GW5 - What did we learn?

 

Chelsea are finally settling into some sort of structure and composure under the new Maresca regime. (Mind you, Lopategui's West Ham didn't put up much of a fight in this one!)  Nicolas Jackson is hugely improved this season (though he always was handy in fast breakaways leading to one-on-ones with the keeper), and is looking so full of confidence at the moment that many FPL managers will be considering getting him in instead of Isak (or Havertz or Solanke or Mateta) as their second/third striker pick (though I still maintain you ought to go as cheap as possible for the third slot; and not expect to play him very often). And Palmer continues to be majestic; I was initially cautious as to whether he could possibly get anywhere near the performance levels and FPL points returns of his sensational breakout season last year, but it is already looking very much as if he could not merely equal last season's tally, but exceed it. For me, he's probably more of a must-have than Salah. It was a robustly physical game at times, with Palmer and Bowen in particular getting kicked up in the air a few times; hopefully they won't be suffering any serious consequences from that treatment - but that must be one of the major worries for their owners (Mitoma's too; he's probably the next most kicked player in the league right now).  West Ham, alas, still look pretty clueless. Paqueta is a shadow of last season's playmaker-in-chief, and they seem to be relying solely on swift counter-attacks, led by the pace, energy, and guile of Kudus and Bowen; unfortunately, those two are both more support strikers than outright goalscorers, and prefer to play off the flanks - so, there's often no focal point for these attacks. When Fullkrug's ready to play, maybe things will turn around. But at the moment, I suspect some Hammers fans are starting to suffer regrets about letting David Moyes go prematurely.

Nothing to complain of in the refereeing here.... except that Fofana's tugging on Summerville's wrist was a pretty clear penalty (or at least a potential penalty; maybe the offence started outside the area?)  And again.... VAR was 'on a break'?? Is there any point having it at all, if it's going to be this passive and timorous now??

I worry about Brentford still; despite having taken an early lead from Mbeumo's superb hooked volley (he's another one who's become a bit of an FPL bandwagon now; I was tipping him as a top pick before the start of the season), they couldn't really live with Spurs. They're often very flakey at the back, and often very, very careless in giving the ball away. At least their tough early run of fixtures is over now. But I'm starting to wonder if Thomas Frank, and the squad that hasn't seen many changes in the last few years, are getting a bit stale now. He's still a great coach; but sometimes you reach a point at a club where.... your time is up. Spurs are finally starting to find some fluency. With Maddison, Son, Solanke, and Johnson all suddenly looking very sharp again, they could be a very dangerous team - though I still have concerns about Vicario's comical puniness in asserting himself at set pieces, and Romero's apparent grumpiness and lack interest on many recent occasions.... and the incessant risk posed by that very, very high line Ange is so wedded to. I suspect Spurs will be a super-entertaining but somewhat inconsistent team, one that often concedes as many goals as it scores; and, while they look on paper as if they should be capable of challenging for the top four, will in practice perhaps struggle a bit to scrabble into the top six or seven.

Nketiah had a lively debut for Palace, and would have been on the scoresheet but for a very smart save from Onana, who then athletically blocked the shot from the rebound too. And Eze put a good chance just wide. Both sides looked far too open in the middle, but short of incisiveness up front. Clean sheet points from both teams were an unexpected - and really undeserved - bonus for FPL owners of their players; neither defence really looked all that convincing. But that's probably good news for owners of Henderson or Onana, who are in fine shot-stopping form... and look like they'll be getting plenty of practice.

Newcastle are a team who, like Brentford, appear to have lost energy under their present management. Eddie's rather newer there than Frank is at Brentford, so I hope he can find a way to refresh things. A lot of their difficulties are down to ongoing injury problems, but... Newcastle really have looked pretty poor for most of this season so far, especially in defence. At least the form of Jacob Murphy and Harvey Barnes gives some cause for encouragement. Fulham - with Raul Jimenez suddenly looking possibly back to his best, after years in the doldrums since that dreadful head injury - are growing in confidence and fluency with every game. Emile Smith Rowe is richly rewarding all those who took a punt on him possibly being the best budget midfielder of the year when his transfer from Arsenal was announced; and Adama Traore is playing the best football of his career. I still have doubts about their defence, but I am starting to feel that they might make a step up this year and get properly into the fight for the European places.

What is up with Wolves? Their defence was one of the best in the league last year, certainly among the lower-half clubs; but this year, they're all over the place. Sure, they've lost a lynchpin of that defence in Kilman, and letting long-time keeper Jose Sa go as well has probably been disruptive. But they ought to be better than this. I like Gary O'Neill; I want to believe that he can turn this around - but we need to see some green shoots of recovery soon, or we're going to start hearing gossip about the owners sounding out possible replacements in a month or two, I fear. Villa were better in attack than we've yet seen them; but that might be largely because Wolves were so easy to carve open, rather than because anything much has changed or improved with Emery's men. Alas and alack, Villa have become the focus of waves of mass hysteria in FPL-land: three of their players have proved very popular early season picks - wildly optimistic punts, really: Duran, who is potentially a great striker, but only gets minutes off the bench; Rogers, who is potentially a great support striker or No. 10, but is too unselfish and plays too deep to have much chance of claiming any assists (lots of 'pre-assists' - but you get nothing for those!) or goals to earn FPL points; and Konsa, who is just a good-not-great, non-attacking defender with a club who don't often manage a clean sheet. This week, they all managed to pick up substantial points. Big deal; they're still nowhere near the top of the points charts, even within their own narrow price category. But all the irrational and impulsive and unself-critical minions of FPL-land are all doing their 'I told you so' dance. Makes you sick!

