Fantasy Premier League (FPL) will soon be back – and Premier League clubs’ preparations for Gameweek 17 are ramping up with some mid-season friendlies.
All Premier League clubs bar Bournemouth and Southampton have already contested kickabouts since Gameweek 16 ended, with our Scout Notes reporting on the most noteworthy tactical tweaks, injury news and manager quotes.
Arsenal, Brentford, Fulham, Manchester City, Newcastle United and West Ham United are the focus here, having all played on Saturday.
More friendlies and Carabao Cup ties will follow before we reach Gameweek 17, so for a full rundown of when and where your Fantasy assets might be in action, check out our complete guide to the FPL restart.
MANCHESTER CITY 2-0 GIRONA
- Goals: De Bruyne, Haaland
- Assists: De Bruyne
- Manchester City XI: Ortega, Lewis, Katongo, Charles, Gomez, Gundogan (Robertson 78), De Bruyne (McDonald 80), Palmer, Mahrez, Rogers (Borges 51), Haaland (Bobb 59)
Goals from Kevin De Bruyne (£12.6m) and Erling Haaland (£12.2m) secured a comfortable 2-0 victory for Manchester City at the Academy Stadium.
The Belgian playmaker looked particlarly sharp, capitalising on a defensive error to dispatch the opener before one of his trademark cutbacks found Haaland to convert in the box shortly after.
With 16 City players taking part in the World Cup, the only ones to feature here were Ilkay Gundogan (£7.3m) and De Bruyne.
The other notable names to start were Sergio Gomez (£4.5m) and Riyad Mahrez (7.5m), plus academy graduates Rico Lewis (£3.9m) and Cole Palmer (£4.3m). The latter looked assured in a deeper lying midfield role and regularly progressed the ball forward into the final third.
“At the moment, we have four or five players, and we will have to wait and see how the others come back. But we just don’t have players because the big brains of football decided this schedule and we are going to play this game [against Liverpool]. Some players are coming back now and in the next few days and step by step, they will re-join their team-mates here. People are coming back soon. Nathan [Ake], Aymer [Laporte], and Rodri, and later the players from the England and Portugal teams.” – Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola also suggested World Cup winner Julian Alvarez (£6.0m) will “have a few days’ rest and then come back to us.”
Man City meet Liverpool in the League Cup on Thursday, ahead of their Gameweek 17 clash with Leeds United at Elland Road.
ARSENAL 0-2 JUVENTUS
- Arsenal XI: Ramsdale, White (Cedric 63), Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey (Elneny 63), Odegaard, Xhaka (Cozier-Duberry 63), Vieira, Nelson (Marquinhos 23), Nketiah
Arsenal created plenty of chances against Juventus on Saturday but fell to a 2-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium.
Own goals from Granit Xhaka (£5.1m) and Rob Holding (£4.2m) saw the Italians run out winners, although Eddie Nketiah (£6.5m) did have two goals ruled out either side of the break.
“Eddie is always ready. He knows that it opens an opportunity for him. He needs to grab it but the way he trains every day and the mentality he has, he gives us no reason not to think he’s going to be super ready to perform.” – Mikel Arteta on Eddie Nketiah
Mikel Arteta, meanwhile, was generally upbeat about his team’s display despite the loss.
“The scoreline probably doesn’t reflect at all what happened in the game, but this is football. They had one shot and scored two goals. We did a lot of really good things, especially from box to box but we weren’t ruthless enough in either. I think we had 19 shots and only two on target, so it’s clear what we have to improve, but we did a lot of positive things in the match to get a much better outcome. I think the way the boys are training and playing, it’s really positive. Today is a setback but perhaps it’s better to happen today rather than in any competitive match, but we’ll work on it, talk about it and improve.” – Mikel Arteta
Arteta handed minutes to first-teamers like Aaron Ramsdale (£4.9m), Ben White (£4.7m), Gabriel Magalhaes (£5.2m) and Martin Odegaard (£6.4m), although Reiss Nelson (£4.8m) did pick up a suspected hamstring injury.
