The calm before the storm of no early kick-offs has gone and now all that’s finally left for us to do is get ensconced in another gameweek bound to throw up some interesting affairs in Gameweek 8.
We’ll be closing out today’s action when Chelsea pay visit to Aston Villa, but there’ll likely to be little surprise there thanks to Carlo’s usual burst of information in revealing his starting XI (Cech; Ferreira, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole; Mikel, Ramires, Essien; Malouda, Anelka, Kakuta) so now it’s time to sit back and take in the six 3pm kick-offs.
Some of the team news filtering through this afternoon includes Wayne Rooney (and John O’Shea) being given a place on the bench (probably an ankle injury, right?) with Javier Hernandez given another crack at the whip. Their opponents West Brom call in Somen Tchoyi and Marc-Antoine Fortuné in place of Graham Dorrans and the injured Peter Odemwingie…
Nikola Zigic is given a rare start for Birmingham as they visit Arsenal, who in turn only give Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott places on bench on their return from injury, it also looks like Samir Nasri might be out on the wing this afternoon (bugger says I). Harry Redknapp meanwhile sees Ledley King and William Gallas pass fitness tests to play while Sandro also makes his first Premier League start for the club. Moussa Dembele and Diomansy Kamara start up front for home side Fulham.
Newcastle United have drafted Andy Carroll back in as well as Peter Lovenkrands and Danny Guthrie in place of Shola Ameobi, captain Kevin Nolan and the injured Hatem Ben Arfa. Wigan on the other hand drop Hugo Rodallega and Steve Gohouri to allowSteven Caldwell and Ronnie Stam starting berths.
Kieron Dyer starts for West Ham.
The Dugout Discussion is open and welcoming all looking for their usual matchday fix of revelry.
