Arsenal and Manchester City didn’t play a part in Blank Gameweek 31 – but we did see both sides at Wembley on Sunday.
Here are some Fantasy takeaways from City’s EFL Cup final win.
ARSENAL INJURY ROUND-UP
We start, as we so often do in our Scout Notes, with some injury updates.
Beginning with Arsenal, they were without the in-form Eberechi Eze (£7.2m). He has since pulled out of the England squad to be replaced by a teammate who had been in the international wilderness, Ben White (£5.1m).
“We have to do another scan in six or seven days and wait and see the results. Is it a leg injury. His calf.” – Mikel Arteta on Eberechi Eze
The Gunners were also without Jurrien Timber (£6.3m) at Wembley, although that was less of a surprise. He’s been sidelined since hobbling off in Gameweek 30.
We didn’t get an update from Mikel Arteta on the Dutchman but he has since been removed from the Netherlands squad for the March internationals. A statement from the Dutch national team says Timber “has not yet recovered sufficiently from an injury and is therefore not available for this international period”.
Finally from the Gunners, William Saliba (£6.1m) and Gabriel Magalhaes (£7.2m). Both did start in the EFL Cup final, and indeed lasted the full 90 minutes.
However, Saliba has now pulled out of the France squad, with Les Bleus saying:
“The Arsenal centre-back is suffering from recurring pain in his left ankle that requires treatment and a minimum rest period of ten days.”
He shouldn’t be much of a doubt for Gameweek 32, then.
Later in the day, the Brazilian FA confirmed that Gabriel was set to miss out this international fortnight.
WHY DIAS MISSED OUT
As for Manchester City, they were without two of their own centre-halves in the shape of Ruben Dias (£5.5m) and Marc Guehi (£5.1m).
There’s no issue with Guehi, as he was merely ineligible to play. Dias, however, has a hamstring injury. It’s not yet known how long he’ll be out, with Pep Guardiola not offering a post-match update.
O’REILLY BRACE – FROM LEFT-BACK!
Onto the action, and there wasn’t a huge amount of it, especially in the first half.
Then, not quite out of nowhere, as City had begun the second half the better team, a two-goal salvo in five minutes.
Both strikes came from Nico O’Reilly (£5.0m), and both of them were close-range headers. While the deadlock-breaking first goal owed a huge debt to Kepa Arrizabalaga‘s (£4.0m) spill, the fact that O’Reilly was there, bang centre of the goal, six yards out, in open play, shows what a threat he can be.
Bear in mind, he was starting as a left-back on Sunday! Not, as has been the case for much of 2026, in central midfield.
Left-back, of course, was only the nominal position. When City were in possession, O’Reilly was effectively a second striker, getting up alongside Erling Haaland (£14.5m) to offer that extra penalty-box presence.
Here’s a screenshot from a first-half attack, just as an example:
Reilly brace
Pep, tongue in cheek, called him “the signing of the season” after full-time. The City boss did challenge O’Reilly to improve defensively, although this performance to nullify Bukayo Saka (£9.8m) was much better than his last stint at left-back against Real Madrid.
“Wow. He started to play when Rayan Ait-Nouri was injured, impressed a lot. Against Newcastle, he played the holding midfielder alongside Nico Gonzalez, was unbelievable against Joelinton, Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes. When playing in the pocket, his natural position, every cross, he is there in the aerial action. He is really strong, especially offensively. Defensively, has to improve. Yeah, he has been so far, a surprise even for me. The season he has done so far has been extraordinary.” – Pep Guardiola on Nico O’Reilly’s season
Expect plenty of renewed Fantasy interest if and when City’s Double Gameweek(s) is announced.
WINGERS ARE BACK
A big feature of City’s play in the opening months of 2026 has been width from full-back and a narrower midfield.
But with Jeremy Doku (£6.4m) and, to a lesser extent, Savinho (£6.9m) back, the option is there again to go with wingers. Doing so went terribly against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. Against a timid Arsenal, the end result was considerably better.
Doku and Antoine Semenyo (£8.2m) were the wide-men at Wembley, although there was quite a bit of clever interchanging on the right especially, with Bernardo Silva (£6.2m) and Rayan Cherki (£6.3m) moving wider and Semenyo cutting inside. No surprise that both goals, assisted by Cherki and Matheus Nunes (£5.3m), came from that flank.
Reilly brace
Above image from Sofascore
It didn’t all come off for Doku and Semenyo; far from it. Haaland was also kept quiet for long periods by Saliba. But it was at least positive in intent, unlike much of Arsenal’s play. Semenyo in particular flashed crosses, shots and cross-shots across the box, very nearly assisting Haaland in the first half.
A template set-up for the rest of the season? Pep tends to keep it relatively settled when things are going well, so it could well be. Let’s see how City set up and fare against Liverpool in the FA Cup in a fortnight’s time.
“I make only one substitution. With the 2-0, it’s never over, and the team, I felt, was there. You know, Jeremy kept the ball. Antoine as well. Bernardo and Rodri, in that way, you cannot be replaced.” – Pep Guardiola
SENATOR, YOU’RE NO DAVID RAYA
David Raya (£6.0m) owners won’t be having any sleepless nights after Kepa’s performance on Sunday. It wasn’t just the role he played in O’Reilly’s opener but also a rush of blood that saw him attempt to wrestle Doku down outside the box, a foul that wasn’t too far away from being a straight red.
“I understand that, but I have to do what I feel is right, which is honest and which is fair and I think we have an understanding goalkeeper in Kepa. He’s played all the [games in the] competition and I think it would have been very unfair for him and for the team to do something different.” – Mikel Arteta on his decision to start with cup goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga over number one David Raya
Kepa aside, this was pretty much the same Arsenal performance we’ve seen for much of the last month, Leverkusen (h) aside. Cautious in attack, excessively so, but largely untroubled at the other end. City’s only two efforts on target were their goals. Had Kepa not spilt the ball from Cherki’s cross, you wouldn’t have put it past the Gunners to go on and bag another clean sheet, even though they were under the cosh at the time.
It’s the attacking impotence that’s long been more of a problem, and a Fantasy turn-off. There was a very early triple chance in which James Trafford (£4.5m) repelled Kai Havertz (£7.3m) and (twice) Saka, then pretty much nothing for 70-odd minutes. End-game efforts against the woodwork from subs Riccardo Calafiori (£5.6m) and Gabriel Jesus (£6.4m) were too little, too late.
At the moment, owning three players from Arsenal’s defence looks more appealing than any other permutation involving the midfielders and forwards.
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