We’ve got two more of Saturday’s matches to get through in our Gameweek 23 Scout Notes: Burnley 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham 2-1 Brighton and Hove Albion.
- READ MORE: FPL notes: £3.9m defender praise + why Slot benched Ekitike
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Bowen on pens, Xhaka injury + Mukiele’s run goes on
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Pep praises Guehi, explains Haaland + Foden benching
CENTRE-BACKS PAPER OVER CRACKS
As has so often been the case in 2025/26, one positive result – usually in Europe – hasn’t been enough to kickstart Spurs’ season.
This time, a fine 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund was nearly followed by the Lilywhites gifting Burnley their first league win in 14 matches.
In fairness, a Clarets victory would have been harsh. An inspired Martin Dubravka (£4.0m) made nine saves, including a double-stop from a set piece, a reflex save to keep out Dominic Solanke‘s (£7.2m) close-range effort and a fine claw away to see off Mathys Tel‘s (£6.2m) attempt.
Xavi Simons (£6.5m) hit the bar, too, while Wilson Odobert (£5.3m) should have done better from 12 yards.
Not for the first time, the two centre-backs had to dig Thomas Frank out. Micky van de Ven (£4.6m) and Cristian Romero (£5.0m) netted, the latter doing so for the third Spurs match in a row. The two have now scored more Premier League goals (GS, below) than any other FPL defender in 2025/26:
Elsewhere on Spurs-watch, Frank again lined up in the 3-4-3 set-up that worked so well in midweek. Van de Ven took the place of Destiny Udogie (£4.3m) as the left-sided centre-half, with Djed Spence (£4.3m) again eye-catchingly advanced at wing-back:
Pedro Porro (£5.2m) and Romero were taken off but there are no injury concerns.
“Romero was cramping in the end. Pedro was physical, played a lot of minutes. So, we had more running power: Djed to the right and then Destiny [subbed] in.” – Thomas Frank
As goal-hungry as the two centre-backs are, is anyone going near Spurs players in FPL? Not till Gameweek 31, anyway, with the following brutal run sending the Lilywhites rock-bottom of our Fixture Ticker:
Given that Spurs came out of a favourable last eight matches ranking among the bottom-six clubs for goals scored (eight) and conceded (13), you wouldn’t mind the FPL players you do own facing Frank’s beleaguered troops right now. It’s Manchester City up next.
DUB STEPS UP
Dubravka’s heroics secured him a second successive five-point return. No surprise that he’s comfortably clear of any other FPL goalkeeper for save points (24) this season.
Maxime Esteve (£3.9m) and Bashir Humphreys (£3.9m), meanwhile, kept up their fine defensive contribution (DefCon) record, banking those points yet again. Esteve’s figure below is up at 64.7% if we discount the three starts in which he’s been subbed off:
Above: Defenders sorted by % of matches in which they’ve secured DefCon points
Ultimately, though, a shortage of clean sheets (just three for Burnley all season) keeps this lot apart from the likes of Nordi Mukiele (£4.5m).
Two other Burnley defenders, Kyle Walker (£4.4m) and Axel Tuanzebe (£3.9m), combined for the hosts’ first goal on Saturday before substitute Lyle Foster (£4.9m) grabbed what he thought was the winner.
Those two goals, plus a breakaway Armando Broja (£5.2m) chance, accounted for a huge chunk of Burnley’s overall xG total:
WILSON DOES THE BART MAN
Harry Wilson‘s (£6.0m) superb season continued on Saturday as he bagged his 14th attacking return of 2025/26 with a late free-kick.
It was his 11th return in as many Gameweeks – although he had a big helping hand, quite literally, from an unconvincing Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m).
Marco Silva 🤍 Harry Wilson@FulhamFC pic.twitter.com/mJrB5nqy7I
— Premier League (@premierleague) January 25, 2026
This latest in a long line of long-range goals (he hasn’t scored from closer in than 13 yards this season!) means he’s now the Premier League’s most ‘overachieving’ player, in terms of xG, of the current campaign.
But better players tend to exceed Opta’s expectations, especially those with a dead eye from distance. A look at Wilson’s Premier League history shows that this season is no freak occurrence:
| Season | Goals | xG | xG Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 8 | 3.89 | +4.11 |
| 2024/25 | 6 | 4.21 | +1.79 |
| 2023/24 | 4 | 3.38 | +0.62 |
| 2022/23 | 2 | 1.98 | +0.02 |
| 2019/20 | 7 | 4.00 | +3.00 |
Samuel Chukwueze (£5.3m) is doing his best to keep up with Wilson. The Nigerian, back from the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and on as a substitute, scored Fulham’s first goal of the afternoon. That took him to three goals and as many assists in his last six run-outs. Expect him to be troubling the starting XI again soon at the expense of Kevin (£5.8m) – although it sounds like Oscar Bobb (£5.1m) is also on his way.
Joachim Andersen (£4.6m) bagged the assist for Chukwueze’s equaliser with an excellent long pass. Surprisingly for a centre-half so adept at distributing the ball, that was his first attacking return since 2023/24.
THE FINEST OF MARGINS
There wasn’t much in this game, with Brighton arguably meriting the victory if either side did.
Even Marco Silva couldn’t argue the case for Fulham’s supremacy. After a bright start and an early Raul Jimenez (£6.2m) big chance, the Seagulls were on top.
“I have to say that probably the most fair result is going to be the draw, not our win.” – Marco Silva
“Football is sometimes brutal. Sometimes, the better team loses.
“Overall, regarding the performance, I think it was one of the best we’ve played so far.” – Fabian Hurzeler
We often talk of “fine margins” in football but they don’t get much finer than 1cm, which apparently was the difference between Danny Welbeck‘s (£6.2m) chalked-off goal standing and not. Welbeck twice went close on other occasions, kneeing wide and seeing a header saved, while Kauro Mitoma (£6.1m) and Ferdi Kadioglu (£4.4m) were denied by a save and a goalline clearance in the same move.
Yasin Ayari‘s (£4.8m) goal, a stunner from range, was actually one of Brighton’s lowest-xG efforts of the game.
Among other tactical tweaks, Fabian Hurzeler moved Pascal Gross (£5.5m) into the ’10’ role.
There was again no Yankuba Minteh (£5.8m) in the starting XI, something Hurzeler had signposted on Friday, while Joel Veltman (£4.3m) was benched.
There were tactical reasons behind that – Olivier Boscagli (£4.2m) dealing with Wilson, and Kadioglu switching flanks to offer width beyond unnatural winger Diego Gomez (£4.9m) – but there was also a minor injury at play.
“It was more a tactical decision but he (Veltman) had a small issue with his knee during the week.” – Fabian Hurzeler on the change at right-back
