Tom Carnduff's Notebook: Jørgen Strand Larsen, Marcus Tavernier, Morgan Rogers

On Saturday, only one of the five bookies' favourites won among the 3pm Premier League offering, while three of the ten Sky Bet Championship games taking place delivered the same outcome.

The flip side is that you had some big upsets - Nottingham Forest's win at Liverpool being the most prominent - and you usually end up with far more to talk about when things haven't gone as expected.

I've been off for a couple of weeks which meant I was unable to deliver the Notebook. Sorry. I didn't do a great deal to be honest, I did go down to London to watch day four - well two hours of - England's defeat to Sri Lanka at the Oval. Not good.

But we're back, and players are mostly in focus for me this time around based on either their individual performances or their roles within a certain system.

Here are seven talking points from the weekend.

No, not *that* Norwegian striker

Wolves' season so far has been one of disappointment. One point from four can perhaps be explained by tricky opposition but Sunday's defeat to Newcastle will be seen as a missed opportunity.

A positive though: Jørgen Strand Larsen.

He was someone on my radar across pre-season - I managed to snag him in an FPL draft - and he looks to be the centre forward they've been crying out for since Raul Jimenez's departure in July of last year.

The Norwegian is physical, a real presence, and looks comfortable leading the line. He managed to find the net in the defeat to Chelsea and struck the post last time out.

His movement is impressive, reading the game well and getting himself into positions where he can contribute - the assist for Mario Lemina's goal a good example of that.

Larsen keeps getting better, even if Wolves' fixtures aren't - Villa away is followed by Liverpool at home and then Manchester City the other side of the October international break.

While tricky games, there is likely to be good value available on the forward to have some goal involvement.

A matter of time...

Aston Villa's win over Everton on Saturday night was brilliant entertainment, topped off by Jhon Duran's thunderbastard to win it having been 2-0 down.

His three goals this season have all had significant impacts on the outcome of games, but you could make a case that Morgan Rogers has been their best player.

The end product could and should have been better - he's yet to post a goal contribution much to mine and many other FPL players' frustrations - but it's surely only a matter of time before they arrive given his performances.

Rogers has played every minute of Villa's league campaign in advanced, attacking positions, having nine shots across those four outings and creating six chances. Keep the faith, fellow fantasy football nerds.

And Unai Emery, please.

Tav can deliver

Bournemouth's clash with Chelsea was one for the history books.

A total of 14 yellow cards was a new Premier League record - well done all but particularly Anthony Taylor.

The bizarre thing is it wasn't even a dirty game. It was more of a case that the referee set out his approach and then couldn't stop once he'd started.

Anyway, on the actual football, it was another good performance from Marcus Tavernier. The winger is going under the radar somewhat in this Bournemouth side.

He rattled the crossbar with a wonderfully hit left-footed effort from distance in the first half as he went in search of his second goal of the season - the first coming in the 1-1 draw with Newcastle last month.

Tavernier is another player where I'm struggling to believe he hasn't returned that many goal involvements considering his performances so far.

A total of 14 shots have come across his four appearances, all of which have seen him play at least 83 minutes, while he's also created 11 chances - that is the most of any player in Andoni Iraola's squad.

We know that Bournemouth look to use their width, with the left side busier considering they have an attack-minded full-back in Milos Kerkez too.

They may travel to Liverpool next but I'll be having Tavernier for some returns prior to the next international break - Southampton (H) and Leicester (A) being the two fixtures after.

Maybe he'll get penalty duties too after Evanilson missed the last one.

Forest's strong defence

The result of the Premier League weekend was, without a doubt, Forest's surprise win at Liverpool.

Callum Hudson-Odoi's 72nd minute effort proved to be the difference between the two sides yet Forest's ability to limit their opponents once again was a highlight.

This was their first real test of the campaign, with home games against Bournemouth and Wolves sitting either side of a visit to Southampton. They have eight points after four games.

That win on the south coast caught my eye because they limited the Saints to virtually nothing. It's therefore not a huge surprise to see what the defensive numbers are saying.

Only Liverpool and Manchester City can boast a better defence in terms of what they've allowed, even if Arsenal join the former with just the one goal conceded.

The start to the season made by Nuno Espirito Santo's men has been great. The early signs are positive in terms of limiting a Brighton attack which has been strong when the two meet on Sunday.

He's a jolly good Fellows

Into the Championship, a better league of course, and West Brom continue to impress under Carlos Corberan's guidance.

Sunday took them to Portsmouth and the result was a comfortable win for the visitors. Alex Mowatt netted twice with Josh Maja getting the other in a 3-0 victory.

Maja's happened less than a minute in, but it was the fast reading of the situation from Tom Fellows which led to it.

Latching onto a quick throw-in forward, the winger cut a pass back from the byline which allowed Maja to strike. That was just one of a few chances he created.

It was Fellows' fourth assist of the season and the most impressive thing is the high quality from a lower number than others - he sits 11th overall for chances created in England's second tier.

Fellows is averaging 0.40 expected assists (xA) per 90. For context, a 'big chance' is defined as anything 0.35 and above so we can understand the level of impact he's making.

Plymouth at home is up next followed by Sheffield Wednesday away. There's a good chance the goal contributions figure is higher following those two fixtures.

Watford's international star

Georgia were one of the stories of Euro 2024 after they unexpectedly made it beyond the group stage.

Goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili and striker Georges Mikautadze took the headlines, but Giorgi Chakvetadze has seemingly carried over his international form into the club campaign.

The midfielder joined Watford permanently in the summer following a successful loan spell last season and he's been one of their standout performers so far.

Chakvetadze netted in the opening weekend win over Millwall and has since then provided two assists. A concern was his removal through injury in the draw with Coventry, although boss Tom Cleverley has since said the "early signs are good" and they "think it was a back spasm."

It was his other comments about the midfielder though that delivered the most interest to me.

"He can be better, but he is creating big chances every game and now the real challenge for him and for me, as his coach, is to get him on the scoresheet more," Cleverley added.

The Watford boss is correct: no player in the division is creating more than Chakvetadze, but goals have been lacking.

He has been trying at least, with ten shots across the five appearances and at least one in each.

I'll be monitoring the injury news across the next few days anyway, and if Chakvetadze is available, there might be some value on offer in taking him to strike at Norwich in their next contest.

Utter Stoke nonsense

We've had another managerial sacking everyone - the second one of the Championship season.

Stoke opted to get rid of Steven Schumacher in a decision that has caused a backlash among those on social media. They've not been flying this early into the campaign but they have been fine.

It may well be a case of having a top level replacement lined up but it seems as if the defeat at Oxford has proven to be too much. A reminder here that Oxford have won all three of their home games so far; four if you count the cup.

The win over Plymouth at the end of August was comfortable despite only being 1-0 and that was just days after thrashing Middlesbrough 5-0 on the road in the Carabao Cup.

So their season so far, in all competitions, has five away games and two at home. Those two at home being Coventry (which they won) and West Brom (which they lost).

They also lost just one of their final eight games last season.

It'll be interesting to see where they go next but this does feel like a reactionary move.

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