We round up the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal in our Scout Notes summary.
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SPURS REIGNITE TOP FOUR PUSH
Two goals from Harry Kane (£12.4m) and a red card to Arsenal’s Rob Holding (£4.1m) put Tottenham in firm control of the north London derby, before Son Heung-min (£11.0m) added a third early in the second-half.
Spurs have now won five of their last six home league games, scoring at least three goals in each of those victories, with Burnley up next in Sunday’s Gameweek 37 opener.
The Clarets, meanwhile, could potentially be missing both of their first-choice centre-halves: James Tarkowski (£4.9m) exited last weekend’s game against Aston Villa in the early stages of the second half after feeling tightness in his hamstring, while Ben Mee (£4.6m) is out with a leg injury.
As for Son, the South Korean is now just one goal behind Mohamed Salah (£13.3m) in the Golden Boot race. The Liverpool man looked like he was going to run away with the award a few months back, but Son has hit 10 goals in his last eight league games to close within one of the Egyptian.
He wasn’t able to draw level with Salah on Thursday, however, with Antonio Conte withdrawing the player after 72 minutes, much to his frustration.
“Obviously I want to play always but what can I say? I have to accept it. We have a game on Sunday so that’s why. I am not angry just disappointed. I have to move on. I wanted to keep playing. We have an important game so I need to be ready, recover well and be fresh again.” – Son Heung-min on his withdrawal after 72 minutes
“I know Son Heung-min wanted to continue to play but I had to think not only about this game but to have fresh players. They spent a lot of energy. I made the decision to give them a bit of rest. He promised me on Sunday he will go to try to score.” – Antonio Conte on Son Heung-min
Son’s goal and assist means that he has now produced five double-figure hauls in his last eight matches and trails Salah by just 16 points at the top of the FPL standings.
On the injury front, Cristiano Romero (£4.8m) missed out due to a hip injury, which Conte touched on before kick-off.
“In the game against Liverpool he received a hit on his hip. After the game he had pain and is not right to recover.” – Antonio Conte on Cristian Romero
DEFENSIVE ISSUES AT ARSENAL
Despite tonight’s damaging defeat, Arsenal remain in the driving seat for a top-four spot with a one-point lead.
Despite that, there’s no room for any slip-ups against Newcastle United and Everton and they are struggling defensively: they have now gone eight league matches without a clean sheet since the 1-0 win at Aston Villa in Gameweek 30.
That’s coincided with injuries to Thomas Partey (£5.0m), Kieran Tierney (£4.9m) and more recently Ben White (£4.6m), although the latter did make the bench tonight.
However, it gets worse for Mikel Arteta, as they lost key centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes (£5.4m) to injury against Spurs, while Holding will serve his one-match ban at St James’ Park following his red card.
As for Gabriel, the 24-year-old went down feeling his hamstring and limped off shortly after, although Arteta did sound fairly upbeat in his post-match interview.
“Gabi [Gabriel] is not normally a player who asks to be get off the pitch. He felt something but hopefully it’s not much. It’s a muscular problem and we’ll have to assess it” – Mikel Arteta
Tottenham Hotspur XI: Lloris, Sanchez, Dier, Davies (Rodon 82), Royal, Bentancur, Hojbjerg, Sessegnon, Kulusevski (Moura 72), Son (Bergwijn 72), Kane
Arsenal XI: Ramsdale, Cedric, Holding, Gabriel (Tavares 76), Tomiyasu, Elneny, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli (Smith Rowe 64), Nketiah (Lacazette 73)
2 years, 6 months agoAny ideas. 1 ft 0itb. Free hit 37 or 38. Any transfer thoughts.
Schmeichel
Cash TAA Cancelo Matip Alonso
Salah Mount Saka Gordon
Kane
Ramsdale Toney Mateta Raph