Our round-up of an all-action night of Champions League football continues.

Here, the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from a very different set of wins involving Manchester City and Chelsea.

• READ MORE: FPL notes: Frimpong injury, Konate latest + Szobo to right-back?

WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS

SELECTION/ROTATION

HAALAND BACK IN THE SIDE – AND ON THE SCORESHEET

Heading into Wednesday’s game, Erling Haaland (£15.0m) had scored just a single goal – a penalty – in his last eight matches in all competitions.

Having returned to the starting line-up after his Gameweek 23 benching, he now has two goals in nine matches!

After first missing a sitter from Rayan Ait-Nouri’s (£5.0m) cross, the Norwegian made amends by chipping the onrushing Ugurcan Cakir after a threaded ball from Jeremy Doku (£6.4m) split the visitors’ backline.

Those were Haaland’s only two efforts of the night, despite him lasting 90 minutes as City’s sole striker. Another chance came his way late on, but he couldn’t quite meet it with an outstretched boot.

The lack of efforts for Haaland in this game may not be too much of a worry for FPL managers. Pep Guardiola’s men had already done all they could to secure a guaranteed knockout spot (which was confirmed after Real Madrid’s shock defeat) and weren’t threatened much by their visitors:

What may be more of a concern is his full run-out, particularly when positional rival Omar Marmoush (£8.3m) – who scored when starting over Haaland last weekend – received an early rest. The Egyptian was given a 67-minute stint as a No. 10 on Wednesday.

Surely Pep can’t bench Haaland in successive Premier League games… right? The big man has three goals in his last two trips to Spurs, whose league struggles on home turf this season in particular are well-documented.

Here’s what City boss had to say on the changes he made, some of which were enforced (more on that below):

“It is better to rest. In the end, the margins have been [close]. It doesn’t matter if we play [the knockout] play-off[s] or don’t – it is [about] arriving in that moment [in] the best way with players fit and in the best condition.

“Considering how many top, top teams are out of the eight, I know how difficult it is.” – Pep Guardiola

With all that talk of rest, which Haaland finally got almost a full afternoon of last weekend, is it possible that Pep was trying to play his main striker back into goal-scoring form?

FODEN A SUB, AGAIN… 

If the above is true, then the Spaniard must have a different approach to helping Phil Foden (£8.4m) snap his own dry spell. That now stands at 11 games in all competitions without a single goal or assist.

The highs of his early-season purple patch seem to have well and truly faded. The England international was benched for the second straight game here, having joined Haaland among the subs in Gameweek 23.

… BUT COULD DOKU INJURY BOOST HIS MINUTES?

Foden was called upon much earlier than Pep might have planned for, though, due to Doku hobbling off on 37 minutes with an apparent calf injury. The winger had supplied two assists in his brief outing.

That’s a blow for the tricky Belgian, who looks set to miss the next month – unless Guardiola was getting his dates muddled:

“I think [Doku will miss Sunday’s trip to Tottenham]. Not just tonight, all season he has these problems, muscular. We’re so demanding but hopefully in March he can be ready.” – Pep Guardiola on Jeremy Doku’s latest injury

What his absence could do, though, is increase the minutes of Foden and/or Rayan Cherki (£6.6m), who bagged City’s second goal. Marmoush could get a boost as well, given his ability to play out on the left.

Whether or not that chance of renewed gametime again is enough to slow or reverse sales of Foden, whose price has plummeted in recent weeks, is another matter.

In terms of his actions on the pitch against Galatasaray, Foden skied a first-timed effort in the box shortly after coming on, going for glory himself having perhaps not noticed Haaland to his right and Marmoush behind him. Later on, he floated in the aforementioned cross that Haaland wasn’t quite able to direct goalward.

O’REILLY IN MIDFIELD

Wednesday brought a latest return to central midfield for Nico O’Reilly (£5.0m), whose most notable contribution was a rocket of a long-range drive that needed to be tipped over.

The young Englishman started the campaign there before a lengthy stint at left-back amid Ait-Nouri’s injury issues, but the latter player was recalled to the backline against Galatasaray, as he had been in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg a few weeks ago, and exhibited plenty of advanced positioning, as we saw from him during his time at Wolves:

With Nathan Ake (£5.3m) – a left-sided centre-back on Wednesday, given Josko Gvardiol (£5.9m) remains out and January signing Marc Guehi (£5.2m) was not yet eligible to participate in this competition – another option on the left, O’Reilly’s minutes have inevitably taken a hit recently.

He played the full 90 last night, but so too did Ake and Ait-Nouri, so good luck guessing Pep’s chosen player for Sunday!

Part of the reasoning for O’Reilly’s full midweek run-out is the fact that Rodri (£6.3m) was suspended following his red card against Bodo/Glimt last week.

