Holebas and Pereyra in the points again, while Liverpool defence shines

Our third set of Scout Notes from the weekend’s matches looks at the lunch-time kick-off between Watford and Crystal Palace, as well as the two remaining fixtures from Saturday.

The Hornets’ heroes of Gameweek 1 – Roberto Pereyra and Jose Holebas – were on the scoresheet in their victory over the Eagles, with Wilfried Zaha also among the goals.

Mohamed Salah was on target yet again for Liverpool, though it was the Reds’ defenders who shone on the Bonus Points System as they kept their third successive clean sheet.

Leicester City beat ten-man Southampton, meanwhile, with Harry Maguire reminding us of his goal threat – although not from a set-piece situation, for once.

The Scout Notes feature returns tomorrow morning with a run-down of Sunday’s 16:00 BST matches – Newcastle United 1-2 Chelsea and Fulham 4-2 Burnley.

Watford 2-1 Crystal Palace

• Goals: Roberto Pereyra (£6.1m), Jose Holebas (£4.6m) | Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m)
• Assists: Daryl Janmaat (£5.0m), Etienne Capoue (£5.0m) | Max Meyer (£5.9m)

Watford’s full-backs once again excelled in attack as the Hornets edged past Crystal Palace, while there was a sixth goal in nine league starts for the club’s most-owned FPL asset: Roberto Pereyra (£6.1m).

Jose Holebas (£4.6m) and Daryl Janmaat‘s (£5.0m) average positions were at the halfway line or beyond, with Javi Gracia’s policy of fielding inverted wingers allowing plenty of space for the two full-backs to overlap them.

Janmaat was the more dangerous in the first half, coming close to scoring after fizzing a shot just wide of Wayne Hennessey‘s (£4.5m) right-hand post and sending in a couple of dangerous deliveries from the byline.

The Dutch international recorded the assist for what turned out to be Holebas’ winning goal, although it was a fortuitous one.

No FPL defender registered more crosses than Holebas in 2017/18 and the Greek left-back was at it again today, sending in more deliveries than any player on the park. It was – most likely – from one of these crosses that Holebas scored Watford’s second, his right-footed ball from the flank looping over McCarthy’s head and into the Palace goal.

Watford had taken the lead early in the second half, with Pereyra scoring his third goal of the season. It had threatened to be a frustrating afternoon for the 7.8%-owned midfielder, with his other three shots either wayward or finding a Palace body in the way. Pereyra’s threat from the left flank was a constant struggle for the Eagles’ deputy right-back Joel Ward (£4.5m) – playing in place of the suspended Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.1m) – and the Argentinean winger was duly rewarded for his persistence by cutting inside Ward and Andros Townsend (£6.0m) and curling home the hosts’ opener.

Though Watford’s fixtures are about to take a turn for the worse, Pereyra’s form is becoming hard to ignore: no player at Vicarage Road had as many attempts on goal or penalty box touches as their talismanic wide-man.

In this era of squad rotation and week-to-week formation changes, Watford’s FPL assets are – seemingly – reassuringly secure in their roles: this was the third match in a row that Gracia’s line-up and tactics have remained the same.

Ben Foster (£4.5m) stole the show in the first half, making two outstanding stops from Christian Benteke (£6.5m) and the impressive James McArthur (£5.0m), who was also denied by a last-ditch Holebas tackle.

Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m) was a peripheral figure in attack alongside Benteke, with his goal – his only attempt in the match – coming after his switch to the left flank.

Substitute Max Meyer (£5.9m) provided the assist for Zaha’s consolation and that combination play will have surely planted a seed in Roy Hodgson’s mind. Coming on for Jeffrey Schlupp (£4.5m) after 75 minutes, Meyer played centrally ahead of McArthur and Luka Milivojevic (£6.4m), with Zaha drifting out to the left wing in Schlupp’s stead.

