We begin our Gameweek 33 Scout Notes by summarising the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from three of Saturday’s matches.
They are: Manchester City v Luton Town, Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur and Burnley v Brighton and Hove Albion.
The numbers and graphics you see in this article come from our Premium Members Area. Here, you can access Opta player and team data from every single Premier League fixture.
FPL NOTES
FODEN RESTED IN LINE-UP DRAMA
The main team news drama centred around Manchester City’s starting XI. Pre-deadline community rumours reported that Phil Foden (£8.3m) would start against Luton Town despite his midweek hobbling in Madrid. However, it turned out that Foden was merely a substitute – an unused one at that.
Considering the hugeness of this Wednesday night’s second leg, Pep Guardiola went fairly strong with his team. Both Erling Haaland (£14.3m) and Kevin De Bruyne (£10.4m) played 80 minutes, whereas goalkeeper Ederson (£5.5m) featured for the first time since Gameweek 28.
Meanwhile, Kyle Walker (£5.3m) and Nathan Ake (£5.0m) were named on the bench, having recovered from hamstring and calf issues.
But their comfortable victory still failed to deliver a clean sheet. Shortly after Cauley Woodrow (£4.3m) hit the woodwork, Ross Barkley (£4.7m) secured a consolation strike.
Angered at this, defender Josko Gvardiol (£4.8m) followed his Champions League goal with another one, plus an assist, as the champions romped to a 5-1 win.
CAPTAIN HAALAND SUCCESS
By the second minute, millions of Haaland captainers were feeling fairly excited about how his afternoon could go. An acrobatic shot had quickly assisted Daiki Hashioka’s (£4.0m) own goal, with plenty of time to score five for himself like in the recent FA Cup encounter between these sides.
In truth, the Hatters’ patched-up representatives held on for over an hour at just 1-0 until a wonderful Mateo Kovacic (£4.6m) doubled the lead. But Haaland eventually got his goal from the penalty spot after Jeremy Doku (£6.4m) was fouled.
Above: Haaland had the highest expected goal involvement (xGI) of all Saturday players
With three big chances, two shots on target and a 1.95 xGI tally, managers will feel justified in giving him their armbands and satisfied overall by his total of 10 points. After all, only one of Haaland’s previous 12 starts exceeded eight.
Team-mate Doku deserves mentioning too. He won the spot kick, set up Gvardiol and scored after a lovely solo run to finish on 16 points.
HOME COMFORTS FOR ISAK + GORDON
Saturday’s early kick-off saw Newcastle thrash Spurs at St James’ Park once again. The Magpies are capable of doing spectacular things when they’re in the right mood and Alexander Isak (£7.9m) managed to repeat his brace from last season’s 6-1. Put clean through by Anthony Gordon’s (£6.0m) pass, a slip from Micky van de Ven (£4.4m) allowed the forward to open proceedings.
95 seconds later, another stumble from the same defender let Gordon net his tenth goal of the season – nine of which have come on Tyneside.
Above: Gordon is the player with the most FPL points in home matches
By the time Isak, a scorer in six successive home matches, made it 3-0, it had already become crystal clear to FPL managers that owning at least one of these Newcastle attackers feels essential by Gameweek 35. Perhaps even sooner, despite Eddie Howe’s lot playing just once during a Gameweek 34 where seven teams appear twice.
Their final run of fixtures is against Sheffield United (h), Burnley (a), Double Gameweek 37, then Brentford (a).
To compound Spurs’ misery, a late Gordon corner was headed in by Fabian Schar (£5.5m), ensuring the recently-capped England international achieved three attacking returns for a second consecutive home outing. Additionally, he pips Isak to maximum bonuses, ending on a 17-point haul.
Schar gets one bonus, whilst Martin Dubravka’s (£4.2m) owners will be shocked at such an unexpected clean sheet. That’s two in a row for a defence that had nosedived over the past few months. Good timing for those wanting to imminently invest.
EARLY SON + PORRO REMOVALS
Newcastle’s backline kept Son Heung-min (£10.0m) completely anonymous to disappoint 3.59 million managers who hoped he’d repeat his output from December’s reverse meeting.
Then, it was one goal and two assists. Here, no shots, just four penalty area touches and a shockingly low expected goal involvement (xGI) of 0.02. In fact, the South Korean star has accumulated just 0.65 xGI in his latest three matches and all ended goalless.
Loyal owners can now sell, safe in the knowledge that Spurs will be the only team not to feature in Gameweek 34. One price drop took place overnight and several more look set to follow.
Yet Son wasn’t the lone popular Spurs asset to be removed before the hour mark. Attacking right-back Pedro Porro (£5.9m) finally bagged his first 2023/24 goal last week but ended on zero points this time, forced off with a hamstring problem in the 49th minute.
“He felt something in the first half and he wanted to see how it went in the second half. I haven’t checked with the medical team but we’ll see what the issue is.” – Ange Postecoglou on Pedro Porro
Owners were likely to ditch him regardless but the severity could keep him out post-blank, which is of interest to Gameweek 35 Wildcard users.
ESTUPINAN HURT
Elsewhere, a howler from Burnley stopper Arijanet Muric (£4.3m) gifted Brighton an equaliser at Turf Moor. The Seagulls’ campaign has faded of late. Having netted in each of their first 16 matches, they’ve failed to score in six of the latest 13. And in two others, the opponent had to do it for them.
At the back, budget defender Jan Paul van Hecke (£4.1m) was denied a shut-out and Pervis Estupinan (£4.8m) needed to depart in the 13th minute because of an ankle problem.
The Clarets demoted Charlie Taylor (£3.9m) to bench duties but the 30-year-old came on at half-time.
