We continue our midweek recap of Champions League action with a look at the Fantasy Premier League’s (FPL) key talking points following an impressive win over Newcastle United.
RESULT
| Team | Opponent – competition | Result | Goals | Assists |
| Newcastle United | PSV(u) | 3-0 win | Warn, Gordon, Barnes | Joelinton, Wis |
SELECTION/ROTATION
| Team | Number of starting XI changes made from GW22 | Players who retained their places (minutes played) | Minutes for other players |
| Newcastle United | 1 | Pope (90), Trippier (87), Thiaw (90), Botman (90), Hall (90). | Wissa (72), Miley (45), Ramsey (28), Woltemade (28), Elanga (28), Willock (3) |
FOR THREE FIRE
Eddie Howe’s selection of Harvey Barnes (£6.1 million), Yoane warned (£7.3 million) and Anthony Gordon (£7.5m) was rewarded with a goal from all three.
Eddie Howe selected a 4-3-3, with Wissa flanked by Gordon and Barnes, and their high-octane effort forced errors for each of the first two goals. Bruno Guimaraes (£7.3m) pounced on a poor clearance from goalkeeper Matej Kovar and sent a pass to Joelinton (£5.9m) to set up Wissa for a dream start to his Champions League debut in just nine minutes.
Wissa then chased down Yarek Gasiorowski, dispossessed him and set up Gordon for a simple tap-in on the half-hour mark. The match was never in doubt after that, Newcastle dominated on the xG 2.45 to 0.29.
“A really good performance from us. A difficult opponent, tactically difficult to play against.” We were rewarded with some really good goals today. A really good evening for Yoane Wissa and I am very happy for him. Partly he came to this club for nights like today.
– Eddie Howe at the Yoane Wissa exhibition
Their third goal came from another PSV error, with Barnes picking up an errant header, bursting into the area and firing a smart shot across goal for his fifth Champions League goal of the season.
Barnes is running a fantastic campaign. He is Newcastle’s top scorer with twelve goals. The only problem from an FPL point of view is that most of them have competed in other competitions; he has five in the English top flight.
Likewise, Gordon’s goal is both encouraging and frustrating for his owners. Only two of his nine goals this season have come in the Premier League. However, he made most of the recordings here. The England international fired three of Newcastle’s 11 attempts, compared to Wissa’s two and Barnes’.
BAD NEWS FOR BRUNO OWNERS – BUT GOOD FOR MILEY?
An injury to Newcastle’s captain somewhat rained on their parade. The Brazilian tried valiantly to carry on after taking a blow to the ankle in the first half, but Howe took him off before the half-time whistle and there must be doubts over his availability for the visit of Aston Villa on Sunday.
“Yeah, a little sore, it’s an ankle problem, a little swelling in his ankle after just seeing him. We hope it’s not serious, hard to know. I think Bruno is the type of player who never wants to drop out, he always wants to play, so the fact that he is gone worries us. We will do everything we can to get him fit as quickly as possible.” – Eddie Howe on Bruno Guimaraes’ injury
It goes without saying that an injury to Bruno will be a blow to his owners. The South American midfielder has achieved double-digit returns in three of the last four games and will be difficult to replace at his price point.
Lewis Miley (£4.5m), Bruno’s replacement, could now get a run of games with Bruno out. However, anyone considering him a budget difference should bear in mind that the games are starting to get tougher for the Magpies, with Villa (h), Liverpool (a), Brentford (h), Spurs (a) and Man City (a) next, not to mention PSG next week and Villa and Man City in the domestic cups.
STILL 90 MINUTES BEFORE THE ROOM – BUT THE SOLUTION IS ARRIVE SOON
Howe will at least be happy with the clean sheet, especially given the string of defensive injuries his side have suffered. Fabian Schar (£5.3 million), Tino Livramento (£4.9 million) and Then Burns (£5.0 million) have been sorely missed, but Malick Thiaw (£5.1m), which has been a bonus magnet of late, and Sven Botman (£4.9 million) were never actually threatened.
Lewis Hall (£5.3m) delivered another 9/10 display that is becoming the norm for him. Since Gameweek 16, he ranks second among defenders in terms of crosses delivered (40) and seventh in terms of chances created (eight). Patrick Dorgu (£4.3m) has produced more big chances than the Toon full-back’s two in that time. If Newcastle’s games were friendlier, Hall would be worth considering.
In any case, the cavalry arrive in the towering form of Burn, who is likely to fill in at both left-back and centre-back in the coming weeks. Burn is already back training and could be in the squad this weekend.
Expect Hall to get a breather in the near future.
“We have to manage him very carefully, but we are limited in our options to a certain extent because we don’t have a number of players in our backline.
“I think Lewis has done really well, I think he’s looking better and better. He can now last games, whereas when he first came back it was 60 minutes and you could see he was visibly getting tired.”
“He looks strong, but we don’t take that for granted and behind the scenes we are of course working very hard to keep him fit.” – Eddie Howe at Lewis Hall
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