There are two more of Saturday’s Premier League matches to get through as we continue our Gameweek 10 Scout Notes.
This time, it’s Nottingham Forest 2-2 Manchester United and Fulham 3-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers.
DYCHE’S FOREST
After a poor display at Bournemouth last weekend, Nottingham Forest produced a better performance on Saturday.
Slowly, we’re beginning to see Sean Dyche’s imprint. Forest’s possession rate of 40% on Saturday was their lowest of the season. The matches in which the Tricky Trees have attempted the most long balls were Gameweeks 9 and 10, Dyche’s first two league fixtures in charge. The same goes for aerial duels.
It sounds like back to basics for Forest, then, although when asked about the ongoing (domestic) clean sheet drought, he was quick to point out the task at hand.
“When I spoke to the owner, I said, ‘Look, we haven’t got magic wand, we haven’t got magic dust’. This is a process which he understands. I can’t change everything.
“There’s other stats [beyond the lack of clean sheets]. I said in the media, just to bring a bit of reality to the turnaround, it is 16 games, 13 goals before we came in. It’s not like it’s just you flick a switch and oh, you win 10 on the trot. I hope we do but it’s not normally like that. There’s a lot to be done here.
“We’ve got to correct all of that and stop it going in at that end and put it in at that end!” – Sean Dyche
Forest didn’t give too much away to United. Casemiro‘s (£5.5m) headed opener came from a corner that should never have been, while Amad Diallo‘s (£6.3m) equaliser was a superb volley from distance.
The closest United came to another goal was when Bruno Fernandes (£8.9m) struck the post from 30 yards out and Casemiro couldn’t convert the rebound. Amad also had a shot cleared off the line but, come full-time, Ruben Amorim’s side hadn’t carved out one Opta-defined ‘big chance’. It was better from Forest defensively, and possibly a sign of more sturdy displays to come, although that set-piece weakness could do with ironing out.
Dyche's Forest
At the other end, quickfire goals from Morgan Gibbs-White (£7.3m) and Nicolo Savona (£4.5m) overturned United’s early lead.
IN PRAISE OF ANDERSON
Murillo (£5.3m) and Elliot Anderson (£5.3m) banking DefCon points. Nikola Milenkovic (£5.2m) looking threatening from set plays. Gibbs-White, who had been poor in 2025/26, shining in the ’10’ role.
It all sounds very ‘last season’, and most FPL managers would welcome a return to the Nuno golden era – especially with Forest players cheaper now after several price drops.
Among the assets haemorrhaging owners is Anderson, whose ownership has halved since Gameweek 1.
He was brilliant on Saturday, and at £5.3m, you wonder how long it’ll be before he starts to rekindle Fantasy interest. He’s back on corners now, while he registered two shots and three chances created against United.
But it’s that DefCon potential that keeps us coming back – he’s hit 10 or more contributions in every single game this season:
Dyche's Forest
“He’s got to learn the nuts and bolts positionally, but he’s a very good player. He deals with the ball well. He’s got a really good attitude, I like him. He’s got that nice nature about him. He moans a lot, but I’ve already slaughtered him about that. We’ll get that out of him but he moans in a good way. He’s a really good player and like I say, learning as he goes about the Premier League, positionally, the nuts and bolts of it, but he’s a very good player.” – Sean Dyche on Elliot Anderson
ANOTHER NEAR-MISS FOR BRUNO
United didn’t quite hit the heights of previous weeks but they weren’t bad here either and prolonged their unbeaten run.
Bruno assisted Casemiro’s goal, although he left more points on the table – he’s twice hit the woodwork this season.
Fernandes, Matheus Cunha (£7.9m) and Bryan Mbeumo (£8.3m), while quieter than in Gameweek 9, all had their moments and created 11 chances between them at the City Ground. But for a poor bit of control from Benjamin Sesko (£7.3m), Mbeumo might have had an assist; the Cameroon international had played the Slovenian striker in with a glorious, curled through-ball.
Not vintage United, then, but progress from last season in so much as they didn’t collapse when going 2-1 down.
“In the second half, we suffer a disconnect for five minutes and that is enough in the Premier League. We managed to recover from that and that is a good feeling.” – Ruben Amorim
You’re certainly playing your United attackers next weekend after witnessing Tottenham Hotspur’s latest awful home display.
NOT MANY TAKEAWAYS AS PEREIRA GETS THE BOOT
Saturday’s game at Craven Cottage was one of those matches where meaningful FPL takeaways are limited.
For Fulham, they will not get an easier test than this all season: facing the worst team in the division, at home, and with a man advantage for an hour or so. Let’s see what the Cottagers are made of when they meet Sunderland, Manchester City and Crystal Palace in the next five Gameweeks.
As for Wolves, they will have a new manager at the helm come Gameweek 11 after the dismissal of Vitor Pereira. A new formation, new favoured personnel, new approaches. Pereira used 22 different players in his starting XI this season, with Saturday seeing both Andre (£5.4m) and Joao Gomes (£5.4m) benched. He was turning to increasingly bemusing selections to wrestle Wolves out of this winless funk, with very little success. In the end, it was hard to argue against his sacking, as likeable as he is.
SESSEGNON HAULS – ALBEIT AS A MIDFIELDER
As for the game itself, there was very little of note in the first 35 minutes bar Ryan Sessegnon‘s (£5.4m) opener. A simple pass through the middle took two Wolves players out of the equation with preposterous ease, with Raul Jimenez (£6.2m) feeding the eye-catchingly advanced Sessegnon – playing from left-back – to score.
Then, Emmanuel Agbadou’s (£4.3m) red card. The centre-half received his marching orders for denying the recalled Josh King (£4.5m) an “obvious goalscoring opportunity”, and that was that. Game over, even though it took Fulham a while to press home their numerical superiority. A first half that ended 4-4 for shots certainly wasn’t a great advert for the Cottagers’ attack.
It was one-way traffic after the interval as 10-man Wolves wilted, with Harry Wilson (£5.2m) scoring from the edge of the box and Sessegnon forcing an own-goal. Sessegnon hauled here with a 14-point return but think of the damage he could have done as an FPL defender…
There was plenty of stat-padding: Wilson had five shots, Alex Iwobi (£6.5m) registered five chances created, and right-back Kenny Tete (£4.5m) took up some promising positions, firing off three efforts of his own.
All of it, though, has to carry the big disclaimer that it was against a rock-bottom club who’d had a man sent off. Such was the ease of Fulham’s afternoon that none of their FPL defenders, not even the fit-again DefCon magnet Joachim Andersen (£4.5m), had to make more than four defensive contributions.
Tactically, it was interesting to see Silva drop one of his defensive midfielders (partly influenced by injury) and shift Iwobi back into an ‘eight’ role. That allowed the tricky Kevin (£6.0m) to come in on the left flank, although all that wing wizardry – a massive 10 take-ons – amounted to zero shots and zero chances created.
Little wonder that the Fulham boss mentioned “end product” when discussing the winger’s display.