Updates were also provided on Emile Smith Rowe (£5.6m), Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.0m), Takehiro Tomiyasu (£4.2m), plus Bukayo Saka (£8.0m) and Gabriel Martinelli (£6.8m).
“[Emile Smith Rowe] hasn’t been able to train in the last few days but hopefully he can start [to train] next week. He’s been out for a while now – he needs some time to get back to speed. We really need him and we’re going to welcome him with both arms, because he’s a really important player for us. We need him fit on the pitch. Alex [Zinchenko] is progressing well and Tomi [Tomiyasu] is running on the pitch. Hopefully we’re going to get the international players [who have been at the World Cup] joining again this week and then we’ll all be watching William Saliba tomorrow to see if he can win the World Cup.” – Mikel Arteta
“They’ll come back straight away into the rhythm, shape and mould of the team. We’re waiting for them and they are desperate to be back as well. I’ve spoken to both of them. Gabi was here today, with a big smile and big energy. He’s ready to go again. It’s going to be a big boost for the team.” – Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli
We’ll next see Arsenal against West Ham United on Boxing Day, with a trip to Brighton and Hove Albion to follow in Gameweek 18.
NEWCASTLE UNITED 2-1 RAYO VALLECANO
- Goals: Longstaff, Wood (pen)
- Assists: Murphy, Willock
- Newcastle United XI: Pope, Trippier (Miley 83), Lascelles, Botman, Targett, Shelvey (Turner-Cooke 76), Longstaff, Willock, Murphy, Saint-Maximin, Wood (Stephenson 76)
Newcastle United ran out 2-1 winners in Saturday’s friendly with Rayo Vallecano.
Goals from Sean Longstaff (£4.4m) and Chris Wood (£5.6m) sealed the victory, with the former saying he is working more on the attacking side of his game.
“Speaking with the gaffer and his staff obviously it’s something that I want to add more to my game. Trying to get into more forward areas. I tried to take it as early as possible and luckily it went in. Yeah it’s something I’m trying to add more. Any midfielder that scores goals, people’s perceptions of you goes way higher or you look much better. If your adding goals to the team then your adding another string to your bow. Not just me, the other midfielders as well, it’s something we’re trying to add. Working on it every day, competitions in training to try and score more goals. Hopefully it will pay off in the league.” – Sean Longstaff
Eddie Howe made four changes from the side that thrashed Al Hilal 5-0, which included starts for England’s Nick Pope (£5.3m) and Kieran Trippier (£5.9m). The latter was heavily involved, with several probing crosses and passes in the final third, with the pair only denied a clean sheet by Matt Targett’s (£4.8m) own goal.
However, the hosts were without several key players for the clash. Bruno Guimaraes (£5.7m), Joelinton (£5.9m), Miguel Almiron (£5.8m) and Callum Wilson (£7.4m) were notable absentees, while Alexander Isak (£6.6m) still has fitness concerns.
For now, Howe is not sure when he will have Isak back and the Magpies’ boss was coy on Wilson’s return. As a result, Wood looks like an almost certain starter against Bournemouth on Tuesday.
“He is hugely important. I think you saw in the Chelsea game. He came in, and he was excellent that day. His tactical understanding was of the highest level. I thought his performance [against Vallecano] was very, very good. He took his penalty well. I think Chris is probably playing with a lot of confidence at the moment.” – Eddie Howe on Chris Wood
“Not much has changed for Alex. Same position, just assessing him day by day. Making sure when he returns, he does so in the best possible position. I’ve never said there was an issue with Callum.” – Eddie Howe on Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson
“He’s fine, physically. He was obviously disappointed not to reach the latter stages with his country. There’s an element of disappointment there that they couldn’t go further. But he’s fine and focused on the future. It’s really important that the players put that behind them.” – Eddie Howe on Bruno Guimaraes
Elsewhere, Allan Saint-Maximin (£6.2m) lined up in attack but did pick up a knock, which Howe touched on after the game.
