There wasn’t a great deal of excitement in the Thursday/Friday manager press conferences, save for Jose Mourinho’s David Brent-esque quoting of philosopher G.W.F. Hegel.
Mourinho did, however, rule Phil Jones out of Sunday’s trip to Burnley, with Sergio Romero (knee), Marcos Rojo (knock) and Diogo Dalot (knee) not yet ready to feature.
There were one or two worries in the pre-match pressers elsewhere, however. Confusion over Manuel Pellegrini’s comments on Thursday led to at least one media outlet claiming that Marko Arnautovic would not be available this weekend – but the club has since clarified that the Austrian forward has trained with his team-mates since Tuesday and, barring any setbacks, will be available for the visit of Wolves on Saturday.
Jurgen Klopp’s words meanwhile hinted that rotation might just be around the corner for Liverpool, with the German manager saying that naming an unchanged starting XI – as he has done for three successive league fixtures – “will not happen too often from now on”.
Our Reds’ assets might be safe for another week at least, with Gameweek 5 onwards looking like a more likely time for rotation to commence given that Liverpool face two matches a week from that point.
Hugo Lloris (thigh) will miss Spurs’ trip to Watford this weekend, while across north London, Mesut Ozil seems set to recover from illness to feature for the Gunners at Cardiff City on Sunday.
There were no fresh injury concerns for Chelsea or Manchester City, though Maurizio Sarri confirmed that Cesc Fabregas remained out with a knee problem.
Brighton will make a late decision on injured pair Lewis Dunk and Bruno before the visit of Fulham, who will be without Tom Cairney for that match on the south coast. Alfie Mawson returned to first-team action in midweek, so could feature in the match-day squad at the very least.
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing is set to miss the next three months of action for Cardiff City, who will make a late decision on fellow winger Junior Hoilett. Aron Gunnarsson is also out.
Burnley will be without the injured Johann Berg Gudmundsson (hamstring) for the visit of Manchester United, so FPL defender Charlie Taylor is an “out of position” candidate to fill in for the stricken Icelandic midfielder.
Newcastle United welcome back Jamaal Lascelles for the daunting encounter with Manchester City, though Matt Ritchie and Jonjo Shelvey are out.
Everton’s midfield crisis worsened, with Bernard (muscle injury) out for the visit of Huddersfield Town and Idrissa Gueye (knee) unlikely to feature. Richarlison is suspended, of course, while Mason Holgate and Kurt Zouma are the only fit centre-backs available to Marco Silva.
The Terriers will be without the suspended Jonathan Hogg and the injured Ben Hamer, meanwhile.
Jamie Vardy remains banned for Leicester’s clash with Liverpool, though Aaron Wan-Bissaka has served his own suspension and is back in contention for the right-back slot at Crystal Palace.
Southampton will monitor Danny Ings ahead of the match at Selhurst Park, meanwhile, with the Saints striker suffering with a blister.
Our Team News tab has predictions of the 20 Premier League clubs’ line-ups this weekend and a more detailed assessment of the press conferences over the last 48 hours.
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