A team for fat cats - novel, actually (2,1,6,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
as a matter of fact
'actually' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'a team for fat cats novel' is the wordplay.
'novel' is an anagram indicator (letters in a new or novel order).
'team'+'for'+'fat'+'cats'='teamforfatcats'
'teamforfatcats' anagrammed gives 'samatteroffact'.
'a'+'samatteroffact'='AS A MATTER OF FACT'
(Other definitions for as a matter of fact that I've seen before include "Actually" , "in reality" .)