Things have balanced up quickly after last week's glut of clean sheets: NO clean sheets at all on Saturday. And despite a reasonable number of goals being scored, almost none of them came from the most likely, most fancied players. This was always likely to be a tough gameweek for FPL managers, with so many of the fixtures closely matched and difficult to call. And the weather - heavy, freezing rain across most of the country - probably hasn't helped either! And then, damn, Chelsea get their goalkeeper sent off inside the first 5 minutes??!! Unexpected results, unexpected goalscorers, and super-rare random curveballs like a goalkeeper being dismissed at the start of the game - it's shaping up to be an epically bad, very low-scoring gameweek.
This Everton side look good enough to go toe-to-toe with Liverpool and give them a really hard time (as they did, in the second half), but David Moyes is often over-cautious, and here he seemed to have told his men to sit back and soak up pressure early on - which they just weren't able to do. It didn't help that the home side conjured up a 'Goal of the Season' contender after just a few minutes! But Everton had their moments too, and really looked on top at the end of the first half and through most of the second; on the overall balance of the game, they probably deserved a draw. It's already starting to look as if Liverpool's name is on the trophy again this season: this ability to keep grinding out wins they scarcely deserve is little short of uncanny. We once again saw the inadequacies of the BPS here: nobody but goalscorers can get the extra points! Tarkowski once again monstered the 'defensive contributions' stat, and - despite being arguably slightly at fault on both goals - was probably the 'Man of the Match',... but was ranked nowhere (well, 10th!) by the BPS. Darren England, consistently one of the worst officials on the PGMOL roster, didn't endear himself to Everton fans by booking three of their best players, Ndiaye (for a minor foul), Dewsbury-Hall (for taking a free-kick quickly), and Grealish (after the game, without even telling him - for complaining too forcefully about these earlier incidents; and, no doubt, the fact that he had been having lumps kicked out of him for the whole game, without one of the offenders being carded...). And Arne Slot didn't endear himself to FPL fans by suddenly dropping Wirtz for Szoboszlai (and moving Bradley rather than Frimpong into the right-back slot), and preparing to make his substitutions ahead of the hour mark (although, fortunately, there wasn't a break in play to implement them until just after 60 minutes). The likelihood of frequent rotations and early substitutions might seriously undermine the FPL value of all of Liverpool's attacking players (except, probably, Salah).
Brighton benefitted from another absurdly tight offside decision. Minteh had looked well off when running through behind Spurs's high back-line for his early breakaway goal, but the SAOT graphic (when it was eventually shared, several minutes later) showed both his and the last defender's arms beyond the decision line; it wasn't at all clear from this graphic exactly where the line had been drawn on the arm, or whose arm, or why - or what the relative positions of the other parts of of the players' bodies were (the trouble with these CG representations is that they're very '2D', lacking in any of the detail that might give you a hint of depth perception). And then Ayari put them two up on the half-hour with a worldie of a shot from 25 yards out on the left (although Vicario, having one of his less impressive days, probably should have been able to turn it around the post). Then when Richarlison pulled one back, there was a long, long VAR delay - for what?? (There was no suggestion of any offence or offside anywhere in the sequence of play. Just baffling!) Spurs pulled their socks up in the second-half, but laboured to get back on terms - needing an unlucky own goal from Van Hecke to notch their second - and couldn't find a winner. It is, of course, classically 'Spursy' to save their best performances for top sides while often faltering against more mid-table opposition; and there may be a problem for them this season of suffering a reaction after draining midweek Champions League games. But at least they showed a lot of character here in battling back from a disastrous start.
Burnley v Nottingham Forest was a predictably cagey affair, with neither side able to fashion many clearcut chances. An early goal for the visitors from the surprising source of Neco Williams set them up for the potential for a morale-restoring victory, but they then let the home side get on top for a while. Forest held up in defence surprisingly well, despite having Murillo withdrawn at the last minute, after failing to recover from a knock he picked up against Arsenal last week. Dan Ndoye, excellent so far on the right, looked somewhat subdued here when swapped to the left to accommodate a debut from Dilane Bakwa on the right wing. Bakwa had a bright enough game that there must now be some worry about possible regular rotation between him, Ndoye, and Hudson-Odoi. The only mild controversy of the game was whether Jaidon Anthony's equaliser ought to have been recorded as an own-goal for Zinchenko. I would have been inclined to say so, as regardless of whether the initial effort was bound inside the far post (close, but probably yes), it had little power in it, and Zinchenko had been in position to block it - but somehow clumsily swept it into his own net; I think such a deliberate action, when the player ought to have been in control of the ball, clearly feels like an 'own-goal' in commonsense terms.
