FPL notes: Martinelli up front, White’s benching + Chelsea wing-backs

We continue to assess the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from Gameweek 26 in our Scout Notes series.

Here, we focus on Arsenal v Bournemouth and Chelsea v Leeds United.

The numbers you see in this article are taken from our Premium Members Area, where you can access Opta player and team data from every single Premier League fixture.

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• READ MORE: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus points + statistics

TROSSARD INJURY

Already without the sidelined Eddie Nketiah (£6.7m) and the not-yet-match-fit Gabriel Jesus (£7.9m), Arsenal lost another centre-forward option in Saturday’s last-gasp win over Bournemouth.

Leandro Trossard (£6.6m) limped out of the action after just 21 minutes of the clash at the Emirates, with a groin injury cited as the reason.

“It is a worry. He came to me straight away and told me he could not continue because he’d felt something when he was tracking back after the corner. We have to assess him and see how he is.” – Mikel Arteta on Leandro Trossard

We will at least get the benefit of an extra press conference (and hence a possible early update on Trossard’s condition) from Mikel Arteta this week, as he faces the media on Wednesday ahead of the UEFA Europa League clash with Sporting.

ARTETA ON ‘OUT OF POSITION’ MARTINELLI

The by-product of Trossard’s withdrawal was that Gabriel Martinelli (£6.5m) moved centrally against the Cherries, with first Emile Smith-Rowe (£5.6m) and then match-winner Reiss Nelson (£4.7m) operating down the left flank.

“The way they were defending, we thought it was the best way to do it. We have alternatives – Emile can play in that position as well, we can move players and Reiss can give us width and threat in wider areas. We’ll have to assess every opponent because they’ll be different. Now we have Sporting CP, a really tough match, so let’s hope we’ll have one or two back.” – Mikel Arteta on playing Gabriel Martinelli centrally

Any ‘out of position’ appearances as a striker for Martinelli are likely to be few and far between with Jesus nearing a return. Nketiah and Trossard’s issues might also turn out to be minor in nature.

It’s also questionable whether it makes that much difference these days, especially when a side plays with such a fluid frontline as the Gunners often do. Trossard and Martinelli had been interchanging roles anyway (a bit like Jesus and Martinelli did earlier in 2022/23), with the Belgian drifting out to the left flank from his nominal centre-forward role.

Credit: @PedriLikesWater

That said, Nketiah and Jesus have had 30 of the 69 big chances that have fallen Arsenal’s way this season (Martinelli, Saka and Odegaard are on 10, eight and six respectively).

Out of interest, Martinelli has a very decent seven goals in 14 competitive appearances when starting as the central ‘striker’ for Arsenal – but all of those strikes came before Arteta was appointed in December 2019.

AN ODE TO VARIANCE

You’d have got good odds on Martinelli, Bukayo Saka (£8.5m) and Martin Odegaard (£7.0m) all blanking in a five-goal thriller at the Emirates but that’s exactly what happened on Saturday.

While the trio was short of their spectacular best at the weekend, we can chalk their blanks up to it being ‘one of those days’ (also known as variance/bad luck in some quarters).

Arsenal had 31 shots against Gary O’Neil’s troops, the most that any team has managed in a Premier League this season and indeed their highest tally since 2017.

ZINCHENKO’S THREAT, ANOTHER WHITE BENCHING

Ben White‘s (£4.7m) remaining FPL owners had a roller-coaster afternoon, with the defender benched but emerging as a second-half substitute to grab Arsenal’s equaliser.

Another poor display from Takehiro Tomiyasu (£4.2m) suggests there won’t be too many more league starts for the Japan international this season, at least while the title is on the line.

White’s game-time has become more at risk as the fixtures pile up but for his owners’ sake, he will hopefully now get his breathers on Thursday nights when Arsenal are in Europa League action, which kicks off this week.

Due to the Gunners not having any more doubles in 2022/23, only once will they have three league matches in a week again: that comes in Gameweeks 32-34.

