Saturday brings us no less than seven three o’clock encounters, many of which are crucial to the relegation scrap and packed with Fantasy point potential. Swansea’s Michu and Arsenal’s lingering double Gameeek assets will be under the microscope for many, with mid-price assets at Norwich, West Brom and West Ham also in play over today’s action.
Our chatroom switches to the Dugout Discussion in time for kick-off, hosting your real-time reactions to all the goals, assists and missed clean sheets as the minutes roll by.
There is key team news at the Stadium of Light where Everton are able to welcome back Leon Osman from injury – he slots into the midfield for Ross Barkley, allowing Marouane Fellaini to assume his position terrorising the back four with his size and rather uncanny ability to chest-trap a ball seven feet in the air. On the flipside for Everton, Phil Jagielka misses out with Johnny Heitinga drafted into the defence.
Michael Laudrup welcomes back Leon Britton to his Swansea midfield at the Liberty, while Angel Rangel and Pablo Hernandez also earn starts having been benched at Norwich. Dwight Tiendalli, Ki and Wayne Routledge drop out. Southampton make one change in opposition – Jay Rodriguez returns to the starting lineup with Gaston Ramirez, somewhat surprisingly, dropping to the bench.
The relegation battle at Loftus Road finds Harry Redknapp ringing the changes, recruiting Tal Ben Haim, Shaun Derry, Adel Taarabt and Rob Green to his starting XI, while Stephane Mbia also makes a return. Julio Cesar, Nedum Onuoha, Ji Sung Park, Esteban Granero and Jermaine Jenas are the names to drop out. Tony Pulis also tweaks his struggling Stoke lineup, with Marc Wilson returning from a hamstring injury to take up the left-back role – Cameron Jerome and Peter Crouch also come in, as Andy Wilkinson, Geoff Cameron and Kenwyne Jones drop out.
Martin Jol is again shuffling his pack at the Cottage: four changes for Fulham find Stanislav Manolev, Kieran Richardson, Steve Sidwell and Alex Kacaniklic come in for Sascha Riether, John Arne Riise, Georgios Karagounis and Mladen Petric. Arsenal make two changes in opposition, with Nacho Monreal rotating with Kieran Gibbs at left-back and Tomas Rosicky returning to replace Jack Wilshere in midfield.
Down at the Hawthorns, the home side make four changes, with a recall for Romelu Lukaku the main headline. The Belgian comes in for Shane Long, while Marc-Antoine Fortune and Goran Popov also start for Jerome Thomas and Liam Ridgewell. Visitors Newcastle are forced into further changes due to injury as Rob Elliot starts in goal for Tim Krul, while James Perch and Massadio Haidara also get starts as Cheick Tiote and Sylvain Marveaux miss out.
