Lukaku injury latest as Rodgers addresses Leicester’s poor form

We continue our Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Gameweek 12 Scout Notes with analysis of Leicester v Chelsea.

For a briefer summary of Saturday’s action, click here, while you can read up on the games in more detail via the links below.

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• READ MORE: How Newcastle, Norwich and Villa fared under their new bosses in Gameweek 12
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• READ MORE: What Klopp said about Jota’s injury – and is Mane being unfairly overlooked in FPL?
• READ MORE: How Spurs’ FPL assets fared against Leeds in Gameweek 12
• READ MORE: Richarlison to miss Gameweek 13 as Cancelo keeps up fine FPL form

LEICESTER CITY 0-3 CHELSEA

• Goals: Antonio Rudiger (£5.9m), N’Golo Kante (£4.9m), Christian Pulisic (£7.9m)
• Assists: Ben Chilwell (£6.0m), Reece James (£6.1m), Hakim Ziyech (£7.3m)
• Bonus: James x3, Rudiger x2, Kante x1

LUKAKU INJURY LATEST

Thomas Tuchel provided an injury update on several of his players on Monday, including Romelu Lukaku (£11.4m), when he talked to the media ahead of the UEFA Champions League tie against Juventus:

“I am not sure yet on Romelu. We have one more training, yesterday he was in team training and seemed okay. Let’s see about the reaction. He has right now today an appointment with the doctors and the physios to see about the reaction, to see about the next training.

We have the chance to bring 20 players to the squad, maybe we have the chance that he is in the squad for the last minutes, but that will be the absolute maximum we can get out of the situation right now.”

The head coach then supplied further info on Jorginho (£5.8m), Kai Havertz (£8.1m), Timo Werner (£8.6m) and Mateo Kovacic (£5.2m):

“Jorgi is absolutely okay. We had to take Kai off because of hamstring problems. He felt a bit of tension in the hamstrings, so we took him off and we have some doubts with him. We need to check and see if he can train without any problems, so this is more or less the question mark.

Timo feels good, he was in training yesterday, he’s back in the squad again, and Mateo Kovacic is still out.”

As for Saturday’s match at Leicester, it was an excellent all-round performance from Tuchel’s troops, with defenders Antonio Rudiger (£5.9m), Ben Chilwell (£6.0m) and Reece James (£6.1m) all providing attacking returns in addition to their clean sheets.

Notably, James has now produced 53 FPL points over the last four Gameweeks, courtesy of three goals, two assists, three clean sheets and 10 bonus points, while he ranks ninth amongst all outfield players for expected assists (xA) over the same period.

All outfield players ranked by xA over the last four Gameweeks

Following their 3-0 win, Chelsea are now unbeaten in six league outings and have 29 points from 12 matches, with an appealing set of fixtures taking them right through until the New Year:

ISSUES AT LEICESTER

Following their Gameweek 12 loss, Brendan Rodgers’ side have now won just two of their last nine Premier League games, while they have also failed to keep a clean sheet since their opening day win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

However, their short-term schedule does offer hope that they can turn things round, with three of their next four opponents currently placed 15^th or below in the table.

Discussing Saturday’s defeat, Rodgers suggested that his team were missing Youri Tielemans (£6.4m), who worryingly, is still expected to be out for a few more weeks:

“Without that player that can take the ball and pass forward… he’s been so consistent for us in that way.

In general, especially in the first half, technically we weren’t at the level. Part of that was down to their pressing being really good, but we misplaced passes and were a little bit careless. If you do that, and you can’t build that sequence of passes, then that makes it difficult against a top team.

You miss players like Youri, and Fofana, and James Justin. They’re really important players for us.”

In response to that poor first-half showing, the manager introduced James Maddison (£6.6m) and Kelechi Iheanacho (£7.0m) at half-time, which he touched on after the game:

“We were playing the same shape, exactly the same shape, where it was like 3-5-2, with Lookman playing as an eight, and with Barnesy up there with Vards.

Then when we had the ball, there was that freedom of movement from Harvey and Ade to get on it. But we didn’t keep the ball well enough. We never got into positions well enough, technically we were giving it away far too easily, which then meant that they didn’t have much influence.

We then brought a natural midfielder and a natural striker in to the game, and that seemed to work much better for us.”

Ricardo Pereira (£5.3m), meanwhile, missed out on Saturday with a hamstring injury, with the City manager explaining:

“He was a bit tight yesterday, so we’ll see what the scan says on that, but it’s disappointing. He’s just never quite got going since he’s been back. He’s had little niggles. We just need to wait and see.”

Leicester XI: Schmeichel, Amartey, Evans, Soyuncu, Albrighton, Soumare (Dewsbury-Hall 75), Ndidi, Castagne, Lookman (Iheanacho 45), Barnes (Maddison 45), Vardy

Chelsea XI: Mendy, Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Rudiger, James, Kante, Jorginho (Loftus-Cheek 77), Chilwell, Mount (Ziyech 62), Hudson-Odoi, Havertz (Pulisic 62)