The key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from Sunday’s five matches are covered in this Scout Notes article.
Bournemouth v Aston Villa, Chelsea v Brighton and Hove Albion, Liverpool v Fulham, West Ham United v Crystal Palace and Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur are the games in question.
With Tuesday’s Gameweek 15 deadline hurtling into view, the quick turnaround means that this round-up will be briefer than normal.
For more analysis of the weekend’s action, check out the links below:
RODRI AND GREALISH BANNED / DOKU LIMPS OFF
Man City will be without Rodri (£5.6m) and Jack Grealish (£7.2m) in Gameweek 15 after the pair picked up their fifth bookings of the season against Tottenham on Sunday. They will now be unavailable for Wednesday’s trip to Aston Villa.
Rodri, of course, served a three-match ban earlier this season after being sent off against Nottingham Forest. City lost all three matches he missed, suffering defeats by Arsenal and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League and Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup. Good news for Ollie Watkins (£8.4m) owners, then.
As for Grealish, he was benched for the visit of Spurs, with the in-form Jeremy Doku (£6.8m) preferred on the left wing. It was Doku’s fourth Premier League start in a row but the Belgian did limp off on 52 minutes at the Etihad and could join the suspended Rodri and Grealish on the sidelines in Gameweek 15. At the time of writing, we are yet to receive an update from Pep Guardiola.
CITY SLIP UP DESPITE LEADING… AGAIN
Man City have now failed to win three successive Premier League games, despite leading in all of them. Eight goals have been conceded during that run and it’s now just one clean sheet in the last eight Gameweeks for Pep Guardiola’s troops.
Opponents have been clinical, scoring 13 goals from 7.54 expected goals (xG), but City allowed Spurs to play their way back into it on Sunday, which is a concern. Next up is Aston Villa, who have scored at least three goals in every home match they’ve played so far this season.
“In the Chelsea game yes, it was a concern but Liverpool and Spurs no. The problem is when the opponent creates a lot of chances, which today [Spurs] and Liverpool did not. But again, in the moment, the transition after the corner, and again for another we make a mistake and concede. Football is about mistakes sometimes, but still we are there. After many years we still have the feeling that we want it [the title].”– Pep Guardiola
In the attacking third, Erling Haaland (£14.0m) showed some good link-up play and provided two assists, but also missed a couple of decent chances you’d usually expect him to score. He also picked up a late booking for his reaction after referee Simon Hooper failed to play an advantage with Grealish poised to burst through on goal.
Elsewhere, Phil Foden (£7.5m) and substitute Grealish were on the scoresheet, while Doku, Julian Alvarez (£7.0m) and Rodri all struck the woodwork.
MORE TO COME FROM KULUSEVSKI AND JOHNSON?
Son Heung-min (£9.6m) scored a goal, an own goal and had an assist on Sunday, his first returns since Gameweek 10, but it was arguably Dejan Kulusevski (£7.0m) who was the star of the show at the Etihad.
Starting as part of Ange Postecoglou’s midfield three, he earned the assist for Son’s opener, before grabbing a dramatic late equaliser when he combined with Brennan Johnson (£5.8m).
The ex-Juventus man has really stepped up in James Maddison’s (£7.8m) absence, with further chances surely coming his way in Gameweek 15, when Spurs host leaky West Ham.
“Deki [Kulusevski] was excellent the whole game and we count on him attacking the box from that side. Him and Brennan [Johnson] have goals in them, we haven’t had enough out of them yet but they are there. It’s great those two combined for a great goal at the end.” – Ange Postecoglou
As for West Ham, they were able to welcome Jarrod Bowen (£7.6m) back in their match against Crystal Palace on Sunday but were held to a draw, once again failing to keep a clean sheet. They’ve now registered just one shut-out all season and rank 15th for expected goals conceded (xGC).
As for Bowen, he lined up through the middle but was outshone by Mohammed Kudus (£6.6m), who converted Vladimir Coufal’s (£4.6m) cross in the first half. The Czech now has five assists this season, more than any other FPL defender bar Kieran Trippier (£7.0m).
EZE INJURY LATEST
Roy Hodgson offered an update on the fitness status of Eberechi Eze (£6.1m) after the match, who had a scan on his ankle injury on Friday.
“I’m afraid the update is a little bit up in the air, because Eze is seemingly of the opinion that he’s going to get over this injury very quickly… whereas the medical staff think he’s going to be out for a period of time. I know what I want, but I don’t know what I’m going to get. I think he’s going to attempt to train with us over the next couple of days, which is great. That’s extremely positive, but I don’t know how optimistic I can be. The medical people are telling me the injury is such that it will take a longer period of time to recover from.” – Roy Hodgson on Eberechi Eze
ALEXANDER-ARNOLD IN MIDFIELD
A week after scoring against Man City, Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.9m) was at it again on Sunday, this time recording a goal, an assist and 13 FPL points.
