Clean sheets were probably the easiest manner in which to have acquired your points this game week with a season high 9 on offer. In fact, only 11 players delivered double digit points this round with 6 of them being goalkeepers who were helped out by a couple of penalty misses and even an assist for Liverpool's Alisson!
Whether that was just a one off or whether we might now see a few more defences coming out on top in a season where it's generally been difficult to extract regular points from your back line remains to be seen. Certainly, fixture congestion could lead to greater squad rotation in the forward areas and a lack of fluency if this game week is anything to go by.
Much has been made of the form of **Erling Haaland **(FWD) and his blank this week will have hurt plenty of FPL managers. However, Harry Kane (FWD) continues to be quietly effective and arguably more consistent. The England captain has contributed at least a goal or an assist in every game he's played this season bar the opening day fixture against Southampton and with City not playing in the next game week, he could yet become a very popular pick!
Ivan Toney (FWD) celebrated his 100th appearance for the Bees with a brace that took his career tally for Brentford to 51 goals. His form this year again underlines the value that is to be found in the Forward positions during this season's FPL with his 65 points taking him 3rd overall behind fellow strikers Haaland and Kane.
What would Brighton give for their own sharp shooter up front? The visitors had 21 efforts at goals (3 times as many as Brentford) leading to a higher expected goals total than their hosts but were unable to find the back of the net for the 2nd game running.
Roberto de Zerbi certainly likes his teams to play on the front foot with Brighton winning a lot of possession in and around the Brentford box but generally being limited to shots from distance. No clean sheets during his 3 games in charge will also be of concern and they once again switched from a back 4 to a back 3 in this match at the new boss searches for a winning formula.
Brendon Rodgers Leicester were booed off at the final whistle in this game. The Foxes, however, must be relatively happy with a clean sheet given their defensive woes of late and they probably had the better of this low key affair.
Harvey Barnes (MID) looked a threat throughout and Leicester will be hoping that he can hit his stride after a relatively quiet start to the season. Meanwhile Patson Daka (FWD) who had scored in 3 of his last 4 Premier League games wasn't able to add to his tally in this match but was once again lively and might be worth a look at given his relatively cheap price.
Crystal Palace were solid but not very spectacular. Nullifying the threat of Wilf Zaha (MID) seems to be pretty much all sides need to do against this Palace team who built 50% of their attacks down the left flank where he was stationed. However, Thomas Castagne (DEF) was very much up to that task with Zaha creating very little threat under the Belgian's careful management.
After the 9-0 mauling against Liverpool and the departure of Scott Parker, it was tempting to believe the Bournemouth's return to the Premier League would be a short one. However, Gary O'Neil has reinvigorated the squad and they are now unbeaten in their last 5 games.
The Cherries will however, be disappointed not to have secured all 3 points in this match having lead twice. Dominic Solanke (FWD) got his 2nd goal of the season and Bournemouth look so much better now that he is fit again but it's the Danish midfielder Philip Billing (MID) who is probably the player to pay most attention to. As noted in a pre-season preview I wrote, last year in the Championship, Billing moved to a much more advanced position than the last time we saw him in the Premier League with both Bournemouth and Wigan and has added goals to his game.
As for Fulham, Aleksandar Mitrovic (FWD) returned to fitness and goal scoring form while Andreas Pereira (MID) a bargain buy favourite this season added another assist.
After 10 games, both newly promoted sides will be pretty happy with their starts to the season but will know there is still a long way to go to avoid a return straight back to the Championship.
Both sides entered this game sitting in the relegation zone and with a degree of turmoil off the pitch as well as on. Wolves are still seeking a permanent manager while Forest sacked the 2 members of staff responsible for their extravagant transfer spend this summer which to date has back fired spectacularly!
As you might expect, this was not a game of particularly high quality with Wolves yet again huffing and puffing but failing to blow anyone's house down until a VAR awarded penalty allowed Ruben Neves (MID) to give his side the lead. The fact that the midfielder is the clubs joint top scorer this season with 2 goals speaks volumes about Wolves on-going problems.
Forest should have rescued themselves a point after they were awarded their own VAR penalty but Brendon Johnson (FWD) failed to convert leaving his side rock bottom of the Premier League after 10 matches.
The miss did allow Wolves to record their first clean sheet in 4 matches which is notable from an FPL perspective given how tight this Wolves team have been at the back in recent years. They don't play a big 6 club in their next 5 fixtures which might prompt a few managers to look back towards bringing in one of their defenders even if their forward line continues to look in effective.
Spurs started this match full of intent but Everton did well to weather the storm and ultimately had a couple of very good chances themselves as the first half went on. They were however, left to rue those missed opportunities as a Jordan Pickford blunder resulted in a Harry Kane (FWD) penalty and then Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (MID) popped up with his third goal of the season to seal the victory.
I mentioned in the discord chat last month that I thought Hojbjerg has been Spurs best player this season. Yes, Kane has been influential as always but the Dane is now beginning to put in the kind of performances that he regularly does at international level in the Premier League. In fact, with Spurs reverting to a 3-5-2 formation when Richarlison went off injured, Hojbjerg was given greater freedom to roam forward and may be a good bet to add to the 47 FPL points he's already gained so far this year given that his ICT influence ranking is 4th overall, only marginally behind the likes of De Bruyne and Maddison.
