Sane in for Mahrez while Hazard is named on the Chelsea bench

Two Premier League matches overlap one another this afternoon, with Manchester City and Chelsea enjoying enticing-looking home fixtures and carrying the hopes of legions of Fantasy managers after a somewhat underwhelming set of results for many FPL bosses on Saturday.

The action kicks off at 15:00 GMT, with Southampton – without a goal in five Premier League matches – the visitors to the Etihad.

Manchester City have won all five of their home league games this season, scoring at a rate of 3.6 goals per fixture at Eastlands in 2018/19.

Nine of Sergio Aguero‘s (£11.3m) ten attacking returns this season (five goals, four assists) have come at the Etihad. The Argentinean striker leads the line for City again this afternoon in his 11th straight league start of 2018/19.

Benjamin Mendy‘s (£6.4m) rate of 7.6 points per match is the best among FPL defenders this season and the French left-back hasn’t failed to record an assist, clean sheet and/or bonus in his seven Premier League appearances of this campaign.

Ederson (£5.8m) and Aymeric Laporte (£5.9m), meanwhile, come into this fixture off the back of recording six straight FPL clean sheets.

Pep Guardiola has made only one change from the side that beat Spurs last Monday, with Leroy Sane (£9.2m) replacing Riyad Mahrez (£8.7m). Raheem Sterling (£11.1m) will, presumably, move across to the right flank to accommodate Sane’s re-introduction.

Nicolas Otamendi (£6.1m) and Ilkay Gundogan (£5.4m) are not quite fit enough for a place on the bench, meanwhile.

Mark Hughes has made three changes to the side that drew 0-0 with Newcastle United last weekend, with Shane Long (£4.8m), James Ward-Prowse (£5.1m) and the fit-again Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (£4.5m) replacing Charlie Austin (£5.5m), Mohamed Elyounoussi (£6.2m) and Oriel Romeu (£4.3m).

In the 16:00 kick-off, Chelsea take on Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues have dropped points in their last two home Premier League fixtures but are nevertheless still unbeaten in the top flight this season.

The 44% of FPL managers hoping for a start for Eden Hazard (£11.3m), whose minutes were in doubt ahead of the visit of Roy Hodgson’s side, were left disappointed when the Belgian was named only among the Chelsea substitutes for this encounter.

The Blues, indeed, are unchanged from the side that started the win over Burnley in Gameweek 11, with Ross Barkley (£5.9m) again lining up in the centre of midfield.

Roy Hodgson has made one change to his Crystal Palace side from the 2-2 draw with Arsenal, meanwhile: Max Meyer (£5.6m) replaces Jordan Ayew (£5.8m).

Manchester City XI: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Laporte, Mendy, Fernandinho, Silva, Sane, Sterling, Bernardo, Aguero.

Southampton XI: McCarthy, Soares, Stephens, Hoedt, Bertrand, Lemina, Hojbjerg, Ward-Prowse, Ings, Long, Redmond.

Chelsea XI: Kepa, Alonso, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Rudiger, Kante, Jorginho, Barkley, Pedro, Morata, Willian.

Crystal Palace XI: Hennessey, Van Aanholt, Tomkins, Sakho, Wan-Bissaka, Townsend, Milivojevic, McArthur, Kouyate, Meyer, Zaha.

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