That the new set-up led to a goal within three minutes of Meyer’s introduction could potentially spell bad news for Schlupp, as we suggested after Friday’s press conferences.

Ward in for Wan-Bissaka was set to be Palace’s only change to their starting XI – that is until James Tomkins (£4.5m) injured his calf in the warm-up and had to be replaced by Martin Kelly (£4.0m) at centre-back.

Hodgson gave an update on Tomkins’ injury after the match:

He felt his calf. He felt a tightness in training during the week but didn’t think it was important and thought he could play through it without any problems, but when he went to warm up today he realised that it was probably a bit more serious than he’d imagined.

Now we have to get it scanned and we’ll see what the result of that is, because there’s obviously some kind of strain there. The question is how big a strain and there was no way we were going to take a chance and try and get him to play through it because those things, if they become a real pull or a tear, can leave him out for a long period of time.

We’ll know in the early part of next week when he’s had his scan and they’ve had a chance to look at it.

Should Tomkins be ruled out for a while, then the Kelly situation is one to monitor – Palace could soon be offering us another £4.0m-priced routed into their backline.

Watford XI (4-4-2): Foster; Janmaat, Cathcart, Kabasele, Holebas; Hughes, Doucoure, Capoue, Pereyra; Gray (Sema 72′), Deeney (Success 90′)

Crystal Palace (4-4-2): Hennessey; Ward, Kelly, Sakho, Van Aanholt; Townsend, Milivojevic, McArthur, Schlupp (Meyer 75′); Benteke (Sorloth 85′), Zaha

Liverpool 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion

• Goals: Mohamed Salah (£13.0m)
• Assists: Roberto Firmino (£9.5m)

Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) scored the only goal of the Saturday evening kick-off as Liverpool edged out a dogged Brighton side, with the Reds sitting atop the Premier League table and still yet to concede this season.

This was Salah’s fourth goal involvement of 2018/19 (following his opening-weekend strike in the win over West Ham United and two assists in Monday night’s victory against Crystal Palace), but the Egyptian was once again notable for his absence in the bonus points shake-up: no player on show at Anfield last night had more shots off target or was dispossessed on as many occasions, which negatively affected his returns on the Bonus Points System (BPS). Salah, indeed, has yet to receive a single bonus point for his efforts this season.

While Salah’s all-round game is not well-reflected by way of BPS, his underlying attacking statistics hint at another productive season for his owners: no player had registered more shots on goal or created as many chances as the Egyptian in 2018/19 after the completion of Saturday’s fixtures.

It was little surprise that Salah, Sadio Mane (£9.8m) and Roberto Firmino (£9.5m) were all involved in Liverpool’s winning goal, though that was as good as it got for the front trio.

Mane, in particular, has something of an off-day. The leading points-scorer in FPL after two Gameweeks, Mane was bought by over 455,000 new managers after his second successive double-digit haul of the season at Selhurst Park. The Senegalese midfielder, however, fluffed both of the goalscoring opportunities that he was presented with and emerged from the evening kick-off with only a clean sheet point to his name.

While the Reds’ front three came out of the encounter against the division’s worst travellers in 2017/18 with somewhat underwhelming FPL scores, the success story that is Liverpool’s watertight defence continued.

Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.0m) was the only member of Jurgen Klopp’s back four who failed to add a bonus point to his clean sheet return yesterday, though his prominence in attacking areas should still offer encouragement to the 17% of FPL managers who own the England right-back.

Alexander-Arnold struck the bar with a direct free-kick in the first half and later went close after being set up by opposite full-back Andrew Robertson (£6.1m), though a third consecutive booking and those two off-target shots damaged his BPS score.

The sight of Robertson and Alexander-Arnold combining inside the Brighton box for the latter’s spurned chance was representative of just how advanced the full-back pairing were throughout the game, and Robertson was unlucky to come away from Anfield with “just” nine points.

