
Bukayo Saka (£10.1m) and Eberechi Eze (£7.8m) were named as Arsenal substitutes, while Brentford’s 11-goal forward Igor Thiago (£6.7m) sat on Brentford’s bench. The Brazilian received late on-pitch treatment against Burnley on Saturday.
“Rest, that’s quite a positive word to use. We had to make some changes, we had a very demanding week at every level, emotionally, physically, what the game demanded. The tactical and technical aspect of it, we were asked to play three days later, one less recovery than them.” – Mikel Arteta
“I feel it’s right. Tough week, tough games. We have the luxury of making changes and a couple of knocks to consider.
“Thiago’s having an amazing season, especially off the back of his injury last year. He’s taken the division by storm. But we are playing in a slightly different way tonight. We’ve got different strengths in our armoury we are looking to utilise.” – Keith Andrews on Igor Thiago, speaking to Sky Sports pre-match
However, things still turned out well for Saka. Both he and Eze came on after an hour and, although the 24-year-old couldn’t score the rebound from a Riccardo Calafiori (£5.8m) attempt, he soon made it 2-0 in stoppage time.
Caoimhin Kelleher (£4.5m) saved Saka’s shot, but the ball still found a way to loop over the line.
As for Thiago, his one-point cameo blocked FPL autosubs from stepping in.
TIMBER MISSES OUT ON CLEAN SHEET
Also benched was highly-owned defender Jurrien Timber (£6.4m).
He came on for injured centre-back Cristhian Mosquera (£5.4m) just before half-time, meaning he couldn’t reach the 60 minutes required to register a clean sheet, unlike Calafiori and David Raya (£5.9m).
Making it worse for Timber’s owners is that replacement Ben White (£5.3m) assisted Mikel Merino‘s (£5.9m) headed opener. Combined with a lovely through ball to set up Saka, the latter delivered 13 points.
“We have to wait and see. It’s probably the knee or ankle. We don’t know. He could not really tell us exactly how it was, but he wasn’t able to continue.” – Mikel Arteta on Cristhian Mosquera’s injury
This was a much-needed shutout for the Gunners, after three matches of conceding goals. In fact, it would have been four, had a brilliant Raya save not tipped Kevin Schade‘s (£7.0m) header onto the crossbar.
RICE INJURY LATEST
Left-back Calafiori’s other shot on target came from distance, and Declan Rice (£7.1m) tested Kelleher with his own long-ranger.
But around three million FPL managers will be anxious about Rice’s late withdrawal, knowing it’s not long until Arsenal play again: Saturday lunchtime.
“Declan [Rice] had to come off. We don’t know, we have to see tomorrow what he has got. He could not carry on playing. He can walk but he could not play.” – Mikel Arteta
A major positive is that Rice said he was “fine” after the game – but owners will be looking for further reassurance on that.
Injuries are starting to gather for Mikel Arteta, as Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.3m) remains sidelined, and Wednesday’s win was without either William Saliba (£6.0m) or Leandro Trossard (£6.9m).
Gabriel Jesus (£6.4m) didn’t come off the bench.
JESUS FINALLY SCORES
Combine Gabriel Jesus with Igor Thiago, and you get Forest’s Igor Jesus (£5.8m).
Named on the latest Goals Imminent podcasts, before Gameweek 14 he’d accumulated 15 shots that were all inside the box. Yet, somehow, none of them were labelled as a big chance.
Well, after five goals in other competitions, the summer arrival from Botafogo now has his first Premier League strike.
Jesus thought he’d done so in the first half, but a header was disallowed five minutes later because the offside Dan Ndoye (£5.6m) stood in front of the goalkeeper. Not to be deterred, he then beat Sam Johnstone (£4.5m) to reach Omari Hutchinson‘s (£5.4m) inswinging cross – the Molineux winner.
In a game with very few appealing forwards, could Jesus be a serious option?
He’s on five consecutive starts, though Arnaud Kalimuendo (£6.0m) is lurking and Chris Wood (£7.2m) will return at some point.
DID ANDERSON GET DEFCON?
Meanwhile, 314,000 managers said hello to Elliot Anderson (£5.4m), seduced by his insanely good defensive contribution (DefCon) numbers.
Each of his first 13 outings ended with 10 or more DefCon actions, successfully reaching the midfield threshold on eight of the latest 10 occasions.
Of course, typically for FPL, this had to be the match where he only recorded five such actions. Combined with 0.14 expected goal involvement (xGI) and a yellow card, at least Anderson brought in one clean sheet point!
Nikola Milenkovic (£5.2m), Neco Williams (£4.7m) and Matz Sels (£4.7m) did well, but the injured Murillo (£5.3m) missed out again.
