Liverpool made it 10 goals in little more than 72 hours with a 4-1 pasting of Newcastle United in Saturday’s late kick-off.
Here’s what we saw – and who we didn’t see – at Anfield.
BRUNO LATEST + WHY MILEY AND BOTMAN WERE BENCHED
Having been an unused substitute against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, Bruno Guimaraes (£7.2m) was absent entirely for Newcastle’s annual defeat on Merseyside.
The fitness issues didn’t end there. Two of the players dropping down to the bench, Lewis Miley (£4.5m) and Sven Botman (£4.9m), couldn’t feature because of injury scares of their own.
“Sven had a tight thigh and we were under the advice not to use him. The reason they were here and on the bench is because we were giving them every opportunity to declare themselves fit. And, of course, in the warm-up, they might have felt different. The recovery time [between games] is so small, you don’t always get the information that you need and the speed that you need it. With Lewis, he couldn’t bend his knee the sufficient angles to declare himself fit.” – Eddie Howe on Lewis Miley and Sven Botman
There’s a “chance” we could see all three available for selection in Wednesday’s EFL Cup semi-final, second-leg tie against Manchester City.
“I’d say probably the best chances we have would be Sven and Lewis, who were on the bench today. Bruno, I’m not 100% sure whether he’ll make it or not – there’s a chance. The others, no.” – Eddie Howe on whether Newcastle may get anyone back for midweek
WHY GORDON STARTED UP FRONT
Newcastle had £134m-worth of forwards on the bench, with Eddie Howe instead opting for Anthony Gordon (£7.3m) up front. Harvey Barnes (£6.1m) and Anthony Elanga (£6.5m) flanked him.
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Howe explained his thinking after full-time.
“We wanted to go for real pace today against their backline. So, that was the idea behind the selection. I think Anthony [Gordon] played really well today. Not just his goal, but his all-round play, his running ability, his athleticism was excellent and his technical ability. So, I thought he individually played really well and I think it helped the team and I think we gave them a a problem.” – Eddie Howe
The tactic was successful at first, with Gordon slotting an energetic (initially!) Newcastle into a 36th-minute lead. Barnes had earlier hit the post from a free-kick and the visitors were decent value for, if not superiority, certainly parity.
Then, a collapse that an England cricket team would be proud of. Goals number two – Newcastle undone by one simple pass from distance – and four – Nick Pope (£5.1m) dropping the ball from a corner – were especially dire from a Magpies perspective.
Newcastle were better than the 4-1 scoreline suggested (1.61-0.29 Statsbomb xG and 1.95-0.33 Opta xG) but, whether it was naively chasing the game or the effects of Wednesday’s exertions in Paris, ultimately well beaten. Liverpool ended up 7-0 ahead on big chances, six of them coming from minute 40 onwards.
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The Magpies are best left well alone in FPL at present. As we discussed last week, they’re the busiest Premier League team from now until March. Rotation will be frequent, and the league fixtures themselves are not great:
A team to revisit perhaps for the run-in; there’s a decent chance they might be out of all three cup competitions by then:
FA Cup: Away at Aston Villa in round four
EFL Cup: 2-0 down to Man City after the first leg of their semi-final
Champions League: Will play Barcelona or Chelsea in the last 16 if they get past Qarabag in the play-offs
EKITIKE DELIVERS
A Hugo Ekitike (£8.8m) goal (or two) had been overdue, with 14 shots arriving without success over his previous three goalless starts.
The Frenchman finally married good underlying numbers with actual FPL returns against Newcastle, scoring a quickfire double for his third brace of 2025/26. There could have been other/further returns, too, with big chances missed on either side of his first-half salvo. He was top in the Premier League for shots (six) and xG (1.06, Opta) on Saturday.
It’s now an impressive 10 goals in 15 league starts for Ekitike.
Game-time has been a source of worry lately, with the fixtures piling up and Cody Gakpo (£7.3m) and Mohamed Salah (£14.0m) able to offer relief up top. But, with no Champions League play-off to be concerned about, can Ekitike get through the following league run without too much minute management? Gameweek 26 will be the first hurdle but perhaps any rotation could wait for the FA Cup fourth round:
🤜F I X T U R E C R U S H🤛
GW23 — GW29
💚 5+ full days recovery between matches
💚 4 days
💛 3 days 😳
❤️ 2 days🥴#FixtureCrushMatrix#WeAreHere #FPL #GW24 pic.twitter.com/qCo9yynFor
— Legomané (@Legomane_FPL) January 31, 2026
As for the twinkle-toed Florian Wirtz (£8.3m), he just improves with every week. FPL’s form midfielder (below, based on points per match over the last 30 days), he teed up Ekitike’s first goal before sweeping in a Salah pass to net Liverpool’s third.
“I’ve tried to explain why it was difficult for them to play earlier in the season every three days again, and now they are able to do that, because they can keep going. They can play more often together, we can play more often with the same team or same combinations and, as last season has shown, the more you can play together, the better it is.” – Arne Slot on Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike
SZOBOSZLAI AT RIGHT-BACK – AND WHY HE DIDN’T GET AN ASSIST
A shift to right-back didn’t go too badly for Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.7m) owners. The extra off-the-ball work meant he banked defensive contribution (DefCon) points for the fifth time this season, and there was even a bonus point thrown in for his efforts.
It almost got even better in stoppage time when his corner was dropped by Pope to Ibrahima Konate (£5.4m), who bobbled in Liverpool’s fourth for the night.
Why no assist for Szoboszlai? The number of defensive touches. It turns out that Pope’s fumble also touched Malick Thiaw (£5.1m) before reaching Konate, thus denying the Hungarian an attacking return. As per the rules…
Further up the right flank, Salah again started and again saw plenty of minutes. It’s a long way back to FPL contention given his price and the form of Wirtz as a cheaper alternative, but he could have easily had his own double-digit haul here when prodding a big chance wide in the second half.
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