We continue to run through the Gameweek 13 Scout Notes at terrifying leg speeds as we prepare for a very quick turnaround in Fantasy deadlines.
Our final write-ups: Manchester City 3-2 Leeds United and Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Fulham.
FODEN FLING
Phil Foden (£8.1m) has received plaudits for his performances this season but they hadn’t translated into serious FPL returns until Saturday.
In fact, his previous eight Premier League starts had garnered only one assist – and zero goals.
That all changed in Gameweek 13 thanks to a brace and a 15-point haul. Drifting into the box to score in the first minute from a Matheus Nunes (£5.3m) cross, he then twice went close before grabbing a 90th-minute winner. Brilliant timing for those who recruited him on a Free Hit.
The start of a run of form or just a one-off haul against a team ranked 19th for away results?
Foden hadn’t had a single big chance in 2025/26 until last week but the sight of him arriving into the Newcastle United box was encouraging. He backed that up with another blended performance of deeper probing and penalty area dashes on Saturday.
Gameweeks 12 and 13 have been his best two weeks for xG this season. Thanks to this boost, he’s now up with the midfield leaders for expected goal involvement (xGI) in the last six Gameweeks:
Goal threat was the one missing piece of the puzzle. Already back in Pep Guardiola’s good books (this was his 10th successive league start), visibly enjoying his football and creating plenty from both open play and corners, we just needed some quality chances of his own. If he can keep this up, he’ll be as desirable as he was in 2023/24.
“I agree with Thomas [Tuchel]. I like to play Phil behind the striker, close to the box. The guys who have this sense of goal have to be close to the ball. But sometimes, you know, can be wide and be another player more inside. But I like Phil in central positions.” – Pep Guardiola on Phil Foden
POINTS-DODGING
Foden aside, several Cityzens left points on the table on Saturday. No more so than Nico O’Reilly (£5.1m), who at least banked an assist for City’s second goal, bundled in by Josko Gvardiol (£5.8m).
That came from one of two close-range headers that O’Reilly had (pictured below), neither of which he made a satisfactory connection with.
He came agonisingly close to an assist before Gvardiol’s strike, too, only for Foden’s goalbound shot to be blocked.
Since his first league start in Gameweek 4, no defender can better O’Reilly’s xGI figure of 2.91.
Elsewhere, Gvardiol missed another good headed chance to deny Foden an assist, while Jeremy Doku (£6.6m) saw O’Reilly and substitute Omar Marmoush (£8.3m) spurn excellent headed opportunities from pinpoint crosses he’d sent in. Tijjani Reijnders (£5.3m), recalled at the expense of Rayan Cherki (£6.4m), whistled an effort narrowly over and, like Foden, had a goalbound shot blocked by a last-ditch defensive challenge.
You’ll notice we’ve not mentioned Erling Haaland (£14.9m) yet. That’s successive blanks for the Norwegian, who was very quiet and reduced to just one headed effort on Saturday. Is this the start of his annual winter tail-off? It’s too early to be proclaiming that; muted as he was against Leeds, he had some glorious chances a week earlier on Tyneside.
DONNARUMMA NEARS BAN + WHY GUDMUNDSSON WAS BENCHED
Gianluigi Donnarumma (£5.7m) compensated for the clean sheet loss with a penalty save on Saturday, although he was beaten by Lukas Nmecha‘s (£5.0m) rebound.
One thing to note for FPL managers interested in his services: he’s now one booking away from a ban. The Italian has to get through the next six Gameweeks without another caution to avoid that fate.
As for Leeds, Nmecha netted for the third successive Gameweek despite that penalty miss.
Battered in the first half, the visitors somehow came back from 2-0 down to restore parity through substitute Dominic Calvert-Lewin‘s (£5.5m) lucky strike and Nmecha’s leveller.
It was interesting to see Leeds perform better in a lesser-spotted 3-5-2/5-3-2 in the second half (above), with Calvert-Lewin alongside Nmecha.
“It’s always possible. So, we are always prepared also to play in a 3-5-2, but I think would be would be also too easy to just reduce it to this.” – Daniel Farke
Gabriel Gudmundsson (£4.0m) lost his ever-present starting record, with James Justin (£3.9m) coming in. Justin hobbled off in the second half but Farke said it was just a knock and that there was no injury concern, adding that his withdrawal was pre-planned.
“We have conceded over on our left side too many goals in the last games. Also to do with the set-up right now: we have three games against top sides within seven days. We will rotate there naturally a bit more often than we would do in a normal week.” – Daniel Farke on Gabriel Gudmundsson’s benching
MORE HOME DISCOMFORTS FOR SPURS
Spurs’ disastrous home form reached a nadir on Saturday when Fulham, who were winless on the road, came to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and emerged with all three points.
The total Statsbomb xG (1.15-0.29) made it look like the Lilywhites were unlucky. But the race chart below gives more context: Fulham were dominant early on, raced into a 2-0 lead, and didn’t have to attack thereafter. They could and should have been 3-0 up, indeed, with the impressive Samuel Chukwueze (£5.3m) cracking the upright and then racing through on goal only to be denied by a superb Micky van de Ven (£4.8m) tackle.
Spurs, by contrast, mustered only two shots in the first half. There was improvement after the break, with Mohammed Kudus (£6.5m) lashing in a well-taken consolation, but it was hardly an onslaught. Even their supposed big chances weren’t that clear-cut: Randal Kolo Muani (£6.9m) headed narrowly wide under pressure, while his final effort of the game – Spurs’ highest xG shot – was a far-from-straightforward backheel.
Ranked 19th for home results (they’ve only beaten Burnley in north London) and also 19th for xG on their own turf, it’s probably a relief that they’re away in four of their next six fixtures:
But how much can venue really transform their performances when morale is sagging? At least the in-house booing – Guglielmo Vicario (£5.0m) was barracked on Saturday – won’t be so obvious away from home. But with continued muddled team selections from Thomas Frank (this time it was a lopsided 4-2-2-2), it’s asking a lot for the ‘Jekyll’ to continue on the road.
CHUKWUEZE IMPRESSES
We’ve already mentioned Chukwueze a few times in these notes. After a promising cameo in Gameweek 12, he was lively in this his first-ever Premier League start.
Deployed on the left in place of Kevin (£5.8m), it was Chukwueze who jinked and fed Kenny Tete (£4.5m) for Fulham’s deflected opener. Those aforementioned shots of his own saw him come close to a real haul.
Unfortunately for him and Fulham, he’s off to AFCON very soon – so he’s a Fantasy non-starter by the time the Cottagers’ fixtures improve in Gameweek 16:
Harry Wilson (£5.2m) did what he does best and finished superbly for Fulham’s second goal, a curling effort from the touchline after Vicario had gone walkies. Joshua King (£4.5m) teed up Wilson for that strike; that was the budget midfielder’s first-ever FPL return.
At the back, more DefCon joy: all four of the defence banked defensive contribution points. Joachim Andersen (£4.5m) has now delivered DefCon points in nine of his 12 starts – and one of the other three appearances was curtailed by injury after 38 minutes!