Wolves faded strangely in the first half, after taking an early lead away at Leeds through their Czech new-boy, Krejci. Three good goals from the home side left them reeling, and despite regaining control in the second-half, they couldn't claw themselves back into the game. Keeper Jose Sa looked slightly at fault on all three goals, and you can't help wonder if he was rushed back prematurely after being laid up with an illness over the past week or so. Wolves coach Pereira has just signed a new contract and insists he has no concerns about his future at the club, but this was a game he really needed to win. Gleaning no points at all from the first five games probably already dooms Wolves to spending the entire season in the relegation battle (particularly with the promoted sides all getting off to quite good starts).
West Ham looked slightly improved this week, perhaps steadied a little at the back by the reinstatement of Areola between the sticks; but they still didn't create much real threat going forward, and the big surprise/disappointment in FPL terms is that Palace didn't keep another clean sheet (allowing Bowen to drop back into space for a free header angled across the goal from a corner on the left). West Ham's players looked not just disappointed but depressed at the end of the game, and Graham Potter again looked utterly baffled at how to fix things. He's surely going to be on his bike soon. Palace weren't great, but a goal for Mateta should boost his confidence (after Glasner had hinted in the week that he might be rested for this game, after a few drab displays), and new introductions Kamada, Pino, and Devenny are starting to look like they could replace some of the creativity that's been lost with the departure of Eze. But they needed another unexpected goal - anoher 'Goal of the Month' frontrunner, an instinctive right-foot volley from left-footed, hardly-ever-scores Tyrick Mitchell! - to secure the win here.
God obviously does not love Chelsea: first they get their goalkeeper sent off within minutes of the start (the second earliest dismissal for a keeper in Premier League history!!), and then shortly afterwards Bruno Fernandes nicks a devastating opening goal, and the game is pretty much over. And a few minutes after that, Cole Palmer - who probably shouldn't have been risked anyway - felt unable to continue, troubled again by that stiff groin muscle that's been bothering him all season. Chelsea, in fact, never really looked on it in this game, even in the first minues - perhaps wearied by their exertions against Bayern a few days earlier, perhaps subdued by the miserable weather. But there was an element of controversy about both of those crucial early incidents. Mbeumo had overplayed the ball to knock it past Sanchez, and it was probably running away from him irrecoverably; moreover, there were two Chelsea defenders, level with Sanchez and just ahead of Mbeumo, racing back to cover - so, this didn't look like a clear 'denial of a goalscoring opportunity'; and although it was a lateral kick across the legs at knee-height, it wasn't really savage enough to qualify as 'endangering an opponent' (and was not, I think, classified as such: that would entail a longer suspension). I've always said Sanchez is an accident-waiting-to-happen, and it happened here; but he was somewhat hard done-by. Bruno was probably played onside for his poacher's goal by Chalobah's extended rear leg, but it was incredibly close, would have been determined by where the decision-line got drawn on Bruno's leading arm. Yet again, the SAOT graphic was not shared until minutes later, and was no real help; for some reason it's only showing the 'decisive' line, not the relevant nearest-to-byline lines on both atacker and defender, and in situations this close, it's really not clear from the graphics which body part is nearest - or if it's really nearer or further away than the other player's body part that the decision-line has been drawn on. I'm happy for Bruno's goal (his 100th for United, apparently) to stand; but there must have been millimetres in the offside call, and a convincing justification for it was not provided - despite a lengthy delay in the game. There may have been a subsidiary issue, too, as to whether Sesko, clearly offisde, was interfering with play (impeding Chalobah, or distracting the goalkeeper only a yard-and-a-half or so ahead of him); but that was seemingly not addressed by the VAR team at all. Casemiro's second - again, a smart bit of poaching after some sloppy defending by Chelsea - was also very, very tight for offside (but not quite as tight as Bruno's!), and again occasioned a protracted VAR delay. Casemiro getting himself sent off for a second yellow-card foul just before half-time provided Chelsea with a lifeline, but they didn't have enough top attacking players left on the pitch to take advantage of it (Maresca's decision to withdraw both Estevao and Neto in the wake of the sending-off, when he knew that Palmer's fitness was in doubt, was highly questionable).