Everton yet again fail to hang on to a lead. Even more than - as last season - being completely unable to score (at least they seem to have got over that jinx..). - I fear that is the mark of a side who are bound for the Championship. Leicester need a bit more incisiveness in attack, but they look reasonably sound in other areas. I think they probably will go back down eventually; but they'll make much more of a fight of it than Sheffield and Burnley did last year. Ndiaye was the big revelation here, giving a real firecracker performance. (This may be bad news for all those who piled in for Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the basis of a couple of good finishes. I can see the two of them sharing Everton's goal haul now, whether they're on the pitch together, or separately....)

Southampton are improving slowly; they actually show quite a lot of promise going forward (and I could get interested in Adam Lallana as a fifth midfield pick, as he is likely to be the architect of the majority of what few goals they might score; his angled pass through the Ipswich defence, and Dibling's first touch and smooth finish, were as good as anything we saw all weekend). But they're still a bit rocky at the back. I would like to think that Ipswich are much the best of this year's promoted sides, and surely ought to stay up, perhaps even finish quite respectably lower mid-table. But with performances like that, I fear they'll be skirting the bottom three all year. They showed a lot of resilience and determination to keep pushing for the late equaliser - but offered very little apart from that. Still a lot of work to do, Mr McKenna.

Bournemouth are another team whose chances I'd quite fancied, but they haven't so far found the defensive cohesion that made them so formidable for much of last season. (In particular, I'd fancied Kepa to be potentially one of the best 4.5 keepers; but it's looking like he might need a while to settle in at his new club...) And against Liverpool, they weren't going to have much chance to attack. Slot decided to give us an unwelcome surprise by again omitting Jota, for no stated reason that I've heard (he was left out in the midweek game against Atalanta too; so, that's a bit worrying....). Nunez did OK in his stead, and scored a screamer. I think Jota's finishing and his interplay with his attacking teammates is far, far better, and he should be first choice No. 9 if he's fit - but maybe Slot doesn't agree? (Happily, I switched out Jota for Diaz a couple of weeks ago; but it's tearing-the=hair-out time for anyone who still owns him.)

Brighton v Forest was an open, end-to-end affair: two teams who have no defensive solidity in midfield, and so are constantly wide open to quick counter-attacks. If they carry on playing like this, I don't see either of them finishing in the top half; and in fact, although Forest are showing signs of improvement now under Nuno, I suspect they'll still be involved in the relegation struggle in the last few months of the season. Welbeck's free-kick was very sweet, but Sels was really at fault for it, being slightly out of position and allowing himself to be completely unsighted by the wall; he somewhat made amends later by thwarting Welbeck's attempt to recreate that Archie Gemmill goal... but I suspect FPL managers who had fancied him as a promising 4.5-million-pound goalkeeper pick may be reconsidering.

Nothing to query in the refereeing on this one. The Forest penalty was a little bit soft, but Baleba's coming-together with Hudson-Odoi was clumsy, and you just about always see those sorts of contacts being punished like that. And the Gibbs-White sending off was absolutely clearcut: it was arguably a straight red offence, and certainly worthy of a second yellow, after he'd already got himself booked for a stupidly over-eager tussle earlier in the game (my main reservation about MGW is that he can be a little hot-headed at times). Yes, he got a little of the ball, but he absolutely flattened Joao Pedro, coming in from a long way behind, with a clumsy scisscor challenge that swept both the opponent's legs away; the contact on his standing leg, folding it between Gibbs-White's legs, was particularly heavy, and could easily have broken it. The only weirdness here was.... well, OK, there were THREE: 1)  The ref unbelievably ruled it a fair challenge, miming he was satisfied that he'd got the ball 'cleanly', despite wiping out the opponent; 2)  VAR yet again declined to say anything, despite the challenge being potentially a 'violent conduct'/'endangering an opponent'/straight red card kind of situation, which is supposed to be a prime part of their remit; and 3) the ref was apparently overruled on this by the 4th Official, Anthony Taylor??!!  Good for him, justice done. But I didn't even know he was allowed to do that; I can't ever recall it happening before!  Surely the 4th Official is only there to liaise between the referee and the coaching staffs, and has no authority to intervene in on-pitch matters??

And finally, THE BIG ONE....

