Chelsea are now joint-top of the Premier League for clean sheets, keeping their eighth shut-out of the campaign on Saturday.

Their 2-0 win over Everton is the latest Gameweek 16 match to get the Scout Notes treatment.

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• READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 16: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus + ‘DefCon’ points

DEWSBURY-HALL INJURY, GREALISH SCARE + AFCON EXITS

Before we delve into Chelsea, an injury blow for Everton – and a potential sickener for FPL managers on a Gameweek 18 Bench Boost or targeting the Toffees’ upcoming fixture swing.

The in-form Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£5.1m) was brought into over 680,000 Fantasy squads in the run-up to Gameweek 16, following his run of five attacking returns in as many matches.

He lasted just 15 minutes of the game at Stamford Bridge before a hamstring issue felled him.

David Moyes couldn’t tell us much more about Dewsbury-Hall’s injury straight after full-time, so it’ll likely be Friday’s press conference before we hear any more. Many of the budget midfielder’s owners will only want him from Gameweek 18 anyway, so fingers will be crossed that it’s nothing more than a grade 1 injury.

Anything more and Everton’s squad will be stretched over Christmas.

Idrissa Gueye (£5.4m) and Iliman Ndiaye (£6.4m) both depart for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) now, so will be unavailable from anywhere between 3-6 Gameweeks.

James Garner (£5.0m) is also on four bookings, with that being the reason behind his late substitution on Saturday.

“Yes, we’ll need to just weigh [Dewsbury-Hall’s injury] up. We took Jimmy [Garner] off at the end – he played as well as any player on the pitch – but I just couldn’t afford him to get booked and knowing there’s another game coming up next week. So we got him out of there with 10 minutes to go, to try to protect him a wee bit for the next games.” – David Moyes

“At the moment, we don’t know if we’re losing Dewsbury Hall, so we’re not sure about that. But losing the two boys who are going to AFCON is a miss.” – David Moyes

And there’s more: Jack Grealish (£6.5m) suffered a bit of hamstring discomfort of his own late in Saturday’s match. It sounded more precautionary (see below), but it’s possible that Everton could be without four of their five starting midfielders from Gameweek 16 next weekend.

“Jack felt his hamstring a little bit as well. So, we just need to be careful on these boys.” – David Moyes

EVERTON UNLUCKY

The xG race below makes it look like a fairly routine victory for Chelsea but it was anything but.

What an xG chart doesn’t show you, for example, is the tap-in that Thierno Barry (£5.7m) didn’t make contact with from Gueye’s deflected cross. It doesn’t tell the full story of Ndiaye’s 20th-minute effort; the merest trajectory-altering touch from Jake O’Brien (£4.9m), whose legs it passed under, would have probably taken it beyond Robert Sanchez (£4.9m). And then there’s Grealish’s 43rd-minute big chance, in which he attempted to dink over Sanchez rather than square it for a teammate.

Aside from those opportunities, James Tarkowski (£5.5m) and Grealish both should have done better with good chances from set plays, while Ndiaye hit the inside of the post with a second-half shot.

“I know we’ve come away with a disappointing result, but it certainly wasn’t a disappointing performance. We done a lot of really good things today and maybe played one of our best games away from home.” – David Moyes

The question is: will Everton be able to pose Arsenal as stern a challenge in Gameweek 17 with the likes of Dwight McNeil (£5.5m) and Tim Iroegbunam (£4.8m) in the side?

PALMER BACK IN THE GOALS – BUT MINUTES STILL MANAGED

Cole Palmer (£10.3m) made his first Stamford Bridge start since Gameweek 1 on Saturday.

This was back-to-back league starts for the England international, and he capped off his latest run-out with a well-taken goal.

He’s attracting a modest bit of Fantasy interest as a result, with 67k transfers in at the time of writing. Is it a bit early, though?

For the second game in a row, he came off before the hour-mark. This came after the complete midweek rest last week (“He can’t play two games in a row in three days“), as well as the “mixed feeling” he had after training on Thursday.

“The plan was to play one hour maximum.” – Enzo Maresca on Cole Palmer’s run-out against Everton

“I didn’t want to rush back too soon too obviously get injured. I’m still managing it. So yeah, it’s just about getting better each day.

“Obviously, I’m still nowhere near 100% fitness and sharpness, but you know, I’m getting there. So, hopefully I’ll be there soon.” – Cole Palmer

Looking at the schedule over Christmas, you could perhaps see him sitting out the EFL Cup quarter-final this week and the two midweek league games thereafter. That would leave him potentially starting in the trickier matches in Gameweeks 17, 18 and 20:

JAMES: 90 MINUTES X3!

Someone whom Enzo Maresca has similarly managed for some time is Reece James (£5.6m). Now, though, he’s injury-free – and he has been all season.

Saturday was a significant milestone as it saw James not only start three games in a week but complete 90 minutes in each fixture, too. He’d started three after the November break, as well, but had his minutes managed in one of them.

“Yeah, he’s asking for more [minutes]. He’s getting better and better so it’s a good feeling for us because we said many times that he’s an important player for us.” – Enzo Maresca on Reece James

He was one of two right-backs in Maresca’s XI at the weekend. He was also one of two right-backs effectively in midfield: James lined up in the engine room alongside Enzo Fernandez (£6.6m), while Malo Gusto (£4.9m) was inverting almost into the ’10’ position from full-back:

Gusto indeed got forward to assist Palmer before scoring himself.

It was easy to see the merits of both players against Everton but the spanner in the works is the return from suspension of Moises Caicedo (£5.7m). He’ll surely come straight back into the side in Gameweek 17, so it could be James competing with Gusto for one spot again for much of the festive period.

As ever, Trevoh Chalobah (£5.5m) offers the securest route into the Chelsea defence – not that the fixtures are great anyway.

He’s started every single league game he’s been available for this season, has scored three goals and has delivered DefCon points on six occasions. He was, before Sunday’s games, the joint-top-scoring defender in FPL this season.

Further forward, Pedro Neto (£7.3m) continues to tick over – his assist for Gusto’s strike was his seventh return in nine Gameweeks.

Alejandro Garnacho (£6.4m) wasted three gilt-edged chances to add to Chelsea’s lead, while Joao Pedro (£7.3m) – back up top in Liam Delap‘s (£6.2m) absence – blanked for the fifth straight match. He’s only had one Opta-defined ‘big chance’ in that time, too.