On the other flank, Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.2m) continues to catch the eye. The Ukraine international had three shots, created a game-high four chances and registered seven penalty area touches against the Cherries and while the path of the game did mean that individual Arsenal player stats were inevitably going to be inflated, Zinchenko has been posting decent numbers for a while.

LIVERPOOL’S NEXT OPPONENTS

It’s a rejuvenated Liverpool up next for Bournemouth, who have largely impressed over a tricky run of six games.

Wolves were beaten and Newcastle were held to a draw, while Brighton and Arsenal left it very, very late to see off the Cherries in their respective games.

Despite the fixture difficulty, Bournemouth are ranked ninth for shots in the box over their last six matches. Goals from Philip Billing (£5.1m) and Marcos Senesi (£4.4m) spoiled an Arsenal clean sheet on Saturday and while it was a mostly backs-to-the-wall display, O’Neil’s troops did pose a threat whenever they went forward.

At the other end, there’s more encouragement for Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) and co. While it’s perhaps to be expected, Bournemouth are rock-bottom for expected goals conceded (xGC) over this six-match run.

BOOSTS FOR JAMES AND CHILWELL

We knew in advance of Gameweek 26 that Reece James (£5.8m) was going to miss out on Chelsea’s clash with Leeds but the defender looks set to make an immediate return to action, having trained ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Borussia Dortmund.

Plenty of FPL managers will have been sufficiently burned by James’s myriad fitness issues to avoid revisiting him as an option but there are causes for optimism.

The same goes for Ben Chilwell (£5.8m).

The former Leicester man was part of a Chelsea side that set up in a 3-4-3 against Leeds, a system that unquestionably brings out the best of Chilwell and James from an attacking perspective.

“We had a nice balance about us. It was better in terms of attacking, certainly in the first half against Leeds.”

“Ben and Reece have been unavailable for a long time so we had to find different solutions but clearly, those are roles that they’re comfortable in and brings out their quality, so it is something for us to go forward with.” – Graham Potter on using a wing-back system

“Ben’s got stronger and stronger as the weeks have gone on and today I thought he affected the game in a really good way and contributed a lot to our first-half performance.” – Graham Potter

Chilwell was a threat from both open play and set pieces, setting up Wesley Fofana‘s (£4.3m) goal from a corner before wasting a big chance of his own.

Fofana is available at an eye-catching price in FPL and certainly one to consider for the watchlist/a Gameweek 27 Wildcard, and fairly low-risk at £4.3m even if the inevitable Potter benching materialises at some point.

“We’ve missed Wesley. It was the Milan game at home when he had his injury, that’s a long time ago. He brings something different – his physicality, he defends big spaces, allows you to defend a little bit higher up the pitch because he’s got the pace and the physicality to recover. Then in the box he can attack the ball well, so he’s an important player for us.” – Graham Potter

It’s most definitely the goalkeeper and defenders who are the leading Chelsea targets in FPL right now, with only one of their attackers on the scoresheet over the last six Gameweeks. That man was Joao Felix (£7.6m), who came closest to scoring on Saturday when rattling the underside of the crossbar.

GNONTO BENCHING

Wilfred Gnonto (£5.0m) lost his place in the Leeds starting XI for the first time since the restart but the failures of the visitors’ attack in west London, not to mention his own bright cameo off the bench, potentially bode well for Gameweek 27 onwards.

“I thought for today it was better to try two wingers like Jack [Harrison] and Summerville, I think it was my decision, try to think and counter and think during the game they will be important as well. Today, my thinking about today was that we will get points during the game not only with the first XI, we need all the players to get the points when in play.” – Javi Gracia

The Whites are one of a number of clubs with a fixture in Blank Gameweek 28 and a double in Gameweek 29 but with Arsenal one of their opponents in the latter, free-scoring Brighton to come before then and a possible blank in Gameweek 32, there’s little appealing about Javi Gracia’s relegation-threatened outfit.

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