Update (Thursday 15 October): the full Champions League matchday two round-up. All five English clubs have now played. The record is three wins and two defeats, and for FPL managers the key question is who played how long on Wednesday, because Liverpool, City and Villa are back in league action on Saturday.
| Match | Score | English club’s scorers |
|---|---|---|
| Arsenal v Lille | 3-0 | Timber, Eze, Saka |
| Atlético v Manchester United | 2-0 | – |
| LASK Linz v Liverpool | 3-6 | Barcola 3, Araújo, Frimpong, Koumas |
| Aston Villa v Fenerbahçe | 6-0 | N. Jackson 2, Barkley 2, Manzambi, Abraham |
| Manchester City v PSG | 2-4 | Haaland 2 |
Manchester City 2-4 PSG. The holders were 3-0 up at half-time through Doué, Dembélé and Vitinha. Enzo Maresca made three half-time changes and City were far better after the break, but Haaland‘s two goals weren’t enough (Akliouche got PSG’s fourth). Haaland became City’s all-time top scorer in the Champions League and the fastest player ever to reach 60 goals in the competition, in 60 games. It’s City’s first defeat of the season. For FPL, minutes matter. According to match reports, Haaland, Semenyo, Guéhi, Gvardiol and Anderson were not substituted, so they played the full game. Cherki (32.3% owned, bought by 404k managers this week) and Doku came off at half-time at 0-3. It’s hard to tell whether that was rest or a verdict on their performance. Foden stayed on the bench. City host Ipswich at 15:00 UK on Saturday, less than three days after a game in which most of their starters played 90 minutes.
LASK Linz 3-6 Liverpool. Andoni Iraola rotated heavily. Van Dijk started on the bench and came on in the 62nd minute, and according to ESPN’s line-ups Szoboszlai wasn’t in the matchday squad. Bradley Barcola scored a hat-trick, his first goals since joining from PSG. Wirtz also stood out. Liverpool led 4-0, then conceded three after changing both centre-backs in the 62nd minute. Our model rates Barcola 53 (“Sell”) because he has only 255 league minutes, and Champions League goals count neither in FPL nor in our rating. The big one is Szoboszlai: 27.5% of managers own him and he still carries a 75% flag. Missing Wednesday’s squad doesn’t decide Saturday, as Iraola may simply have been resting him, but it’s the biggest question mark of the week. If you own him, make sure you have a bench player ready to come on automatically. Gravenberch played in Austria but is suspended in the league until 25 October. Liverpool are at Brentford at 15:00 UK on Saturday.
Aston Villa 6-0 Fenerbahçe. It’s Villa’s biggest-ever winning margin in European competition. Nicolas Jackson and Ross Barkley (one a penalty) scored twice each, with Manzambi and Abraham adding one apiece. Villa have a perfect Champions League record but are only 16th in the Premier League. The FPL market is already reacting: almost 100k managers have bought Jackson this week (2.8% owned). Our model rates him 70 (“Hold”) because he scores less in the league than in Europe. Remember that his Wednesday goals earned zero FPL points. Jackson came off in the 78th minute, while McGinn (85, Villa’s highest-rated player) played the full game. Villa are at Newcastle at 17:30 UK on Saturday.
What it means before Saturday’s deadline (11:00 UK): Haaland and Semenyo still top our captain picks, but they played the full 90 on Wednesday and have the shortest gap of anyone. That’s a strong case for picking your vice-captain from a different game, such as Saka, who played 25 minutes on Tuesday and plays on Sunday after almost five days’ rest. Bruno Fernandes has now been sold by 320k managers. Our “who to buy for Gameweek 7” guide will be out before the deadline.
Below is the original article from 14 October, written after Tuesday’s games.
The first half of Champions League matchday two is done. On Tuesday Arsenal comfortably beat Lille and Manchester United lost in Madrid to Atlético. Tonight the other three English clubs play: Liverpool, Manchester City and Aston Villa. Champions League goals don’t count in FPL, but minutes and fatigue do, and the Gameweek 7 deadline is Saturday 17 October at 11:00 UK time, earlier than usual. Below are the results, who played and who was rested, and a table nobody else is publishing: how much recovery time each of the five clubs gets before their league game.
Arsenal 3-0 Lille: three goals in seven minutes
Nothing happened at the Emirates for an hour. Then Arsenal scored three times in seven minutes: Jurriën Timber (64th minute, from Noni Madueke’s pass), Eberechi Eze (67th, set up by Bukayo Saka) and Saka (71st, from Kai Havertz’s cut-back). Arsenal have six points from two league-phase games.
Mikel Arteta made five changes from the 2-1 league win over Leeds. For FPL managers, what matters most is who he rested:
- Calafiori, owned by 52.3% of managers, didn’t play a minute. Lewis-Skelly started at left-back.
- Saka (16.7% owned) had been ill the day before the game and on the day itself. He came off the bench just after the opener, played about 25 minutes, and still managed an assist and a goal.
- Ødegaard and Havertz also only came on in the second half.
- Raya, Gabriel, Konsa and Rice were among the starters.
Arsenal don’t play in the league until Sunday at 16:30 UK time at Nottingham Forest, so they get almost five days off. Their key attackers have only 25 minutes from Tuesday in their legs. Our model rates Saka 89 (“Buy”), and he is third in our Gameweek 7 captain picks. Eze (64) and Madueke (62) rate low not because they’re playing badly, but because they have only 85 and 113 Premier League minutes respectively. The model rates proven Premier League minutes, not European nights.
Atlético 2-0 Manchester United: a red card and an interview all of England is talking about
United were behind after 47 seconds (Pablo Barrios). In the 75th minute Leny Yoro was shown a straight red card for stopping Jonathan David, who was clean through on goal. The referee changed his decision after watching the replay, and several pundits called the red harsh. Five minutes later Ademola Lookman made it 2-0. Yoro faces a Champions League ban, but he is free to play in the Premier League.
