Saturday’s two kickoffs at 3pm weren’t the sexiest on paper, but they produced seven goals, a 15-point strike from a defender and plenty of defensive contribution points (DefCon).
Disconnect Everton 2-0 Fulham And West Ham United 3-2 Burnleyhere are our latest Gameweek 11 Scout Notes.
WHY O’BRIEN + KING WERE SUBS
Both managers made one change each at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
David Moyes came in, somewhat surprisingly Irogbunam team (£4.9 million) for Jake O’Brien (£4.9 million). Saw that change James Garner (£5.0m) will be right back.
Garner still finished as the best shooter in this match – even though three of his four attempts were direct free kicks!
Moyes explained his thoughts after full-time.
“We didn’t need a big change, but I could have made big changes. I thought Jimmy would give me a bit more quality on the ball from the position at times. It meant I would be short of length in a way, which was a concern for me on set pieces, that we could come up short. As it was, today we scored the goal from one. We defended one. The clean sheet was great.”
“I just felt like having Jimmy as a right back might have made us play that little bit better.” – David Moyes on starting James Garner at right-back
As far as Fulham are concerned, their only change affected the player who had the most ownership. Jos Koning (£4.5m), which gave way to Now Lukic (£5.0 million).
Marco Silva was not asked specifically about his decision to bench King, but the Fulham boss hinted at the reasoning after the match: physicality. It would make sense as King’s previous line-up was against a robust Newcastle United team.
“The physicality of the game – at times he knows how to deal with it. At other times, without the ball, it obviously causes more problems for him. But of course he is a player who has been very good all season so far. Nothing new this afternoon.” – Marco Silva on Josh King
The good news for his owners is that his introduction has sparked Fulham into some semblance of life, if not a comeback. Lukic is also banned from Gameweek 12.
KEANE vs. TARKOWSKY
Everton were the deserved winners here, finishing best on shots (14 v 8) and xG (see below). Three goals were even disallowed for offside.
There was no joy for the man of the moment, Indian education (£6.6 million), this time. Echoing what we wrote after his goal on Monday, he will need to continually outperform the poor underlying numbers to maintain his performance: he had zero or one chance in eight of his 11 starts in 2025/26. There was one of those on Saturday.
And if you have two failed attackers at the end of your created chances, don’t expect too many assists. Ndiaye created an excellent chance for Thierno Barry (£5.7 million) against Fulham, which was predictably rejected. Barry was at least slightly better here, and was one of those denied by an offside flag.
Overtaking Ndiaye to become Everton’s top FPL points scorer was Michael Keane (£4.5 million).
The centre-back, who was maligned for much of his Toffees career but has been outstanding this season, nodded in Everton’s second to add to his clean sheets.
“Michael Keane has been brilliant. A great professional. You don’t often come away from matches questioning Michael Keane. If anything you come away praising him.” – David Moyes
Keane follows the more expensive one James Tarkowski (£5.4m) for defensive contributions (not so much – 9.73 vs 10.36 per 90 minutes), but has outscored his centre-back 9-2 this season. Tarkowski, we must point out, hit the crossbar before Everton’s opener and had a goal waved away for offside.
FULHAM IN FREE FALL
Fulham’s victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend carried the big disclaimer that it was against a rock-bottom club that had a man sent off.
And sure enough, the Cottagers were terrible on Saturday.
That win in Gameweek 10 is their only positive result in the past six Gameweeks. It is also only Wolves that are ahead in the form table:
Above: The bottom five of the six-match Premier League form table, via Football statistics
There have been some tough opponents in that time (Arsenal, for example), but the fact that they bossed a mediocre Everton side is the biggest concern.
“Disappointing result for us, but more than the result, very disappointing performance. We definitely got what we deserved from the match.” –Marco Silva
From an FPL perspective, there were some positives, such as the back four DefCon points. Joachim Andersen (£4.5m) now has 14 in 2025/26.
But beyond that, a trip to Fulham in Gameweek 12 now looks like a favorable fit for the in-form Sunderland signings.
The rush hour situation is certainly a reason to play Nordi Mukiele (£4.2m) et al if you own it. Rodrigo Muniz (£5.4m) came off injured after coming on as a substitute himself Raul Jimenez (£6.2m) has a tricky problem. Silva said after the match that the Mexican had not trained properly for “15 days”.
“Probably bad news for us if a player comes in and we have to take him off after ten, fifteen minutes. That’s not a good sign.”
“He felt something again in the same leg, in the same area of the hamstring. Obviously it doesn’t look good for us. Let’s watch in the coming hours and days to analyze him. Was 50/50 something felt/was a precaution.” – Marco Silva on Rodrigo Muniz
PAQUETA BAN + £4.4m POTTS INJURY UPDATE
A victory for West Ham came with a prize Lucas Paqueta (£5.9 million) picked up his fifth booking of the season. He will miss Gameweek 12.
Meanwhile, FPL’s cheapest starting midfielder at the moment is, Freddie Potts (£4.4m), came off injured on the hour mark.
However, it doesn’t sound like a serious problem.
‘He has a dead leg, I think [he will be okay]. I think it was very painful now, but with ice he will recover.” – Nuno Espirito Santo on Freddie Potts
Potts collected DefCon points and stood on the corner here before limping out of the action.
MANAGERS DEFEND BOWEN + DUBRAVKA
West Ham and Burnley’s most owned players had poor games by their high standards.
Jarrod Bowen (£7.7m) is rarely absent from the races for West Ham, but that was the case on Saturday. His goalless streak now stretches to five games, adding to the frustration Kyle Walker Peters (£4.3m) stealing a Bowen tap-in by a millisecond:
Meanwhile, FPL’s most owned goalkeeper, Martin Dubravka (£4.0m), had a difficult afternoon and was partly responsible for West Ham goals numbers two and three. They weren’t major mistakes, just parries that he might have done better with.
Both managers jumped to the defense of their players.
“It doesn’t matter. Jarrod has given us so much. It doesn’t matter. He’s going to score.” – Nuno Espirito Santo on Jarrod Bowen
“He has done exceptionally well and Martin is the last person I would really criticize here. He got us out of some big moments and got us the three points against Wolves.”
“And there were no glaring mistakes, but I think Martin would be the first [to admit]. His standards are so high and he is such a top goalkeeper that he might have wanted to do a little better. That was not the case. So one of those days.” – Scott Parker on Martin Dubravka
NOT A GOOD ADVERTISEMENT FOR BOTH TEAMS?
A second win in a row for West Ham increased confidence, but it was not really convincing. More than 80% of what looked like a healthy xG total came from their three goals, all efforts aided by deflections or weak parries that fell into the path of goalscorers Callum Wilson (£5.8 million), Touba (£5.7m) and Walker-Peters. Furthermore, they no longer created a big chance.
Crysencio Summerville (£5.5m) was perhaps the favorite of their attackers again, with Soucek finishing the game up front!
As for Burnley, Zian Fleming (£5.3m) has now scored three goals in as many league starts after Saturday’s cup opener.
Josh Cullen (£5.0m), who grabbed a stoppage-time consolation in East London, is now just a point behind Muhammad Salah (£14.2m) in FPL – although both of his goals in 2025/26 came from his only two shots in the penalty area.
Florentine (£5.0 million) and Maxime Esteve (£4.0m) are now in double figures for defensive contribution points, while still being cheaper Axel Tuanzebe (£3.9m) has delivered DefCon in three of his five starts.
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