Everton meanwhile threw men forward in a desperate attempt to get a goal back but lacked the real quality to threaten Spurs defence with neither Maupay or Calvert-Lewin registering an expected goal during their respective time on the pitch.
The Toffees can at least point to the fact that they performed better than the 5-0 hammering they received in the same fixture late last season (that was one of the worst performances I've ever seen). They have a tough game away at Newcastle next up but then travel to newly promoted sides and/or teams below them in the league. By the time the World Cup comes around we'll have a pretty good idea of whether they'll be involved in another relegation scrap this season or not.
Aston Villa haven't exactly been setting the world on fire so far this season but did come into this match unbeaten in their last 4 in the Premier League while Chelsea themselves are delivering some much better performances under Graham Potter than we were seeing at the back end of Tuchel's reign.
If nothing else, it's the Chelsea players desire to work for their new boss that has lead to an up turn in results and there are few players across the league who epitomise work rate more than Mason Mount (MID) whose brace won it for Chelsea in this game. It's also notable that despite Potter's fondness for tinkering with with both his starting XI and tactics during the match, that Mount was the only ever present for the new Chelsea boss going into this match, suggesting that the England midfielder will be very much at the heart of the Potter revolution taking place in West London.
For Aston Villa, Steven Gerrard spoke before the game regarding his frustration with missed opportunities and a lack of goals from his side and this performances won't have done his mood any good. Villa's expected goals in this match were 2.45 (only Spurs were better this gameweek) but Bailey, Ings and Watkins all missed chances and as Gerrard grew increasingly desperate to get back into the game, he started throwing attacking players on that only served to stunt what up until that point had been a decent showing without any end product.
Elland Road looks like it'll be a tough place to pick up points this season and so while this was by no means Arsenal's best performance of the campaign, they'll be very happy to have come away with another 3 points that leaves them clear at the top of the table.
Leeds though, much like Villa above, will be left ruing a series of missed opportunities including a Patrick Bamford (FWD) penalty that might have seen them get at least a point from this game. The returning forward certainly gave the Arsenal back line something to think about with his physicality but has only scored a solitary goal this calendar year while his team haven't tasted victory in a Premier League game since a similar rousing performance at home against Chelsea way back in August.
Leeds have a couple of crucial games to come against Leicester and Fulham this week were they will need to break their drought if they are to avoid getting sucked back into a relegation fight once again.
As for the visitors, this was very much a club classic 1-0 to the Arsenal as they carried almost zero goal threat following Bukayo Saka's (MID) opener. The young winger is having a stellar October with 4 goals in all competitions so far this month but will have to wait a little bit longer to add to that tally as far as the Premier League is concerned with the Gunners not set to feature in Gameweek 12.
Not a classic encounter between these 2 sides with Manchester United perhaps predictably still looking for damage limitation following the 6 goal hammering earlier in the month and Newcastle now having the best defensive record in the league courtesy of their 4th clean sheet of the season.
Equally, United's front line led by Cristiano Ronaldo (FWD) who started his first league game since the 4-0 humiliation at Brentford early in season looked pretty toothless in this fixture. In fact, it was only once the Portugal legend came off that United had their best 2 chances of the game with midfielder Fred unable to take a golden opportunity to win it late on.
It is however noticeable that this United team are working far harder at winning the ball back from the opposition than we've seen over the last couple of years. They have a massive game at home to Spurs in midweek which even this early in the campaign might go a long way to underlining their credentials for a return to Champions League football this season.
After 4 straight defeats, Southampton will have been happy to have come away with a point in this match but it was yet another poor performance by the Saints with manager Ralph Hasenhüttl's position looking increasingly vulnerable. In fact, the Saints have won just 3 of their last 22 Premier League appearances and have kept just a solitary clean sheet during the same period.
Given those statistics, West Ham might be frustrated that they didn't get more from this match as they chased a 3rd straight victory. Indeed, David Moyes was left particularly frustrated by a couple of decisions that he felt went against his team in this one.
West Ham's mini-revival is being lead by a front 3 of Jarrod Bowen(MID) and new signings Lucas Paqueta (MID) and Gianluca Scamacca (FWD). As far as goal threat is concerned, Bowen is behind only Haaland on the ICT rankings over the last 4 Premier League matches but unlike the big Norwegian, is owned by just a handful of managers (5.6%) making him worthwhile a look.
Liverpool and their fans take great pleasure in making Pep Guardiola's trips to Anfield uncomfortable. I guess the big question for Liverpool supporters and indeed their managers this season might be why they have been unable to put in performances like this on a more regular basis all season?
Certainly the return of Fabinho and Thiago in central midfield gave the Reds far more stability than we've seen in many of their performances so far this season. While the return of Diogo Jota (FWD) who contributed 4 key passes in the match would have gotten a few FPL managers excited but for the fact that reports are now emerging of him suffering a fresh hamstring injury. It was also the Portugal international's defensive work that stood out in this match as he helped nullify the threat of Joao Cancelo (DEF)down that flank.
City will be disappointed not to have left with something given their dominance of possession but their usual passing accuracy slipped below standards in this match and it's almost a collectors item to see them go 2 games without scoring (March 2022 they drew 0-0 against Crystal Palace having also drawn a blank against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League that week).
Of course City do have the luxury of the rest of the week off so I'd be a little worried if I were a Brighton fan about how they might respond to a couple of poor showings...