That’s five games without a win for United. In the league, Michael Carrick’s side are 13th with six points from six games, which Reuters described as the club’s worst league start since 1986-87. After the game Lisandro Martínez criticised the club’s leadership in an interview with Amazon Prime. His point was that after a poor start it’s easy to blame the coach and the players, but the people who ran the summer recruitment also need to be looked at: “I expect more from our technical director.” According to Sky Sports, United spent £155m on four players this summer but didn’t strengthen at left-back or up front. Wayne Rooney said Martínez had gone too far, and Jamie Carragher said he had picked the worst possible moment. Carrick only said he hadn’t seen the interview.
For FPL, what matters is who played and for how long. According to Goal’s player ratings:
- Bruno Fernandes started as captain, hit the bar and came off around the 80th minute.
- Mbeumo started as the most advanced player.
- Cunha only came on late, and Maguire started on the bench.
The most interesting part is the market. Bruno is the most-sold player in the whole game this week: 274k managers have got rid of him. Our model still rates him 87 with a “Buy” verdict. We’ve seen this before: before Gameweek 2 the crowd sold Bruno en masse and he answered with a hat-trick. Before Gameweek 4, though, the crowd was right. To be fair, the model reads on-pitch data, not the mood in the dressing room or interviews. The crisis at United is a factor the rating can’t see. We wrote earlier about his knock during the international break. That story is over, as Bruno has played regularly since returning from international duty. United play at Leeds on Sunday at 14:00 UK time.
Tonight: Liverpool, City and Aston Villa
LASK Linz v Liverpool, 17:45 UK. Liverpool arrive in Austria after a 3-0 defeat to City and with a long absence list. Isak (14.4% owned) and Gakpo (7.7%) are flagged as injured with no return date, and Andoni Iraola didn’t sound hopeful about a quick return. The bigger FPL story is Szoboszlai: 28% of managers own him and he carries a 75% flag. According to Iraola he came back from international duty with hamstring tightness and overload. If he starts tonight, that’s a good sign for Saturday. If he’s missing again, it’s worth thinking about. On Saturday at 15:00 UK Liverpool travel to Brentford, who are fourth and still unbeaten.
Manchester City v PSG, 20:00 UK. This is the key game of the night for FPL managers. City lead the Premier League with a perfect 18 points and, according to Sports Mole’s preview, have no fitness problems. Foden has served his ban for the red card in the derby. The issue is that four City players are in the top ten of our Gameweek 7 captain picks: Semenyo (1st, rated 91), Haaland (2nd, rated 90, owned by 75.2%), Guéhi (5th) and Cherki (10th, the fourth most-bought player this week). They all face the holders tonight and host Ipswich at 15:00 UK on Saturday. That’s less than three days between games, the shortest gap of any English club. Enzo Maresca has already shown he can change almost his whole team: he made ten changes in the League Cup. We don’t know whether he’ll rotate on Saturday too.
Aston Villa v Fenerbahçe, 20:00 UK. Villa won 3-2 in Bruges on matchday one, but they are only 16th in the league with five points. On Saturday at 17:30 UK they go to Newcastle. Hardly anyone owns Villa players in FPL: the highest-rated is McGinn (85, 2.5% owned), and over 70k managers bought Nicolas Jackson this week.
How much rest before Gameweek 7
We measure the time from the Champions League kick-off to the league kick-off.
| Club | Champions League | Gameweek 7 (UK time) | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | Tue 20:00, Lille (3-0) | Sun 16:30, away at Nottingham Forest | c. 4 days 20 hrs |
| Manchester United | Tue 20:00, Atlético (0-2) | Sun 14:00, away at Leeds | c. 4 days 18 hrs |
| Aston Villa | Wed 20:00, Fenerbahçe | Sat 17:30, away at Newcastle | c. 2 days 21 hrs |
| Liverpool | Wed 17:45, LASK (away) | Sat 15:00, away at Brentford | c. 2 days 21 hrs |
| Manchester City | Wed 20:00, PSG | Sat 15:00, home to Ipswich | c. 2 days 19 hrs |
There’s a two-day difference between the “Tuesday” and “Wednesday” clubs. Our model doesn’t see it: ratings and captain picks account for form, minutes and opponent difficulty, but not the European calendar.
What it means for your team
- Check City’s and Liverpool’s line-ups tonight. It’s the best information you’ll get before Saturday. Saturday’s line-ups only come out after the deadline, because the games start at 15:00 UK and the deadline is 11:00.
- Don’t make transfers in the dark. If Haaland and Semenyo play the full 90 tonight, that’s no reason to panic, as they’re still favourites against Ipswich. It is, however, a reason to pick a vice-captain from a different game.
- Saka is a good vice-captain option. He played only 25 minutes on Tuesday, plays on Sunday after a longer break, and is third in our captain picks.
- Calafiori was rested, and more than half of all managers own him. That’s good news ahead of Sunday’s trip to Forest.
- Bruno: your call. The data says “Buy”, the mood at the club says something else. Don’t sell him just because everyone else is.
Tomorrow morning we’ll add Wednesday’s results and minutes to the top of this article. Before Saturday’s deadline we’ll also publish our “who to buy for Gameweek 7” guide. All ratings are in our AI rankings, and we covered Champions League matchday one here.
Results, scorers and line-ups checked against external sources (including ESPN, Sky Sports, Goal, Sports Mole and Arsenal.com). Ownership, transfers and ratings come from the official game API and our own engine, as of Wednesday 14 October morning. This article was produced with the help of AI and checked by our editors. This is not betting advice.