Pre-season returns for Watkins as “knocks” keep Buendia and Zaha out

Our recap of the latest pre-season friendlies involving Fantasy Premier League (FPL) players continues.

We’ve already looked at how Brighton and Hove Albion, Burnley and Leeds United got on in our first summary of the weekend’s football.

Now we turn our attention to Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Brentford and West Ham United.

We’ll have the goal, assist, injury and line-up information from all these games plus brief FPL-centric notes on each clash.

Don’t forget to check out our comprehensive pre-season page for more information on the warm-up matches taking place ahead of Gameweek 1.

BRISTOL CITY 0-3 ASTON VILLA

• Goals: Jaden Philogene-Bidace, Ezri Konsa (£5.0m), Ollie Watkins (£7.5m)
• Assists: Watkins, John McGinn (£6.0m), Anwar El-Ghazi (£6.0m)

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Ollie Watkins (£7.5m) made it four attacking in three pre-season games as Aston Villa swept aside Bristol City.

It was a mostly second-string side on display at Ashton Gate, with a number of other squad members representing the Villans in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Crewe Alexandra – although little was known about that knockabout beyond a few details.

Emiliano Buendia (£6.5m) wasn’t involved in either game, however, with a “slight knock” being cited as the reason for his absence.

Watkins crossed for youngster Jaden Philogene-Bidace to open the scoring in Bristol and FPL’s most-owned forward went on to grab the game’s third goal, turning in an Anwar El-Ghazi (£6.0m) cross from close range.

The imminent signing of Leon Bailey – supplier of nine Bundesliga goals in 2020/21 and a scorer of the same number – would only seem to bode well for Watkins, who made the most of some limited service at the weekend.

It is less positive news for El Ghazi, who already has Bertrand Traore (£6.0m) and Buendia for competition in the attacking trident behind Watkins – not to mention Jack Grealish (£8.0m), should he stay in the Midlands.

Ezri Konsa (£5.0m) turned in Villa’s second goal from a set-piece situation, while Ashley Young (£5.0m), again deployed at left-back, struck the woodwork with a free-kick.

Aston Villa XI: Steer, Cash, Konsa, Hause, A Young, Nakamba, McGinn (Lindley 80), Philogene-Bidace, A Ramsey, El Ghazi, Watkins (B Young 80).

BRENTFORD 0-1 WEST HAM UNITED

• Goals: Said Benrahma (£6.0m)
• Assists: Mark Noble (£4.5m)

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Thomas Frank rolled out a wing-back system as Brentford were edged out by a Said Benrahma (£6.0m) wondergoal in south-west London.

It was a tactic that the Bees coach turned to in the push for promotion last season and could have implications for FPL midfielder Bryan Mbeumo (£5.5m), who shone as an ‘out of position’ striker in the play-offs.

It was fringe forwards Halil Dervişoğlu (£5.5m) and Marcus Forss (£5.5m) who got the nod in the new system on Saturday, with Mbeumo and Ivan Toney (£6.5m) only brought on after the hour-mark.

Mads Sorensen (£4.5m) was part of the backline against West Ham, meanwhile, and said of the formation choice:

We’ve been training a lot on the five at the back, we played that at the end of the season last year as well. I like it, I think we’ve got some good centre-backs who will cover the pitch well.

As for West Ham, they were in their usual 4-2-3-1, with Manuel Lanzini (£6.0m) again initially in a deeper role in the absence of Declan Rice (£5.0m) and Tomas Soucek (£6.0m).

The good news on that front is that the Czech international returned to training last week along with compatriot Vladimír Coufal (£5.0m), while Rice is due back on the grass this week.

Benrahma stole the headlines on the return his old club with a thunderbolt of an effort, adding to the goal he scored against Celtic a week earlier.

Goals refused to flow for the Algerian last season (one in 35 shots found the back of the net) but he had the best minutes-per-chance and minutes-per-key-pass averages of any West Ham midfielder, claiming six assists in his limited pitch-time.

David Moyes is hoping pre-season can give the winger more confidence heading into Gameweek 1:

It was a good goal. He’s been waiting on that one for a year, hasn’t he? He practices it a lot and today he hit the target. Maybe it’s fitting that he did it here.

He also scored at Celtic last week and it’s good to build his confidence in that way. We’ve got a lot of hope that he will get in and find his goalscoring touch, and assists and all those bits to do with his game. We want good competition and hopefully we’ll have lots of people threatening to score goals this season.

Michail Antonio (£7.5m) drew a blank but there were still encouraging signs despite a relatively quiet display, with a first-half effort chalked off for a marginal offside call on Benrahma.

The mid-price FPL forward then raced onto a Benrahma pass late on but could only skew wide.

Jarrod Bowen (£6.5m), arguably West Ham’s star performer of pre-season, was absent at Brentford with a minor injury.

Brentford XI: Gunnarsson (Raya 46), Roerslev (Stevens 80), Goode (Jansson 46), Sørensen (Nørgaard 62), Pinnock, Henry (Thompson 46), Onyeka (Baptiste 46), Janelt (Mbeumo 62), Dervişoğlu (Toney 62), Canos (Ghoddos 46), Forss (Fosu 73).

West Ham United XI: Fabiański, Fredericks, Dawson, Diop, Cresswell, Lanzini (Alves 68), Coventry, Johnson (Noble 46), Fornals, Benrahma, Antonio.

READING 1-3 CRYSTAL PALACE

• Goals: Jean-Phillipe Mateta (£5.5m) pen, Jordan Ayew (£6.0m), Scott Banks
• Assists: Conor Gallagher (£5.5m) x2

Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m) missed his second successive pre-season game with a “knock” as 10-man Crystal Palace beat Reading.

Local journalists were unable to offer much else on the Ivory Coast international’s prognosis, although the issue is thought to be minor – as is the case with the injuries affecting Christian Benteke (£6.5m) and Jeffrey Schlupp (£5.5m).

New Palace boss Patrick Vieira not only had to contend with unavailability at Reading on Saturday but also a sending off, with Cheikhou Kouyate (£4.5m) seeing red in the first half.

A restructured Eagles side went on to beat their second-tier opponents, with debutant Conor Gallagher (£5.5m) impressing. It was the Chelsea loanee’s through-ball that set Jordan Ayew (£6.0m) away for the visitors’ deflected second strike and it was Gallagher who was fouled for the free-kick that youngster Scott Banks despatched to seal the win.

Gallagher impressed in spells for West Bromwich Albion last season and while two goals and as many assists was hardly eye-catching in FPL terms, he was used in a more restrained role when Sam Allardyce took over at the Baggies.

Marc Guehi (£4.5m), a teammate at Chelsea and now Palace, said of the midfielder:

He’s a very good player and can bring loads of energy going forwards. He’s a very creative midfielder and likes a bit of tackling as well, so hopefully, he can bring us a lot of success this season.

There wasn’t much else to note from Berkshire at the weekend, with Jean-Phillipe Mateta (£5.5m) doing little to impress in a rare chance up front despite winning and converting a penalty.

Crystal Palace XI: Guaita, Ward (Clyne 70), Kouyaté, Guéhi, Mitchell, Riedewald (Rak-Sakyi 70), McArthur, Kirby (Tomkins 35), Ayew, Mateta (Gallagher 55), Street (Banks 78).