Sterling benched as Guardiola subjects Man City to heavy rotation

Pep Guardiola has struck perhaps the cruellest rotation blow of 2019/20 as he benched a swathe of Manchester City assets for an appealing home match against Bournemouth.

Raheem Sterling (£11.8m), Kevin De Bruyne (£10.8m) and Riyad Mahrez (£8.6m) were all among those selected to watch the initial proceedings among the substitutes.

That could prove a particularly disastrous development among the top 10,000 Fantasy Premier League managers with roughly 20% of them handing Sterling the armband for Gameweek 36+ and just over 10% opting for De Bruyne.

Gabriel Jesus (£9.8m) and Phil Foden (£5.5m) are among the fortunate souls to survive Guardiola’s infamous rotation policy, both named in the front-three alongside Bernardo Silva (£7.6m).

There will be plenty of attention on David Silva (£7.3m) who scored 17 points in his last home match against Newcastle.

The points potential for all Manchester City attackers has certainly taken a boost from the Bournemouth line-up, which features left-back Lloyd Kelly (£4.4m) filling in at centre-back again, this time alongside Steve Cook (£5.0m).

Meanwhile, not even Aymeric Laporte (£6.3m) could escape Guardiola’s roulette, selected on the bench to allow John Stones (£5.3m) and Nicolas Otamendi (£4.8m) to start together at centre-back.

Manchester City were not the only team to shuffle the pack for Gameweek 36+ with Wolves also making some alterations to key personnel.

Matt Doherty (£6.5m) has dropped to the bench, which means a start at right wing-back for Adama Traoré (£5.6m).

The FPL midfielder’s drop back to a deeper role has left a space open in the front-three, where Daniel Podence (£4.9m) joins Diogo Jota (£6.0m) and Raúl Jiménez (£8.1m).

Wolves face a Burnley side which still features Erik Pieters (£4.2m) in midfield and Jay Rodriguez (£5.7m) up-front with Chris Wood (£6.1m).

Finally, Spurs are in action at Newcastle, with their key Fantasy assets all in place, even Serge Aurier (£5.1m) whose family have faced a difficult week.

The right-back is joined in the team by Son Heung-min (£9.6m) and Harry Kane (£10.9m) while Newcastle go with a 4-2-3-1 formation in support of Dwight Gayle (£5.0m).

Full Line-ups

Burnley XI: Pope; C Taylor, Tarkowski, K Long, Bardsley; McNeil, Westwood, Brownhill, Pieters; Rodriguez, Wood.

Wolves XI: Patrício; Saïss, Coady, Boly; Vinagre, Neves, Moutinho, Traoré; D Jota, Jiménez, Podence.

Manchester City XI: Ederson; Mendy, Otamendi, Stones, Walker; Fernandinho, Gündogan, D Silva; Foden, Jesus, B Silva.

Bournemouth XI: Ramsdale; Rico, L Kelly, S Cook, Stacey; J King, Billing, Lerma, Gosling, Stanislas; Solanke.

Newcastle United XI: Dúbravka; Yedlin, Fernández, Schär, Krafth; Shelvey, Bentaleb; Ritchie, Almirón, Saint-Maximin; Gayle.

Tottenham Hotspur XI: Lloris; B Davies, Sánchez, Alderweireld, Aurier; Winks, Sissoko; Son, Lo Celso, Moura; Kane.