FPL notes: Arsenal’s attack, Taylor’s return + differential Neto

Two more of Saturday’s Gameweek 25 matches – Burnley v Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton Wanderers – are reviewed here in our latest Scout Notes write-up.

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IN-FORM ARSENAL

Arsenal continued their fine start to 2024 with a comprehensive 5-0 away win at Turf Moor.

The Gunners, who have now scored 21 goals in their five Premier League games during January and February, controlled the match from start to finish, with Bukayo Saka (£9.0m) and Martin Odegaard (£8.4m) pulling the strings.

Mikel Arteta said only last month “We have to share the goals” and that’s exactly what has happened since the turn of the year, with nine different Arsenal goalscorers contributing (see below).

Their underlying attacking numbers have improved significantly in that period, too, having averaged 19.2 shots and 2.7 expected goals (xG) per game

Above: Arsenal players sorted by goals scored in 2024 (Gameweek 21-25)

“We are showing a high efficiency at the moment in front of goal, and you see especially the purpose, the way we’re playing at. We always want to play forward and be a threat, and the players up front, they feel really connected at the moment. That’s a different story because it gives us much more tranquillity, especially to finish the games off.” – Mikel Arteta

The three most recent victories have coincided with an injury to Gabriel Jesus (£7.8m), with the impressive Leandro Trossard (£6.5m) tasked with leading the line here.

The Belgian, who has scored in all three matches Jesus has missed, interchanged very well with the rest of Arsenal’s attackers, in particular Kai Havertz (£7.1m), who caused real problems with his off-the-ball movement. Who needs a true striker, anyway?

Elsewhere, for the second week in a row, Saka scored a brace on the road, including a first-half penalty. He’s now racked up seven goals in his last six matches.

With the damage done, Saka was off before 70 minutes, with Arteta opting to hand him a breather, perhaps with Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League trip to Porto in mind.

“I’m really pleased. I’m enjoying my football, but obviously I need to keep focused. But yeah, of course I’m happy to score two, two weeks in a row and hopefully the third one will come soon. It’s coming. It’s coming, but I need to be patient!” – Bukayo Saka

As for Odegaard, he scored his first goal since Gameweek 14 and provided the assist for Saka’s second, securing his second successive double-figure haul.

Striking a balance between dropping deep and influencing the game higher up the pitch, the playmaker has been back to his best since Arsenal’s mid-season break in Dubai.

“I think confidence-wise he’s in a really good moment, and physically as well with the way he applies himself; defending, attacking, the connection, the movement that he gave us on the right-hand side, it’s really good. He’s hitting form.” – Mikel Arteta on Martin Odegaard

RAYA UNTESTED / TAYLOR RETURNS

It was another miserable afternoon for Burnley on Saturday.

The Clarets did not attempt a shot on target, so David Raya (£5.0m) didn’t have a save to make as Arsenal kept consecutive clean sheets for just the second time this season.

Ahead of the Spaniard, Ben White (£5.6m) continued playing the inverted full-back role in the absence of Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.1m) and was a threat from corners, while Gabriel’s (£5.1m) header from a difficult angle was saved.

Returning to Burnley, they have a trip to Crystal Palace up next in Blank Gameweek 26 and it is good news for Charlie Taylor (£4.0m) owners.

He returned to the bench on Saturday after recovering from the shoulder problem he suffered last month and played 28 minutes, replacing Maxime Esteve (£4.0m).

Hannes Delcroix (£4.0m) struggled at both centre-back and left-back, meanwhile, so the chances of a Taylor start at Selhurst Park look promising.

“PRETTY CLOSE TO PERFECT”

In an excellent away display dubbed “pretty close to perfect” by Gary O’Neil, Wolves beat Tottenham 2-1 in north London.

Playing in a lopsided 3-4-3 shape (see below), the visitors were a constant threat on the break and took the lead when Joao Gomes (£4.9m) headed home Pablo Sarabia’s (£4.7m) corner.

The central midfielder then added a second with the impressive Pedro Neto (£5.7m) the architect.

Neto has now assisted 11 goals this season, more than any other player except Ollie Watkins (£8.7m), yet his ownership remains under 5%. With Sheffield United and Fulham at home in the next three, he’s an excellent differential.

And with top goalscorer Matheus Cunha (£5.7m) injured, this was a reassuring Wolves performance, with Hwang Hee-chan (£5.5m) leading the line well, Sarabia taking up some nice positions in between the lines and Neto improving with every game.

“We were close to perfect. I am proud of the group. It is a tough place to come and I think we deserved to win the game. The way we got the goal wasn’t how we looked like getting it. We were more than that [just counter-attacking] and when we had the ball we caused them loads of problems and kept missing chances.

“I was a little bit frustrated that we weren’t more clinical but we kept going and kept threatening. Joao [Gomes] was really calm and got a good connection on the ball and got us the win. It was really important for us to go 1-0 up and then the second one was fantastic. We worked on Pedro [Neto] getting in behind on the right and then a really good pass for Joao.” – Gary O’Neil

Above: Wolves’ average position map v Tottenham in Gameweek 25

SLUGGISH SPURS

Tottenham’s run of five home wins in a row ended on a frustrating afternoon for Ange Postecoglou’s side.

Spurs named Son Heung-min (£9.6m) in their starting XI for the first time since his involvement at the Asian Cup but he struggled to make an impact.

James Maddison (£8.0m) and Richarlison (£7.1m) underwhelmed, too, with the latter replaced with 20 minutes left to play.

Instead, it was Dejan Kulusevski (£6.8m) who was Tottenham’s brightest spark.

He registered four shots and got on the scoresheet, but despite his best efforts, it still feels like when Maddison isn’t at it, Tottenham can struggle to break teams down, which is exactly what happened here.

Elsewhere, Spurs were missing Pedro Porro (£5.8m) and Destiny Udogie (£4.9m) through injury, with the latter’s replacement Ben Davies (£4.3m) putting in a decent shift, racking up three shots in the box and ten penalty box touches.

Still, Porro’s creativity was sorely missed, with Royal losing possession on several occasions when inverting into central midfield.

In truth, Spurs haven’t been performing as well as they could for quite a while now, something Postecoglou discussed after the full-time whistle (see below).

Now, they blank in Gameweek 26 but do at least have a confirmed fixture in 29, when they travel to Fulham.

“For us to kind of dominate games like we want to, it does mean we need to start aggressively, and try and put the opposition on the back foot. And we haven’t really done that [in the] last two or three games. Sometimes it’s the mindset going into games, sometimes it’s the opposition, sometimes it’s just the context of the football game.” – Ange Postecoglou

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