Sergio Aguero (£11.6m) owners were handed an unexpected boost on Tuesday afternoon as it was confirmed that Gabriel Jesus (£10.0m) had not trained ahead of the Gameweek 28 clash with West Ham.
The Argentinian striker was forced into a 120-minute outing for Manchester City in the League Cup final on Sunday which had caused concern over his minutes for a midweek Premier League clash.
However, with serious doubt over whether or not Jesus will be fit to play, it looks as if Pep Guardiola’s only option will be to deploy Aguero up front against the Hammers.
Raheem Sterling (£11.3m) is theoretically capable of playing as a false-nine but was also subjected to a 120-minute involvement at Wembley over the weekend.
John Stones (£5.2m), Aymeric Laporte (£6.0m) and Fernandinho (£5.3m) were also ruled out.
“We were without John Stones and Gabriel Jesus (for the League Cup final) and they are still out. I don’t know how long (they will be out). Next weeks they are out but hopefully, after the international break I think John and Gabriel will be back soon, but the other two hopefully, maybe the Swansea game or after the international break” – Pep Guardiola
Meanwhile, Manchester United could be without 10 players for their trip to Crystal Palace on Wednesday.
The chief concern from a Fantasy perspective is over Marcus Rashford (£7.7m) who Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was unable to provide a concrete update on in his Tuesday press conference.
“Rash(ford) we’re still waiting to see how his ankle is responding to the treatment, muscle injuries are too early to think about. That’s it.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
The England international’s chances of playing midweek are fairly low considering the tight turnaround between games.
Anthony Martial (£7.2m) is definitely ruled out of the trip to Selhurst Park, while Jesse Lingard (£6.7m) looks doubtful too. There was no update on Ander Herrera (£5.0m), Juan Mata (£6.1m) or Nemanja Matic (£5.0m), but the latter is expected to be out until at least March.
For that reason, Solskjaer looks limited in what he can deploy in midfield and attack tomorrow night, as you can see from our predicted line-up HERE.
“Martial is not going to be ready for this one, either, we can’t risk it. So maybe (he will be ready for) Southampton, but we’re not going risk anther one.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Defence looks less of an issue for Manchester United with Phil Jones (illness), Matteo Darmian (knock) and Antonio Valencia (knock) the only doubts. Marcos Rojo (£4.9m) has been declared fit but will have to compete with Chris Smalling (£5.6m), Victor Lindelöf (£5.0m) and Eric Bailly (£5.0m) for a start at centre-back.
Bournemouth’s injury crisis continues to leave them shorthanded as Callum Wilson (£6.3m) and Junior Stanislas (£6.0m) were ruled out for Gameweek 28, although there was no update on David Brooks (£5.0m).
“We haven’t seen (Callum) Wilson and (Junior) Stanislas in training, so they’ll definitely be out. We need to make sure we don’t rush each of the lads back too soon.” – Eddie Howe
More importantly for owners of Arsenal attacking assets, there are further absences at the back for Bournemouth as Steve Cook (£4.4m) was ruled out with his ongoing groin problem. Central midfielder Jefferson Lerma (£4.5m) is also missing through suspension.
“Steve Cook has had a long-standing groin problem. He’s had some moments where it has been better than others, but it got to the point where it was too much ahead of the weekend. He’s a big loss for us.” – Eddie Howe
Liverpool’s injury problems are certainly not as bad as they could have been. Roberto Firmino (£9.2m) remains a doubt but his ankle is not looking as serious as Klopp initially feared.
“It looks good. We were obviously lucky. It’s not as serious as we thought. It will be, of course, because we play tomorrow, it will be very close for that. But it will be a big chance for the derby. Because it’s Bobby I would say yes (there is a chance he could play), but I don’t know if I would use that chance because we played on Sunday and then Wednesday. Writing Bobby is a big mistake because he recovers pretty quick.” – Jurgen Klopp.
There was no update on the centre-back situation at Liverpool, while Naby Keita (£7.1m) was revealed to have suffered an illness in the last few days. As for how these updates affect Liverpool’s predicted line-up, check out our TEAM NEWS PAGEhttps://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/team-news/.
“Naby was ill yesterday, unfortunately. I got a message that he is back for today but we have to see how he is.” – Jurgen Klopp
For all of yesterday’s team news READ THIS ARTICLE.
For more detail and our predicted line-ups check out our TEAM NEWS PAGE.