Ironically, I think this might actually prove to be a terrible result for United. If, as was widely expected, they'd dropped points here, and in the next two fixtures against 'easier' opponents, and then taken a hard beating against Liverpool in GW8, Amorim would surely then have been dismissed. But getting a win against a top-of-the-table side may now buy him more time, even if the next three games do indeed go against him. And I'm increasingly convinced that the longer Amorim stays at United, the worse things will get for them.
Brentford, despite being gifted an early lead at Craven Cottage by a sloppy square ball from young Josh King, could never really get into the game, and looked very creaky at the back. It was unfortunate that the best of Fulham's goals, Muniz's fierce drive late on, was ruled out for an (entirely accidental) arm across Collins's face by him in the buld-up. The only major curiosity here for FPL was Joachim Andersen being credited with a huge 'defensive contributions' total: it wasn't obvious in watching the game that he'd been particularly busy or had out-performed his central defensive colleague Calvin Bassey. The opacity of this new points system bothers me: it feels as though FPL is just plucking random numbers out of the air every week - they're certainly making no attempt to explain, justify or illustrate the figures awarded.
Damn, the Bournemouth v Newcastle game turned out to be ferociously dull - one of those that, even if there had been 20 matches played this weekend, you knew within the first 20 minutes that it was going to be last on Match of the Day. The visitors, despite lining up with an oddly conservative three-at-the-back and fielding basically a 'B team', with 5 or 6 of their usual starters missing, looked more like the home side, comfortably dominating possession as Bournemouth sat back and tried to hit them on the counter. Both sides were strangely sluggish: the match often felt as if it were being played in slow motion. Newcastle at least had the excuse that some of their players might still have been fatigued after their huge game against Barcelona on Thursday night, but there is no obvious reason why Bournemouth were so far off it. There was a fair bit of refereeing controversy, though, to make up for the shortage of real incident in the game, including two mildly contentious penalty appeals. The ball appeared to hit Tonali's arm in his own box in the first-half, but it came at him at speed, and his arm was protecting his face, and close to his body - so, no way that was a handball. In the second half, Diakite grabbed a handful of Woltemade's shirt, prompting him to fall to the floor. It was a pretty minor shirt tug, but all holding in the box is supposed to be illegal; and it seemed odd that VAR would dismiss the claim rather than at least telling the referee there was an incident that needed to be assessed (as he'd evidently missed it the first time, having no view of Diakite behind the Newcastle forward). There was also the strange business of David Brooks putting the ball in the net early on: he looked about a yard offside, and he didn't celebrate because he knew himself that he'd dropped in behind far too early - but the SAOT graphic eventually indicated that it was another one of those 'so close you can't readily figure out which the relevant body parts are' calls (it definitely wasn't; so this must raise doubts about the automated system for timing the relevant forward pass). And right at the end of the game, in added-on time, ref Rob Jones awarded Bournemouth a free-kick on the edge of the box: the ball had been driven at Harvey Barnes from close range, and his arm was tight against his body - so, there was no way that was a handball! Jones then added insult to injury by allowing Bournemouth to move the ball a yard or so further back and quite a bit over to he left, to improve the prospects for a direct attempt on goal. Nick Pope managed to shovel the ball to safety when Kluivert cracked a fierce low drive through the gap in the wall, but that led to a string of corners - which gave Newcastle an unreasonably nervous end to the game. Malick Thiaw made an impressive debut in central defence for Newcastle, which will give their fans some encouragement that they may be a little better able to weather injury crises this year - at the back, anyway.. However, Bournemouth fans felt he should have been sent off for a second yellow-card offence late in the second half; I couldn't see anything in it myself - a very mild 'body-check', with the Bournemouth player, in my view, deliberately running into Thiaw as he took a half-step across his line.
The only other item of FPL interest was that Antoine Semenyo, who had a severely quiet game, somehow picked up enough 'defensive contributions' to earn 2 extra points! I'm not saying it didn't happen; but it certainly wasn't something you noticed while watching the game - and I can't help suspecting that FPL is, at least occasionally, massaging or inventing these 'defcon' figures to give extra points to popular players (Semenyo is currently the third hottest pick in the game, with over 46% ownership). Do I really think the FPL hierarchy are unscruptulous and dishonest enough to cheat like this, to manipulate the points system to try to pander to managers and keep them happy by being over-generous to he most-owned players? Well, of course, I have no definite proof that it is happening; but I do absoluely believe that they might do it. And the opacity of the system for awarding these new 'defensive points' leaves pletny of room for such conspiracy theories to blossom.
