EPL Supercoach Gameweek 2 Wrap: 7 things we learnt


<p>High-scoring week thanks to Bruno &amp; Haaland &#8211; and my overall assessment is that there’s been no disastrous starting picks to this point &#8211; Palestra as a cheapie that hasn’t played yet is fine &#8211; Tonali &amp; Santos are easily movable &amp; Mbeumo was solid enough despite the fact he’ll cost me a trade this week &amp; missed one of the clearest-cut chances you’ll ever see.</p>



<p>Up at 1,400 overall after two weeks &#8211; frustrating that with the greedy captaincy play that I pulled on Bruno Fernandes last week would have paid off this week and we’d be right up amongst the leaders.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Here’s what we learned from a high-scoring weekend!</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>1. Deadline Day has put some highly owned options on rotation notice</strong></h3>



<p>This is most relevant in regard to City players &#8211; including <strong>Rayan Cherki</strong> &#8211; who, despite his strong week, is beyond a rotation risk with their late flurry of signings &#8211; see also <strong>Nico O’Reilly &amp; Phil Foden.</strong> </p>



<p><strong>Cristhian Mosquera</strong>’s potential injury means <strong>Ezri Konsa</strong> is all but guaranteed to take his spot &#8211; if you want to hold for the price rise &#8211; great &#8211; if you’re needing to recover after a slow start, it’s time to throw him in if not this week, next week &#8211; take <strong>Lewis-Skelly</strong>’s price-rise if you want to stay Arsenal &#8211; otherwise the Hull City bailout is there.</p>



<p><strong>Oscar Bobb</strong>’s slow start has been further hurt by Fulham’s signing of <strong>Manuel Angel</strong> from Real Madrid &#8211; competing for his spot and no longer a guaranteed starter. Should be in your trade-out plans.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>2. Arsenal Defenders Good &#8211; Arsenal Attack… Meh</strong></h3>



<p>The performance against Villa was a bit of a warm welcome to the Arsenal experience for those dipping their toe into the Premier League for the first time. </p>



<p>Two clean sheets (despite Buendia hitting the bar) &#8211; and Arsenal very efficiently managing their way through a game against tricky opposition. </p>



<p>Great for their backline and goalkeeper &#8211; a risk to hold anyone else &#8211; particularly with the depth of the squad.</p>



<p><strong>Christos Tzolis </strong>looks a good signing &#8211; but a BE of 10 means he’s a lost cause for cash generation early &amp; taking up one of those forward spots is going to cost you points &amp; rank now.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Martin Odegaard </strong>saw so much of the ball and had enough set-piece responsibility to keep me encouraged on his potential to score consistently this season. </p>



<p>A big chance for a bigger score against Chelsea this weekend, who haven’t quite figured out how to defend yet &#8211; even with Emi Martinez replacing the now departed (and sadly missed for lovers of goalkeeping gaffs) Robert Sanchez.</p>



<p><strong>Havertz </strong>&amp; <strong>Saka </strong>owners look safe to hold for now &#8211; but I think there will be better value for money out there in the not too distant future.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>3. Chelsea’s frontline are the most exciting in the competition</strong></h3>



<p>They are not only fun to watch but are not playing European football this season, and Xabi Alonso seems to have decided to throw caution to the wind.</p>



<p>My big think this week is if I could find a way to bring in Palmer and one of Rogers or Pedro before the price rises because I think they’re going to stick fairly close to 100. </p>



<p>Have a listen to the podcast to hear me wrestle with just how I get there, but there will be at least one of <strong>Palmer, Rogers &amp; Pedro </strong>will be into my side this week. </p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>4. Hull City Safe to Trade In &#8211; but only with Intent</strong></h3>



<p>Cash generation opportunities abound after a really bright spot, and this run of 3-games is a real litmus test for this team, so without jumping on with reckless abandon, I think there’s one or two moves that could make sense here &#8211; especially as short-term plays.</p>



<p>I was worried about <strong>Semi Ajayi</strong>’s potential injury, but 90 strong minutes against Coventry have encouraged me. </p>



<p><strong>John Egan, </strong>in my eyes, could be an even better move as a proven performer at Premier League level previously (albeit not a massive SC scorer). </p>



<p>Be ready to jump right back off, though &#8211; Arsenal are the only clear endgame in terms of defenders at the moment.  </p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>5. Newcastle &#8211; now or never</strong></h3>



<p>Not only have the Magpies started hot, but the fixture opens up for them over the next two months before the fixture congestion hits, and I think they’ll begin to dip.</p>



<p>For now though &#8211; their attack is particularly exciting, and <strong>Elanga </strong>is a terrific sideways move from Tzolis or Martinelli.</p>



<p>I’m less keen on <strong>Amar Dedic </strong>with Tino Livramento slowly returning to the picture &#8211; Hull City players with guaranteed minutes are better cash grab options at the same price.</p>



<p>Don’t expect it to be smooth sailing for the Magpies the entirety of the season though &#8211; a squad that lacks depth is bound to dip slightly, and their run into November/December becomes tricky as those games start to build up.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>6. Results are not all as they seem&nbsp;</strong></h3>



<p>Two best examples of this over the weekend on the positive and negative front. </p>



<p>Manchester United played one of the more sluggish 1st hours of football of the season and were extremely fortunate to not be further behind in their 5-2 win over Ipswich, and their defence looks particularly ropey. </p>



<p><strong>Senne Lammens </strong>was sensational either side of the opening goal, but you absolutely can not move for him unless Carrick finds a way to tidy up their defence &amp; <strong>Maguire, Yoro, Dorgu </strong>owners should be moving them on asap.</p>



<p><strong>Andrey Santos </strong>should also be on your trading block given how superb his replacement Kobbie Mainoo was against Ipswich.</p>



<p>In contrast &#8211; Spurs &#8211; despite the banter starting back up &#8211; were unfortunate not to be ahead against Newcastle at half-time and were vastly improved from their first-up demolition by Brighton. </p>



<p><strong>Sandro Tonali </strong>looks like my route to <strong>Joao Pedro</strong> unfortunately &#8211; but I’d be surprised if I haven’t moved for a couple of their players if they find a way to turn things around in the Crystal Palace, Leeds, Ipswich run that’s coming their way.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>7. We’re flush with forward options this season</strong></h3>



<p>Contrast this to ‘25-26, where set-piece-scoring defenders &amp; midfielders ruled &#8211; last season 3 of the Top 20 scorers were forward players &#8211; in ‘24-25 that number was 8 &amp; I think we could be headed down a similar route this year with teams set up to throw numbers forward with reckless abandon.</p>



<p>My endgame there at this point I think will be Pedro, Haaland &amp; Isak, but there are a heap of POD options developing &#8211; <strong>Rogers, Lewis-Potter, Thierno Barry, Gonzalo Garcia </strong>all look regularly capable of finding the back of the net against teams that like to press high but don’t have a particularly well set rest defences.</p>



<p>52 goals were scored in the first 2 weeks of last season &#8211; we’ve had 62 already this year. </p>



<p>A return to the key forward days of old looks to be on the cards &#8211; albeit with an extremely small sample size.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Trades and captains</strong></h3>



<p>IN &#8211; Sangare &amp; Rogers</p>



<p>OUT &#8211; Santos &amp; Mbeumo</p>



<p>VC &#8211; Wirtz (vs Ipswich) &#8211; also like Isak, but taking a punt.</p>



<p>C &#8211; Haaland (vs Coventry)</p>


EPL Supercoach Gameweek 2 Wrap: 7 things we learnt

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