“I think there’s a slight injury. We’ll see today how he comes in. After a game things can be sore so hopefully that’s just the case.” – Eddie Howe on Allan Saint-Maximin
Newcastle resume their 2022/23 campaign on Tuesday when they host Bournemouth in the Carabao Cup fourth round.
FULHAM 1-1 WEST HAM UNITED
- Goals: Vinicius | Bowen
- Assists: Tete | Downes
- Fulham XI: Leno (Rodak 46), Tete, Tosin, Diop, Ream (Mbabu 64), Reed, Cairney (Harris 83), De Cordova-Reid (Wilson 75), Andreas, Willian (James 64), Vinicius
- West Ham United XI: Fabianski, Coufal, Ogbonna, Dawson, Emerson (Johnson 78), Lanzini, Soucek, Bowen (Swyer 86), Fornals, Benrahma (Mubama 86), Scamacca (Downes 13)
Saturday’s clash between Fulham and West Ham United ended in a draw after Jarrod Bowen (£8.0m) cancelled out Carlos Vinicius’ (£5.5m) opener.
The Hammers were dealt an early setback when Gianluca Scamacca (£6.7m) was forced off with an injury. With Michail Antonio (£7.0m) also absent, that meant Bowen was pushed into a central striker role, from where he found the net.
“It wasn’t a time to take any risks with Gianluca. He rolled his ankle a little bit and we’ll see how it looks over the next couple of days, but hopefully it won’t be too bad.” – Billy McKinlay on Gianluca Scamacca
West Ham coach Billy McKinlay later suggested their quintet of players involved at the World Cup – Declan Rice (£4.8m), Lucas Paqueta (£5.9m), Nayef Aguerd (£4.8m), Alphonse Areola (£4.3m) and Thilo Kehrer (£4.5m) – will be in contention for the Hammers’ trip to Arsenal in Gameweek 17.
“It’ll be good to see the players we’ve had at the World Cup this week too. They’ve all had various levels of success over the past few weeks and I think they’ll give the rest of the players a boost too. We’ve all missed them, they’re good boys and top players, so they will give us a boost going into the Arsenal game.” – Billy McKinlay
As for Fulham, Marco Silva fielded a strong starting XI which included Andreas Pereira (£4.6m) in the hole, but the absence of Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.8m) was notable, with the boss failing to provide an update on his availability after the match.
BRENTFORD 2-2 WOLFSBURG
- Goals: Mbeumo, Toney
- Assists: Lewis-Potter, Norgaard
- Brentford XI: Winterbottom, Zanka, Pinnock (Crama 65), Mee (Goode 46), Roerslev (Canos 46), Janelt (Yarmoliuk 79), Norgaard (Trevitt 46), Henry (Ghoddos 46), Mbeumo (Damsgaard 46), Lewis-Potter (Olakigbe 79), Toney (Wissa 46)
Brentford drew 2-2 with Wolfsburg at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday.
Bryan Mbeumo (£5.8m) scored an excellent free-kick, with Ivan Toney (£7.4m) later putting the hosts ahead with a stunning 45-yard strike.
“I’ve been practising a lot in training to have this moment in the game so, yeah, I’m happy. The game out there was very good. I was happy to be with the boys again and I think it was a good performance. It was a draw but I think we could maybe have won the game, but it’s good for next week. It was good for me to have some minutes after the break. I just want to try to stay fit and be ready for Boxing Day.” – Bryan Mbeumo
Thomas Frank used a 3-4-3 formation, which saw Mbeumo and Christian Norgaard (£5.3m) start their first games after returning from the World Cup.
Mikkel Damsgaard (£5.1m) and Saman Ghoddos (£4.8m), who also appeared in Qatar, appeared off the bench in the second half.