The England international’s free-kick went in via Bernd Leno’s (£4.7m) back to open the scoring, before he moved into midfield in the second half with Liverpool switching to a 4-2-3-1 formation. It was from this position he netted a late winner.
“Nobody is in doubt how highly I think about Trent. He plays here since I’m here pretty much – longer, of course, but with the first team pretty much since I’m here. The development is crazy. His shooting skills we knew before. It’s now a while ago, I think, that he scored with a free-kick, so it would not be bad if we could do that better – for that we need fouls around that area, we don’t have that a lot. Today he was a real leader on the pitch – that’s probably the biggest improvement, if you want. Because it was super-intense but it got kind of another push when you put him a bit more inside in that moment. He’s so often in these positions, there is no change really. He’s very often in half-spaces in the centre and stuff like this. So, it was just really good. But he was a real leader on the pitch – that was most important.” – Jurgen Klopp on Trent Alexander-Arnold
Elsewhere, Darwin Nunez (£7.7m) spurned two glorious chances but was a bit unlucky when he hit the bar after the break. He has now hit the woodwork a whopping five times this season, at least three more than any other top-flight player. Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) did at least record a late assist, meaning he’s returned in 12 of his 14 starts this season.
Defensively, Caoimhin Kelleher (£3.9m) didn’t cover himself in glory and arguably should have stopped both of Fulham’s first two goals. It’s not a huge surprise Liverpool are weaker without one of the best goalkeepers in the world available, but they were very poor at the back on Sunday.
Jurgen Klopp also confirmed Joel Matip (£4.9m) is facing an extended spell on the sidelines with a knee problem. He will now undergo scans to ascertain the extent of the damage.
WATKINS HAULS / EMERY ON ROTATION
Ollie Watkins passed a late fitness test to lead the line against Bournemouth, with the forward scoring and assisting on the south coast. Having created Leon Bailey’s (£5.5m) goal, he’s now up to nine assists for the season, more than any other player in FPL.
“He had a small pain on Thursday and we didn’t take a risk. We waited on his progress for Friday and Saturday and today. He was feeling very good yesterday and we decided to play him yesterday. No more circumstances changed about the pain he had. He’s strong. When he’s feeling good physically he can play matches in a row like we are playing. On Thursday we didn’t want to take the risk.” – Unai Emery on Ollie Watkins
Moussa Diaby (£6.8m) produced the assist for Watkins’ late goal, despite starting on the bench, with Nicolo Zaniolo (£5.4m) preferred in attack. After the match, Emery was asked why he favoured the Italian:
“It is not rest. As well it is because we have a player like Zaniolo and we have to get the best opportunity to him to play and to get confidence and to get minutes. Of course, we played on Thursday, today and two matches next week. It’s difficult to set up the same starting XI in those matches. I am sure, not completely, but I think we will change something for Wednesday. We are trying to build a team, not only 11 players. I will give everyone chances. They have to feel important and they have to feel as well playing with their personality as well. We are facing different competitions as well.” – Unai Emery
In addition to Diaby, Matty Cash (£5.0m) was also benched, but Villa had big problems on the wings against Bournemouth, with right-back Ezri Konsa (£4.5n) given very little protection against Antoine Semenyo (£4.6m). Bournemouth’s second goal unsurprisingly came down that side from a cross, so it’d be a surprise if Cash wasn’t recalled in Gameweek 15.
As for the Cherries, Semenyo is now up to five attacking returns in 2023/24, while Dominic Solanke (£6.5m) scored his seventh goal of the season against Villa, making it his best tally in a top-flight campaign. The latter also posted some eye-catching stats (four shots, three ‘big chances’) and if it weren’t for some excellent Emiliano Martinez (£4.9m) goalkeeping, would have hauled.
WHY PALMER WAS BENCHED
Cole Palmer (£5.3m) has been one of Chelsea’s top performers in recent weeks, but was only named on the bench in Gameweek 14. He did come on for 24 minutes but made his entrance just moments after the Blues were awarded a penalty, which Enzo Fernandez (£4.8m) stepped up to convert.
Explaining his decision to bench Palmer, Mauricio Pochettino said the youngster had picked up a knock in training.
“He feels something during the week and we don’t want to take a risk. We have too many games ahead, now we are going into a very busy period and we don’t want to take a risk.” – Mauricio Pochettino on Cole Palmer
Another Chelsea midfielder, Conor Gallagher (£5.4m), had a day to forget as he was sent off for two yellow cards. The Blues will at least be able to welcome back Reece James (£5.4m) and Marc Cucurella (£4.8m) for the trip to Old Trafford in Gameweek 15, however, having both served their one-match bans.
