There were a few surprise selections in Unai Emery and Pep Guardiola’s starting XIs ahead of this afternoon’s 16:00 BST encounter between Arsenal and Manchester City at the Emirates.
The headline news was perhaps Raheem Sterling‘s (£11.0m) inclusion in the City line-up, although Guardiola had teased the prospect of that possibility in his press conference on Friday.
Leroy Sane (£9.5m) is the fall-guy in the Sky Blues’ line-up, to the chagrin of the 14.3% of FPL managers who own the wide-midfielder.
Kevin De Bruyne (£10.0m), another late returner after his World Cup exertions, starts on the bench for the reigning Premier League champions this afternoon.
The rest of Guardiola’s starting XI is perhaps as expected, with Sergio Aguero (£11.0m) leading the line and Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m) handed his City league debut.
Alexandre Lacazette (£9.5m) always looked at some risk of being benched for the visit of City and the French forward indeed starts among Arsenal’s substitutes, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m) fielded as the spearhead of the Gunners’ attack.
Though not likely to cause many ructions in the Fantasy community, Matteo Guendouzi (£4.5m) – who admittedly has had a fine pre-season for Emery’s side – has been preferred to the more experienced Lucas Torreira (£5.0m) in the engine room. Aaron Ramsey (£7.5m) also gets a start for the Gunners.
Nacho Monreal (£5.5m) has failed to prove his fitness, so FPL midfielder Ainsley Maitland-Niles (£4.5m) deputises at left-back.
Arsenal XI (4-3-3): Cech; Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Maitland-Niles; Xhaka, Guendouzi, Ramsey; Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang
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