Despite full-back Reinildo getting himself sent off on the half-hour for a petulant rettaliatory flick at Cash (no complaints from anyone on that decision), Villa still couldn't impose themselves on the match: home side Sunderland dominated all the attacking stats, despite having only a fifth of the possession, and probably deserved more than just the 1 point. Matty Cash's screamer from 26 yards out broke the painful goal drought (though it should have been comfortably saved by Roefs, who made the bizarre decision to try to punch it away rather than parry it with his palms, and didn't get enough on the ball), but it was a Black Swan Event (when did Cash last score? has he ever scored from outside the box??), and the sole moment of comfort for Villa fans. It is looking very much as though Unai Emery has somehow 'lost the dressing-room' and needs to be replaced.
There is evidently still a massive gulf in class between City - even a below-their-best City - and Arsenal; they absolutely dominated the home side for most of the game (despite being on the wrong end of all the possession stats; Arsenal had more of the ball, but struggled to do anything with it), and should really have had far more than just Haaland's early breakaway goal to show for it. Arsenal without Odegaard and Saka, much like Chelsea without Palmer, just don't have any creativity; and Arteta's unfathomable decision to replace Odegaard with Merino rather than Eze or Nwaneri really didn't help their cause here. Throwing Saliba back into the fray - rather than sticking with the excellent Mosquera - was also possibly a mistake: he looked a bit ring-rusty, and was slow getting back to try to cover Haaland's break for the goal (not as slow as everyone else in the Arsenal defence, but still pretty slow and ineffectual). However, City were increasingly guilty of sitting back in the second half, gradually allowing Arsenal to get a foothold in the game (although they still weren't creating any clearcut chances: poor Gyokeres hardly touched the ball all game!), and Pep's decision to remove Foden in favour of an extra defender after only 67 minutes, when the lead was not secure, seemed premature, rash. Even so, City were still looking mostly on top in the closing minutes, and super-sub Martinelli's cheeky dink over Donnarumma, deep into add-on time, must be considered extremely fortuitous (he was only onside by an inch or two, and City have a point that Arsenal appeared to have won possession through a foul in their own half at the start of the move,.... and 'the best goalkeeper in the world' was much too far out of his goal - a horrible goal for City to concede!).
Arteta appeared to be trying to 'gaslight' his own supporters by claiming supposed 'dominance' in the game in his post-match interviews. And from the evidence of the online forums today, he's had a fair measure of success - lots of Arsenal fans crowing about what a great performance it was, and how lucky City were to come away with a point!! They lean heavily on those possession stats. But what really matters in a game is 'useful possession': moving the ball around well, getting it forward efficiently, creating shooting chances. On that metric, I'd say City were probably 2- or even 3-1 ahead. Or maybe Arteta really believes this - because his criterion of excellence is 'control' and nothing else, denying the opponent much of the ball (more than trying to create with it yourself). How did that work out for you here, Mikel - really?? I've said before on here that I think this philosophy is profoundly misguided (and so do many, many Arsenal fans - though they rarely dare to say it out loud); and I reiterated just the other day that I think Mikel Arteta is probably now the main thing standing between Arsenal and success.
The tallying of 'defensive contributions' for potential extra points this year continues to add to the sense of confusion and injustice we almost invariably feel about the bonus point allocations. The awkwardly long delays in deciding offside calls, (and the frequent failure to share - promptly or at all - the CG picture of the crucial decision-frame), and an ongoing general lack of transparency about how VAR is operating are also invariable weekly irritations. The 'Team of the Week' is yet again full of complete randoms: it might in fact establish some sort of record as the most improbable collection of high-scoring players ever (after Saturday's games, Bruno Fernandes and Martin Dubravka [who probably isn't a starter for most of his owners] were the only two with an ownership above 1% at the moment; the only change on Sunday was that Nick Pope nicked the goalkeeper spot - and he's only the 10th most popular pick, with barely over 6% ownership)! Although the refereeing hasn't been at all good, there haven't been any obvious mistakes on major game decisions (Robert Sanchez's sending-off is the main candidate; and I seem to be the only person quibbling about that!). However, freak events like the early sending-off, unexpected results and many, many unexpected goalscorers lift this week to at least another 5 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter'.
