FPL notes: Salah haul, Diaz + Szoboszlai impress, solid Everton

Rounding off our Gameweek 17 write-ups, we look back on Tottenham Hotspur 3-6 Liverpool and Everton 0-0 Chelsea.

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• READ MORE: Scoreboard: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus and statistics
• READ MORE: Scoreboard: Sunday’s goals, assists, bonus and statistics

SALAH + DIAZ EACH SCORE TWICE

Mohamed Salah (£13.5) and Luis Diaz (£7.4m) ran riot on Sunday, as Liverpool thrashed injury-hit Spurs 6-3 in north London.

Salah registered a season-high 21-point haul, courtesy of two goals, two assists and maximum bonus.

He’s now returned in nine straight league matches, with leaky Leicester City up next at Anfield on Boxing Day.

As for Diaz, he led the line and tied everything together, with his ability to drift into wide areas causing all sorts of problems for makeshift centre-back pairing Radu Dragusin (£4.3m) and Archie Gray (£4.6m).

The Colombian racked up seven shots in total, with three of those efforts big chances.

There is plenty of competition up front for the Reds right now, with Darwin Nunez (£7.1m) and Diogo Jota (£7.2m) both appearing off the bench on Sunday, but whoever gets the nod in Gameweek 18 has serious haul potential.

A quick word on Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.3m), too.

He’ll receive less praise than Salah and Diaz, but make no mistake, he was equally influential, with several devastating off-the-ball runs from the No 10 position.

With a goal and three assists, he wasn’t far behind Salah’s haul, with 17 points. Like Cody Gakpo (£7.1m), he did move onto four yellow cards, however.

Elsewhere, Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.0m) assisted Diaz’s opener and whipped in several Bechhamesque deliveries into the box.

“Mo and Lucho, they were both with two goals, maybe the ones that stand out in terms of scoring two. But I think we would not do justice to Dom’s performance if we don’t name him as well because, apart from his attacking things he did today, he was without the ball also an important part of our game plan, and that’s what he executed very well.

“Yes, these are the ones that score the goals, but if you watch the goals one more time back – and that’s definitely what I am going to do – it mostly started off with centre-backs or full-backs. Every lead-up to a goal was, I think, multiple passes. So, it’s not only the ones that score, it’s also the ones that help to create.” – Arne Slot

FIVE IN FIVE FOR KULU

For Tottenham, their shortcomings have been ruthlessly exploited in recent matches.

In fact, they’ve now conceded 13 goals across their last three home games, but they continue to attack.

On Sunday, Dejan Kulusevski (£6.3m) impressed and has now found the net in five successive games in all competitions for the first time. James Maddison (£7.6m) and Dominic Solanke (£7.5m) were also on the scoresheet.

“I think Deki’s been outstanding all year. That’s probably the next part of his game, not that he’s never had it but he’s adding it now. He’s been really clean with his finishing and it’s a credit to him. He’s taken his game to another level. I think a few of the boys have to be fair. It’s probably not as evident at the moment because we’re in a difficult situation.” – Ange Postecoglou on Dejan Kulusevski

In his post-match interview, Ange Postecoglou suggested Destiny Udogie (£4.9m) could return to his starting XI in Gameweek 18, having been an unused substitute on Sunday.

“Hopefully, Destiny will be okay. He wasn’t quite right today, we had him on the bench, hopefully he’ll be closer to it. They are the main two at the moment [Bentancur will be available after suspension]. We’re kind of hoping Ben [Davies], Mikey [van de Ven] and Richy [Richarlison] aren’t too far away after that but, for Thursday, it’s probably just Destiny and Rodrigo.” – Ange Postecoglou

ROCK-SOLID EVERTON

Chelsea failed to score in the Premier League for the first time since the opening weekend of the season, with Sean Dyche and Everton standing firm at Goodison Park.

The Toffees have now kept seven clean sheets in their last 10 games, a period which has seen FPL’s top-scoring goalkeeper Jordan Pickford (£4.9m) average 6.3 points per start.

It was by no means a classic on Sunday, but it’s another solid foundation for Everton to build on ahead of Thursday’s trip to Manchester City.

Jack Harrison (£5.2m) had the best chance of the game for the home side, who were once again without Dwight McNeil (£5.3m) due to injury and lost Ashley Young (£4.7m) to a one-match ban, having picked up his fifth caution of the season.

As for Chelsea, they consistently tried to find Cole Palmer (£11.2m) and Enzo Fernandez (£5.1m) in the pockets, but Everton successfully limited the space in between their defence and midfield, reducing both players’ impact.

When Chelsea did create, the chances mostly fell to Nicolas Jackson (£8.3m), who had a header that came back off the post, having earlier missed another golden opportunity to score.

“In general, you always struggle to create chances against them. We knew it would be a tough game in terms of clear chances. For sure we could have attacked better, but there was no space for Cole [Palmer]. In the last half-hour, we tried to move Enzo [Fernandez] into an attacking midfielder, with Malo [Gusto] next to Moi [Caicedo] to change something.

“Overall in this type of game, knowing you are not going to create many chances, you have to be clinical. First half, Nico [Jackson] had a one-v-one with the keeper, hit the post, and we had another two or three chances inside the box. If you are able to be clinical there and score, probably the game becomes different, but until that moment you’re going to struggle.” – Enzo Maresca

Enzo Maresca also praised his defensive unit, who kept their second clean sheet in five matches.

“Tosin was very good, Levi [Colwill] was very good. Rob [Sanchez] was there twice when we needed him. All the players defensively were very good. I’m happy for them. Clean sheet, we don’t concede. The way we showed togetherness was brilliant. We arrive to Christmas second in the table with the best attack and one of the best defences, so we are happy.” – Enzo Maresca

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