No player in FPL had accrued more bonus points than Robertson at the time of writing and the Scottish full-back’s creativity was rewarded with another three yesterday. As well as the chance carved out for Alexander-Arnold, Robertson ought to have been rewarded with assists for the opportunities he supplied Firmino and Mane with in the first half, both of whose efforts were kept out by Brighton goalkeeper Mat Ryan (£4.5m).

Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m) and Joe Gomez (£5.0m) collected two bonus points each for their displays at centre-half, with Gomez moving out to right-back later in the match when substitute Joel Matip (£4.9m) replaced Alexander-Arnold.

Jurgen Klopp talked up Gomez’s credentials in both positions after full-time:

Obviously Brighton thought: “Let’s pick Joe Gomez for the long-ball challenge with Murray.” And Joe did really well. They were real challenges, but I don’t think he made one foul. He won 70 or 80 per cent of his duels. He did really well, he is a good footballer, I like how his confidence grows as well. His speed is good, he has a lot of nice things for a centre-half, so I am really happy about it.

Today, we thought about that change a bit earlier, bringing Joel Matip on and move Joe to the right full-back side. I thought in the last four minutes it was a fantastic idea, and we could have done it 10 or 15 minutes earlier. Trent felt intensity today, it’s all good, but Joe can play both these positions and that’s cool. He played for England as a centre-back with three at the back and he is able to do that. We fill his CV step by step, altogether it is nice he is here.

Liverpool were unchanged for the third match in a row, with James Milner and Georginio Wijnaldum (both £5.5m) continuing to impress in the centre of the park – albeit without recording any attacking returns for their handful of FPL owners.

The pair’s performances meant that Jordan Henderson (£5.4m) yet again had to make do with a cameo off the bench, while Fabinho (£5.8m) was once more omitted from the match-day squad altogether. Speaking of the Brazilian’s absence, Klopp said:

We had a pre-season and he could play a lot of games. I have had it plenty of times, these talks in the 18 years or so of doing the job. I think I had talks like this 30 or 40 times. We are 100 per cent convinced, so everything will be fine – but sometimes it needs a bit longer. Is it then nice for the player not to be in the squad? No, but I have to make a squad for the matchday and not for matchday 15. That’s it, it’s all good. He had a really good training week – not that it was the first one but it was a really good one – and so, everything will be fine.

Chris Hughton would have been encouraged with his side’s display at Anfield and the Seagulls almost came away from Anfield with a point – Anthony Knockaert (£5.5m) and Pascal Gross (£6.9m) both going close for the visitors in the second half.

Gross was one of two changes made by Hughton for the trip to Liverpool, with Yves Bissouma (£5.0m) getting a run-out in the German’s stead. Gross was far less productive away from home last season (only two of the 15 goals he was involved in came on the road) and the talismanic midfielder could face more bench duty this season, given how his natural creativity is somewhat curbed by his manager’s conservative away-day approach.

That being said, it was Bissouma who was caught on the ball for Liverpool’s winning strike, and the Ivorian managed as many penalty box touches and attempts on goal in 80 minutes as Gross did in ten.

Leon Balogun (£4.4m) replaced the injured Lewis Dunk (£4.4m) at centre-back, meanwhile.

Aside from the chances for Knockaert and Gross, Brighton’s goal threat was minimal: Glenn Murray‘s (£6.5m) average position over 90 minutes yesterday was actually further back than both of Liverpool’s full-backs.

Liverpool XI (4-3-3): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Matip 89′), Gomez, van Dijk, Robertson; Milner, Keita (Henderson 67′), Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Mane (Sturridge 79′)

Brighton XI (4-5-1): Ryan; Montoya, Duffy, Balogun, Bong; Knockaert (Jahanbaksh 75′), Stephens, Bissouma (Gross 80′), Propper, March (Locadia 75′); Murray

Southampton 1-2 Leicester City

• Goals: Ryan Bertrand (£5.0m) | Demarai Gray (£5.5m), Harry Maguire (£5.5m)
• Assists: Marc Albrighton (£5.4m), Kelechi Iheanacho (£6.0m)

The two left-backs on show at St. Mary’s on Saturday afternoon caught the eye, though only Ryan Bertrand (£5.5m) emerged from the encounter with an attacking return.

