Next up in our Scout Notes, two matches that may have longer-term ramifications at either end of the Premier League table.
Ten-man Arsenal lost for the first time this season, while Leicester City edged Southampton in a five-goal thriller.
ARTETA ON SAKA
So, then, Bukayo Saka (£10.1m) wasn’t fit. Maybe Mikel Arteta was bluffing – not for the first time – with his “hopeful” pre-match comments. But then, he said Kai Havertz (£8.3m) had a “good chance” of featuring, and he did. He also claimed that Oleksandr Zinchenko (£4.8m), Ben White (£6.3m) and Jurrien Timber (£5.5m) were “close” and that he would “hopefully…have some [of those] players back”. White and Zinchenko duly returned to the squad.
Maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t put as much thought into answering these questions as we FPL managers do interpreting them…
The next question is: when will Saka be back? We didn’t get anything from Arteta on his ‘star boy’ after full-time. He did speak to Sky Sports ahead of kick-off, however, and was asked how close Saka came to featuring.
“We tried the last few days. We tried yesterday and he didn’t have the right feeling. If he feels like that then there’s no point pushing him.”
– Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka
No indication of a return date, then. The good thing is that Arsenal are in UEFA Champions League action on Tuesday night, so we might get an early heads-up on Saka’s Gameweek 9 availability. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the England international wasn’t risked because Arteta had one eye on next Sunday’s visit of Liverpool.
SALIBA BANNED FOR GAMEWEEK 9
One Gunner who won’t be available in Gameweek 9 is William Saliba (£6.0m). He was sent off in Saturday’s defeat to Bournemouth, so will have to serve a one-game ban.
That’ll offer Liverpool a bit of hope, even more so if Timber isn’t back and one of Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior (£4.8m) or Thomas Partey (£5.0m) has to start at the rear.
Saliba’s 30th-minute dismissal, unsurprisingly, turned the game. It wasn’t a free-flowing spectacle before that (one shot apiece), nor were Arsenal totally dominant. Similar to the Brighton match in Gameweek 3, you suspected that the Gunners’ opponents would provide them with a stern test but ultimately be edged out.
The red card, after Saliba committed a professional foul, changed everything. With a man advantage, Bournemouth went on to have another 13 shots to Arsenal’s five.
With this being Arsenal’s third sending-off of the season already, context is key with their underlying numbers. Over 60% of their expected goals conceded (xGC), for example, came in the three fixtures in which they went down to 10 men.
As Arteta said below, it’s difficult to gauge anything from matches such as these.
“I cannot assess a performance when you play 60 minutes with 10 men away from home. It’s something impossible.” – Mikel Arteta, when asked if Arsenal missed Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard
KLUIVERT ASSUMES SPOT-KICK DUTIES
Arsenal had delivered a fairly untroubled defensive display until a brilliantly worked 70th-minute set piece broke the deadlock. Only a skied Antoine Semenyo (£5.7m) big chance, one of six shots he had, caused them any jitters.
Semenyo has, impressively, had three or more efforts in all eight of his starts this season. At least until Sunday, he’s top of the Premier League table for shots (37).
Substitutes Justin Kluivert (£5.3m) and Ryan Christie (£4.9m) combined for the aforementioned dead-ball opener before Kluivert converted a late penalty. Evanilson (£5.9m) had taken and missed the last one in Gameweek 4, so now – as signposted by Andoni Iraola – it was the Dutchman’s turn.
Even with penalty-taking duties, Kluivert struggles to match Semenyo’s appeal. Minutes are simply not as assured: he’s been benched on three occasions already and has lasted beyond 75 minutes only once.
“Luckily for us, we could score in the [set-piece] routine because otherwise, it was going to be difficult.” – Andoni Iraola
A first clean sheet of the season for the Cherries, then, but even with a man advantage they almost cocked it up, allowing Gabriel Martinelli (£7.0m) a massive chance minutes before the opener.
FATAWU SPARKS COMEBACK
Leicester City’s odd season continues. They have scored in every game. They’ve only once been beaten by more than one goal, and even that was the 4-2 loss at the Emirates in which they ran the Gunners close. They rank 18th for both xG and xG conceded but massively outperform those two metrics. They’re as close to fifth as the relegation zone: 14th at this stage is a very decent start indeed.
Yet Steve Cooper has still to win over huge sections of the Foxes fanbase. The knives were being sharpened at half-time at St Mary’s, with Cooper’s troops 2-0 down.
One of the criticisms of the Leicester boss is his failure to use Abdul Fatawu (£5.4m) much of late. The winger’s superb cameo here fuelled that argument. Terrorising the Southampton left, he supplied the assist that sparked the Foxes’ comeback and rattled the bar from distance. Seven penalty box touches was as many as any starter got – and he was playing as a right-back!
A gung-ho James Justin (£4.6m) matched that figure but had a torrid first half, with both Saints goals coming down his flank. He switched sides upon Fatawu’s introduction and was more restrained as a result.
Jamie Vardy (£5.7m) netted from the spot and Jordan Ayew (£5.2m) curled in the winner but alongside Fatawu, the Fox who really caught the eye – once again – was Facundo Buonanotte (£5.0m). Steering home the visitors’ first goal of the afternoon, he went close with another curler and either shot or assisted eight of Leicester’s efforts. That’s five attacking returns in six league run-outs for the young Argentinean winger.
Harry Winks (£4.5m) owners – there are 1.4 million of them – saw their bench fodder also influence proceedings upon his half-time introduction. A possible Gameweek 9 recall beckons. Back on corners, he supplied the assist for the winner.
SAME OLD SAINTS STORY
Fellow budget midfielder Tyler Dibling (£4.6m) had perhaps his quietest game in a Saints shirt. Poor timing, as a bigger share of his owners started him for this favourable fixture. Cameron Archer (£5.0m), now the cheapest starting forward in FPL, did however make it back-to-back goals.
For Southampton, this result was a real hammerblow. Russell Martin reckons he’s staying after a chat with the board, so expect the same story going forward: brave on the ball from back to front and capable of creating chances (they’re ranked a creditable 14th for xG) but ultimately vulnerable in too many areas.
One of those areas is set pieces. Ayew’s winner came from a corner, the seventh goal Saints have allowed from a set piece. That’s more than twice as many as anyone else.
“We do a lot of work on set pieces and we should have scored one today and we defended brilliantly against the best set-piece team in Europe last weekend.
“The last game we played at Arsenal we were incredible the way we defended it. Today we’re down to ten men, a few subs on but one person had one job to do that would have stopped that goal and they didn’t.” – Russell Martin
Throwing a player or players under the bus seems to be a recurring theme, too. It doesn’t sound like a winning formula.
For those with a Triple Captain chip still intact, there’ll no doubt be a temptation to hand it to Erling Haaland (£15.4m) next weekend.