Either way, Matheus Nunes (£5.4m) – a right-back again here, but another man very much capable of playing in central midfield, his previous position – would appear to be the safer option out of City’s full-backs, having only been benched once in the Premier League since Gameweek 5. 

For the highest minute security, though, it’s hard to look past Guehi or Gianluigi Donnarumma (£5.7m), who had four saves to make against the troops from Turkey.

CHALOBAH BENCHED AS DEFENSIVE ROTATION CONTINUES

There was more rotation in Chelsea’s backline during a topsy-turvy game in Naples, with Gameweek 23 starters Benoit Badiashile (£4.4m) and FPL favourite Trevoh Chalobah (£5.6m) benched. Wesley Fofana (£4.4m) came in alongside right-sided centre-half Reece James (£5.7m).

Behind them, Robert Sanchez (£4.9m) remained constant and made three saves, including a crucial stop of a shot belted straight at him in stoppage time by ex-Blues frontman Romelu Lukaku.

This marked Chalobah’s second straight Champions League benching but he was given the final 30 minutes as a replacement for Malo Gusto (£4.9m), allowing James to return to right-back. Chalobah has remained a 90-minute man in the Premier League under Liam Rosenior, but watch this space as the Blues continue to keep on four fronts.

THREE AT THE BACK?

Also of note is the fact that, in possession at least, Chelsea looked to be shaping up in a three-at-the-back formation, with James on the right, Fofana in the middle and Marc Cucurella (£6.0m) on the left.

That meant Gusto and Pedro Neto (£7.1m) started as wing-backs, as Rosenior reverted to the three-man defensive system that served him well at Strasbourg.

Rosenior explained post-match that he “wanted to go man-for-man all over the pitch” in an attempt to be “really aggressive” and win the game.

Could we see more of this? Possibly:

“I’m so proud of them, even in the first half, I’m asking them to press in a completely different way that they’ve never done before and hardly had any practice at. So, that time over the next few weeks will help us get better and improve, but we still need to win games in this moment.” – Liam Rosenior on Chelsea playing a back three

By the boss’s own admission, though, the Blues found themselves figured out as the first half ticked on, leading to 1-0 advantage turning into a 2-1 deficit at the interval. That resulted in one and then a few more changes…

“Napoli were very clever after 20-25 minutes. I felt we won the ball back very high in good areas in the first 20 minutes. When they started to miss our press out and went a little bit more direct, the distances were a little bit bigger. We corrected that. We were still man-to-man in the second half but we started a bit deeper with our press and I think that helped our compactness.” – Liam Rosenior

PALMER-PEDRO AT THE DOUBLE

The first of those changes was the introduction of Cole Palmer (£10.4m) at half-time, in place of Neto (in name, not necessarily direct position).

Having dealt with niggling injuries for so much of the season, Palmer showed what he’s still capable of by twice finding Pedro. The Brazilian flipped the game on its head again via two brilliant finishes, one with each boot.

Pedro played all 90 minutes on Wednesday after lasting 84 against Crystal Palace in Gameweek 23, casting some doubt on whether he’ll line up from the get-go at home to West Ham on Saturday evening as well. Remember that there’s an EFL Cup semi-final to come next Tuesday.

Liam Delap (£6.2m) was an unused sub in midweek and has started neither of Rosenior’s two Premier League games so far – and as good as Pedro was, there’s always a chance that changes in Gameweek 24.

WHY PALMER DIDN’T START

As for Palmer, there were semi-encouraging post-match comments from Rosenior regarding the England international, who apparently was partly kept on the bench to be used as an impact sub.

However, the quotes below also suggest that the minute management is far from over yet.

“There was no way Cole could have started and played 60, 70, 80 minutes, but I knew Napoli had injury problems and felt we would get stronger over time in the game.

“We need to look after him and the way he has managed himself in the last two weeks was magnificent and we hope we can see him fully fit.

“He is a world-class player, there has been a lot of talk around Cole but he was a very happy man in the dressing room. It was scary good.” – Liam Rosenior on Cole Palmer

ENZO IN THE ’10’ AGAIN – AND DEPUTING ON PENS AGAIN

This was another match starting at No. 10 for Enzo Fernandez (£6.7m), then, albeit in a slightly different shape to the central attacking midfield role in the 4-2-3-1 that had been fielded by Rosenior prior to Wednesday.

He won’t keep spot-kick duties when Palmer is on the pitch, but from an FPL perspective, it’s nice to know that the box-crashing Argentine evidently remains second in the pecking order both for penalties and in this advanced position. He scored from 12 yards for the second time in as many games.

That successful conversion was one of Enzo’s three shots on the night.

As the attacking cavalry was introduced, Enzo slowly slipped back into a deeper role alongside Caicedo and “started to really dominate and control the game”, in Rosenior’s words.