Bertrand’s average position was almost as high as striker Danny Ings‘ (£5.6m), and the England full-back had as many penalty box touches as Shane Long (£5.0m) over the 90 minutes. Bertrand’s goal actually came from outside the Leicester area, his rising effort leaving Kasper Schmeichel (£5.0m) with little chance.

Ben Chilwell (£5.0m) has yet to deliver an attacking return this season, with Ricardo Pereira‘s (£5.1m) gung-ho displays on the opposite flank attracting more attention.

The Leicester left-back could easily have had a goal and assist in the 2-1 win over the Saints, however, being denied by Alex McCarthy (£4.5m) from six yards after earlier coming within inches of finding Kelechi Iheanacho (£6.0m) with a superb cross from the left flank.

Pereira was once again deployed “out of position” for the Foxes on the right wing, with Daniel Amartey (£4.5m) lining up behind him. This was the second successive away match in which the Portuguese defender has played further up the park, which possibly bodes well for future Leicester fixtures on the road – Claude Puel favouring a more cautious approach when away from the King Power Stadium by doubling up his defensive options on that flank.

Though Pereira failed to record an attacking return for the first time this season, his underlying statistics were encouraging: no Leicester player had more penalty box touches than Pereira at Southampton on Saturday.

Harry Maguire‘s (£5.5m) goal threat from set-piece situations was prominent at the World Cup this summer and indeed for the Foxes last season, but the England centre-back’s winning goal yesterday came from distance: Maguire wrong-footing McCarthy from 25 yards out. That speculative shot was, indeed, Maguire’s first attempt on goal this season.

Ings was the third-most-bought forward in Gameweek 3 and, though he came away from the Saints’ defeat without anything other than two appearance points, was still in the thick of the action: the former Liverpool striker had more penalty box touches than any player on show at St. Mary’s and forced Schmeichel into two saves.

Long was given the nod alongside Ings up front, with Mohamed Elyounoussi (£6.4m) returning to the right flank after recovering from injury. Long and Elyounoussi’s contributions drew praise from manager Mark Hughes after the match:

I think anybody who was here and saw the game in its entirety will view the game with as many positives as you can take out of a defeat, which isn’t easy to take. For me as the manager of that group, I was encouraged by what we produced and it shows the potential in the group.

We made a few changes and brought people in to get them an understanding. The likes of Moi Elyounoussi, who I thought was excellent and Shane Long who was superb all day long. Right through the team, you can pick out players who had outstanding games. Mario [Lemina] and Pierre [Hojbjerg] were excellent so all in all it was solid performance but unfortunately, we’ve not managed to get a result.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (£4.5m) had a torrid afternoon from an FPL perspective, being denied an assist for Bertrand’s opener before being dismissed for two bookings – the second for simulation.

Having made his first start of the season last weekend against Wolves, Jonny Evans (£5.0m) was back among the substitutes yesterday, being replaced by Wes Morgan (£4.5m) in the Leicester line-up.

Southampton XI (4-4-2): McCarthy; Soares, Vestergaard, Hoedt, Bertrand; Redmond, Hojbjerg, Lemina, Elyounoussi (Romeu 79′); Long (Armstrong 86′), Ings (Austin 69′)

Leicester City XI (4-2-3-1): Schmeichel; Amartey, Morgan, Maguire, Chilwell; Mendy, Ndidi; Pereira, Maddison (Ghezzal 78′), Gray (Okazaki 88′); Iheanacho (Albrighton 67′)

READ MORE: All the FPL talking points from Wolves 1-1 Man City

READ MORE: Another blank for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in Arsenal win

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