DGW26 Thought Process: Triple captain Gabriel? All you need to know...

Meta, bullet headers, clean sheet potential and DEFCONs analysed

When I watched the extended highlights of that Fulham vs Everton game, I had to pause and chuckle.

Last week, I posted a snapshot of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s chance being denied by Bart Verbruggen in GW24:

And this week I had déjà vu.

Same run. Same cutback. Same first-time finish.

Only this time, with his stronger left foot, he put it past Bernd Leno, who had a few bodies in front of him and couldn’t reach the ball fully:

Less than ten minutes later, Leno managed only to punch Dewsbury-Hall’s corner into Fulham’s goal, which propelled my resurrected pick to a 13-point haul and my FPL team to a hefty 17-point green arrow.

All players bar Djordje Petrovič and Enzo Fernández did return (if you count a defensive contribution as a return—the jury is still out on that one), and the latter wasn’t too far from that, having produced 0.52 expected goals and 0.43 expected goals assisted from 3 shots and 3 key passes.

That was a much bigger output than Cole Palmer generated from open play during the game. 

Not only in terms of expected metrics closely tied to the final product, but also according to non-shot-based advanced models that show whether his touches with the ball move his team into better areas.

Despite him hauling after scoring a hat-trick (two penalties included), in terms of generating threat, he was still far from his performances in the previous two seasons. Later, he admitted that he’s battling this pain and constantly wondering what the next move would do to his groin: