There’s nothing like a midweek round of cup ties to wreck Fantasy Premier League (FPL) plans – and injuries were laying waste to some managers’ teams on Wednesday night.
Yes, it’s the EFL Cup: the scourge of the early transfer-maker.
There were 13 Premier League teams in Carabao Cup action over the last two days, eight of them progressing to the quarter-finals. That’ll be another fixture to cram in between Gameweeks 16 and 17.
We begin our Scout Notes round-up with Aston Villa 1-2 Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Manchester City.
RESULTS, GOALS + ASSISTS
TEAM SELECTION/ROTATION
SAVINHO BLOW, GVARDIOL CONCERN + CITY INJURY LATEST
With six players already out, Manchester City could ill-afford further injury blows. Almost inevitably, more arrived on Wednesday evening.
The scarcely believable bad luck continued. Manuel Akanji (£5.5m) pulled out of the starting XI in the warm-up, Savinho (£6.5m) was stretchered off and a slightly dazed-looking Josko Gvardiol (£6.2m) was down receiving treatment at full-time.
Pep Guardiola even suggested that Ruben Dias (£5.5m), who went off at half-time, was “struggling”.
“Akanji yesterday, didn’t know it, last action felt something miniscule in a muscular part of his body and today in the warm-up he didn’t feel good. He said, ‘No, I can take the risk’. I said, ‘Nuh-uh, no risk’.
“Ruben is struggling sometimes as well in some moments.” – Pep Guardiola
“The guys who played, finished most of them with problems. We’ll see how they recover.” – Pep Guardiola
“I don’t know, I didn’t speak. Every time I went in, [someone] was on the table [having] a massage so was too busy, too crowded! So I don’t know.” – Pep Guardiola on whether Josko Gvardiol has picked up an injury
“He has a knock in the 18-yard box, a potential penalty and we will see tomorrow what happen.
“We have to see if it was just a knock or something else. It was in the bone. Hopefully it’s nothing dangerous but we will see tomorrow.” – Pep Guardiola on Savinho
As for the pre-existing injuries, there’s not much hope of anyone recovering in time for Gameweek 11 let alone Gameweek 10.
“Kyle Walker, Jack Grealish – no chance to play the next games.” – Pep Guardiola to Sky Sports
“No [it’s not likely Walker or De Bruyne will be back this week]. I think after the international break. Three of them – Jack Grealish as well.” – Pep Guardiola in his post-match press conference
WHY HAALAND DIDN’T FEATURE
One City player escaping the carnage was Erling Haaland (£15.4m). A substitute in north London, he remained unused even with City attempting to overturn a 2-1 deficit.
Guardiola wasn’t taking any risks with the big Norwegian.
“The plan was not [to] play today. So, play a lot of minutes that we needed for this week, we have not [much] recovery, not [many] players and I didn’t want to waste energy for him.” – Pep Guardiola on Erling Haaland, to Sky Sports
“Tomorrow we have two ‘keepers and Erling Haaland to the a training session. The rest… we don’t have anything else.” – Pep Guardiola in his post-match press conference
LEWIS “TIRED” – BUT HAS TO PLAY
Rico Lewis‘s (£4.8m) minutes continue to look good as we approach Gameweek 10. As above, Kyle Walker (£5.3m) looks set to remain out until after the November international break.
What condition Lewis’ll be in at Bournmeouth is another question. Ninety minutes on Wednesday followed 90 on Saturday. There were four successive starts before the international break and one for England during it.
Fatigue may be setting in – but Lewis looks set to go again at the Vitality Stadium.
“Yeah.
“I cannot have an alternative. My captain is injured so I have no alternative.” – Pep Guardiola when a reporter suggested that Rico Lewis looks “exceptionally tired”
VAN DE VEN BLOW, ROMERO REASSURANCE
It wasn’t just City encountering fitness issues in north London.
Micky van de Ven (£4.7m) hobbled off after 14 minutes, while there were also concerns over the withdrawals of Cristian Romero (£5.1m) and Timo Werner (£6.2m).
Only van de Ven appears to be a worry, however.
“Micky felt something in his hamstring. I haven’t got the full update on him but he definitely felt something, so we’ll see how he is.
“Cuti [Romero] was a bit tired. I contemplated changing him at half-time, losing Micky as well I didn’t want to lose another centre-half. He said he felt ok but my gut was telling me there’s no point taking a risk as we had Benny [Davies] who could come on.
“Timo hasn’t played a lot so I felt it was more fatigue hopefully than anything else.” – Ange Postecoglou
Dominic Solanke (£7.7m) and Brennan Johnson (£6.7m), much like Lewis, looked out on their feet. Solanke completed the full game, with Johnson hooked midway through the second half.
A FOOTBALL MATCH BREAKS OUT
Amid all the carnage, there was the small matter of a football game taking place.
Spurs progressed to the quarter-finals, for what it’s worth. That at least gives City the consolation of a free midweek (their only one of the month) in mid-December.
Phil Foden (£9.3m) deputised for Haaland up front, firing over the best of his chances from 10 yards. He’ll not be leading the line in Gameweek 10 but given the extent of the injury crisis, he looks good for a start against Bournemouth.
Savinho and, again, Matheus Nunes (£4.9m) were the pick of the City attackers. The two wingers combined for the visitors’ only goal, crossed by the former and finished by the latter.
Spurs had their own on-song winger in… *checks notes*… Werner. Lively all evening, he lifted some weight off his shoulders with a fifth-minute opener. Will the floodgates now open? Maybe not – he went on to miss more good chances, including a one-on-one after the break.
Dejan Kulusevski (£6.3m), in central midfield again, claimed the assists for both of Spurs’ strikes.
Pedro Porro (£5.5m) and James Maddison (£7.6m) could put their feet up, remaining unused substitutes.
EZE INJURY BLOW
Fitness concerns weren’t just restricted to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
At Villa Park, visitors Crystal Palace lost both Eberechi Eze (£6.7m) and Adam Wharton (£4.8m) to first-half injuries. Wharton’s setback was a recurring groin issue but Eze is more of a worry, as a hamstring problem ended his evening early.
“It was a problem with his hamstring so I do not know how serious it is but a muscle is never the best injury that you can get. I hope that it is not too serious but I do not know.” – Oliver Glasner on Eberechi Eze, via Sky Sports
“I am more positive because it is nothing new. He had this groin problem for weeks and months now.” – Oliver Glasner on Adam Wharton, via Sky Sports
WATKINS + ROGERS RESTED
Unai Emery rotated everyone bar John McGinn (£5.2m) out of his starting XI for this one. The likes of Ezri Konsa (£4.5m), Lucas Digne (£4.7m), Morgan Rogers (£5.4m) and Ollie Watkins (£9.1m) got the night off altogether. Given the energy expended by Spurs, and the new injury blow at the back, Villa should be the fresher of the two sides come Sunday.
Even better for the regulars – their understudies were mostly average to poor. Tyrone Mings (£4.4m) and Boubacar Kamara (£5.0m) impressed after long-term absences, while Jhon Duran (£6.1m) was lively up top and scored yet again. Other than that, not great from the Villa B team.
Glasner went pretty much full strength by contrast, only rotating his goalkeepers.
Eze had opened the scoring before his exit, with replacement Daichi Kamada (£5.1m) netting the winner.
Daniel Munoz (£4.8m) teed up Eze for the first, one of four chances he supplied in an eye-catching showing. No surprise that he and the rest of the Palace backline are looking that bit more secure now that there is consistency of selection at the rear, something that Glasner was unable to do for the first seven Gameweeks.