Walcott fit to start for Everton while Pellegrini rings the changes

Everton take on rock-bottom West Ham United in the penultimate match of Gameweek 5, with kick-off at Goodison Park at 16:00 BST.

Theo Walcott (£6.7m) was the second-most-sold Fantasy Premier League player of this round, with over a third of his owners ditching the Everton winger after he picked up an injury in the 1-1 draw with Huddersfield Town a fortnight ago.

Walcott, however, has won his race to be fit for this afternoon’s match, along with defensive midfielder Idrissa Gueye (£4.9m).

Richarlison (£6.6m), still the most-owned Everton outfield player in FPL despite his recent ban, sits out the last match of his suspension, while the injured Seamus Coleman (£5.3m) joins the lengthy list of players unavailable to Marco Silva for this afternoon’s encounter.

Jonjoe Kenny (£4.3m) – who recorded a clean sheet and an assist in this fixture last season – comes into the Everton starting XI in place of Coleman, with Tom Davies (£5.4m) making way for Gueye in the double-pivot.

Everton have yet to keep a clean sheet this season, but Jordan Pickford (£5.4m) remains the fourth-most-popular goalkeeper in FPL in spite of this.

Marko Arnautovic (£7.0m) is the most-owned player on show on either side at Goodison, with the Austrian having scored both of West Ham’s Premier League goals this season.

The Hammers’ poor defensive record of ten goals conceded and no clean sheets has influenced over half a million FPL managers’ selections between the sticks: 70.8% of Lukasz Fabianski‘s (£4.5m) owners have benched the Polish shot-stopper this week.

Manuel Pellegrini has made six changes to the side that lost 1-0 to Wolverhampton Wanderers two weeks ago, including the recall of Pablo Zabaleta (£4.3m) and Arthur Masuaku (£4.5m) at full-back.

Pellegrini has seemingly switched from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3, with Mark Noble (£4.9m), Declan Rice (£4.4m) and Pedro Obiang (£4.4m) the all-new central midfield three. The injured Jack Wilshere (£4.9m) is among those to make way.

Andriy Yarmolenko (£6.8m) gets his first Premier League start in a front three alongside Felipe Anderson (£6.9m) and Arnautovic.

Everton XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Digne, Zouma, Holgate, Kenny; Schneiderlin, Gueye; Calvert-Lewin, Sigurdsson, Walcott; Tosun.

West Ham United XI (4-3-3): Fabianski; Zabaleta, Balbuena, Diop, Masuaku; Noble, Rice, Obiang; Yarmolenko, Arnautovic, Felipe Anderson

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