Arsenal continue to impress with their pragmatism rather than their flair, grinding out another painful result without making anyone fall in love with them (apart from a few tactics nerds, and students of advanced bus-parking...). After they'd worked so hard to protect their slender lead in the face of overwhelming City pressure through the second half, they no doubt feel a little hard done by to concede an equaliser so late in stoppage time - but most neutrals surely feel that was well deserved. The big conundrum for FPL managers is the growing confusion about what Arsenal's back-line is likely to be. Timber has been playing too well to drop; but Calafiori is too expensive - and too good! - to leave out; well, Timber can - at a push - play on either flank, so does that mean Ben White is now set to miss out - at least occasionally?  I suspect White was just being rested after the Atalanta game, maybe 'felt something' afterwards; he is surely nailed on the right, if fit. After his spectacular debut, I would think Calafiori might be favourite for some starts on the left.... and Timber will be the one to miss out. But who's to say? These are just my speculations. There is a danger, I fear, that Arteta may become so intoxicated by the realisation that this is the one area of the pitch where he now has some decent cover that he may become as rotation-crazy in defence as his esteemed mentor - which would be very bad news for all FPL enthusiasts! Let us keep our fingers crossed that won't happen.

City's main curveball was suddenly dropping the thus-far excellent Rico Lewis, in favour of Kyle Walker. I assume Pep felt he might need the pace and experience of the veteran full-back to smother the threat of Martinelli. But I would venture that this turned out to be a mistaken selection; Arsenal were in fact prepared to cede so much of the possession to City, even before the sending-off, that Lewis's advanced playmaker role would probably have been more productive for them. And Walker actually had a bit of a dog of a game, falling asleep rather on the first goal (complaints about the ref restarting the game too quickly are overstated; that's a matter of discretion, commonsense courtesy rather than a strict rule; and the fact is, Walker was just being far too slow about getting back into position - although he did manage to catch up with Martinelli before he cut the ball back inside to Calafiori, but just chose not step out to close him down more closely...), and losing Gabriel far too easily at the corner that produced the second. I am very much hoping that Lewis will continue to be preferred as the more regular starter. But again - who knws? We must wait and see on that one a while longer.

Arteta, of course, always whinges about the referee; but I don't think he's got a leg to stand on with regard to the sending-off. Trossard had a silly rush of blood to the head, and could easily have been given a straight red for the violent and unnecessary charge in the defender's back; or separate yellow cards for that foul and then immediately booting the ball away. A second yellow for such an egregious double offence was inescapable. There were rumblings of discontent in some quarters too about the second goal, but again, that complaint didn't seem to have any substance: attacking players are allowed to stand close to the keeper to restrict his movement - it's up to Ederson to be more assertive in barging them out of the way. I thought they had more of a claim for Calafiori's interference with Gvardiol on the goal-line at the same time; you are not allowed to drape your arm over a defender's shoulder to hold him down! But the Croatian didn't seem to try to make anything of it, apart from very briefly looking a bit rueful; if you want a foul given, you have to shout and scream for it.

Equally, as I said above, while Michael Oliver was at fault - in terms of politeness rather than obligatory protocol - for restarting the game a little abruptly, I don't think that was decisive in leading to the first Arsenal goal; it was really more a case of Walker dawdling (stopping to kvetch with Trossard about something??) to get back to his position. The only possible gripe about the refereeing, for me, was Haaland's escaping a card - arguably perhaps a red one! - for throwing the ball at the back of Gabriel's head after the equaliser, and then getting involved in some more unnecessary and ugly argy-bargey just a few seconds later. (72% of Fantasy managers breathed a huge sigh of relief when those two incidents were let go with a single stern word from Oliver....)

Also, I have to say, while Arsenal were doggedly good, City were mystifyingly bad: they showed no imagination at all in trying to break down the deep block. Foden was brought on far too late, and wasn't given enough initiative to lead the attack from a little deeper (in the absence of DeBruyne, they should surely look to him as their unpicker of locks); the central defenders were relied on to set the tempo of play, and look for paths into the attackers, but couldn't do so; and the wingers never once tried to go around their defender on the outside until Grealish won the crucial corner in the dying minutes. Bizarre, unfathomable!! Pep may be one of the greatest coaches of all time, but he still has 'off' days.... and some of them are really, really off.  And failing to effectively defend the same corner-kick routine twice within a few minutes?! WTF???  (OK, maybe that's on the players rather than Pep. But this was not vintage City!)

The other big story of that match was, of course, Rodri's knee injury. There doesn't seem to have been any further news on that since, which leaves us in uncertainty as to how long he might be out. I doubt it was an ACL injury, since he didn't look to be in that much pain, and was able to limp off unaided; I wonder if it might be one of the ligaments or tendons on the outside of the joint that he's damaged - usually a much less serious proposition. Given how dramatically City's defensive record - and win-ratio - tends to decline whenever they've been without Rodri, this could have a momentous impact on their season. Kovacic or Gundogan might get a more regular and important role now, and could enter FPL thinking for the fifth midfield spot. But City's defensive assets just slumped in value!