FPL notes: Haaland haul, Cherki unlucky + Reijnders’ threat

Erling Haaland (£15.0m) scored twice and provided an assist as Manchester City beat West Ham United 3-0 on Saturday.

Here are our scout notes from the Etihad Stadium.

HAALAND HAUL

Nearly a million Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers chose to use their Triple Captain chip on Haaland in Gameweek 17.

It’s fair to say he delivered.

The Norwegian found it just after five minutes of a lopsided encounter at the Etihad Stadium. He subsequently became a supplier Tijjani Reijnders (£5.2m), before an easy finish in the second half took his points tally to 16.

Haaland also almost scored a hat-trick late on, but dragged his low shot wide of the far post.

That was Haaland’s seventh try of the afternoon, with four of those efforts deemed ‘big chances’ by Opta, the most he has had in a single match all season.

“I always have to thank Erling [Haaland] for the goals, but today thanks to him and Phil [Foden] and Nico O’Reilly helped us a lot to create these types of games.” – Pep Guardiola

CHERKI ACCIDENT

With Haaland at the top, Rayan Cherki (£6.5 million) and Phil Foden (£8.9m) functioned as a dual number 10 at the back in a 4-3-2-1 formation.

Cherki played a key role in many of City’s best attacks and was unlucky not to return after creating three big chances for his teammates.

If he had stayed on the pitch longer (he was substituted in the 67th minute), he could certainly have increased his clean sheet/bonus point.

Above: Rayan Cherki’s key pass card against West Ham

As for Foden, his good form came to an end when he netted for the first time in five Gameweeks.

Remarkably, it was Foden’s cross that found Haaland in the box for the opener, with the Norwegian scoring from the rebound after his first effort was saved.

REIJNDERS’ THREAT

Instead, Reijnders came out on top among the City midfielders.

He scored the second goal on Saturday for a total of eight points, after previously shooting directly at goal Alfonso Areola (£4.3m) from an advantageous position in the box.

I recently returned to base, partly due to the absence of… Jeremy Doku (£6.5m), Reijnders scored some very threatening points from behind against West Ham, even if he wasn’t always found by his teammates.

City have now scored at least three goals in each of their last five Premier League matches, while keeping a clean sheet in each of the last three.

Discussing the next steps, Pep Guardiola said:

“The next step is hopefully to have Rodri back and we have to do a lot of things better. You can’t forget Jeremy.” [Doku], [Mateo] Kovacic, Rodri and Omar Marmoush are not there. Rayan Ait-Nouri is not there, but we need him because Nico O’Reilly cannot play in his role for 90 minutes every game.” – Pep Guardiola

WEST HAM ARM

Nuno Espirito Santo made three changes to the side that was beaten by Aston Villa last time out, with Max Kilman (£4.2 million), Kyle Walker Peters (£4.2 million) and Ollie Scarles (£4.3 million) comes into the base.

The latter two replaced the AFCON duo Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.2 million) and El Hadji Malick Diouf (£4.1m) but looked rusty throughout.

The main problem, however, was the lack of goal threat.

Jarrod Bowen (£7.6 million) shot wide when 2-0 down Crysencio Summerville (£5.5m) took up some dangerous positions on the left, but apart from a brief period early in the second half, West Ham looked flat.