Aubameyang set for more central role as Lacazette and Nketiah are benched

The penultimate Premier League match of the day sees Leeds United play host to Arsenal at Elland Road.

Kick-off is at 16:30 GMT.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.7m) – who hasn’t found the back of the net from open play in over two months – will be aiming to add to his paltry 2020/21 goal tally against a Leeds side that had the joint-worst defensive record in the division heading into this weekend.

And Mikel Arteta’s team selection may give him an additional boost, with the Gabon international set to lead the line given that Alexandre Lacazette (£8.4m) and Eddie Nketiah (£5.6m) are both among the substitutes.

Arteta has hoodwinked us before with his teamsheets, of course, notably when deploying Willian (£7.7m) as a false nine against Manchester City, but his pre-match comments to Sky Sports suggest there is no such deception this time:

I mentioned that it is one of the options we have. We think we have a squad who score goals, a lot with Auba in his natural position on the left, so we will modify that depending on the opponent and the games.

Lacazette’s benching is one of four changes that the Arsenal boss has made from Gameweek 8.

Two of the alterations are enforced, with Thomas Partey (£5.0m) absent with a thigh injury and Mohamed Elneny (£4.4m) self-isolating after a positive coronavirus test.

Dani Ceballos (£4.9m), Nicolas Pepe (£7.6m), Joe Willock (£4.8m) and Granit Xhaka (£5.3m) are the players recalled, with Bukayo Saka (£5.3m) only a substitute after his exertions for England over the international break.

Marcelo Bielsa makes two changes to the Leeds starting line-up following their thrashing at Crystal Palace.

Brazilian Raphinha (£5.4m) makes his first Premier League start, with Helder Costa (£5.6m) omitted.

Kalvin Phillips (£4.9m) is back from a shoulder injury, meanwhile, with Pascal Struijk (£4.0m) the makeweight to accommodate his return.

Rodrigo (£5.7m) is available after his recent stint in self-isolation but is only among the substitutes.

Patrick Bamford (£6.1m) is by some distance the most-owned player in this fixture, sitting in more than one in three FPL squads.

That figure rises to 41.5% in the top 10k.

Bamford has actually blanked in his last three home fixtures although did rack up a 14-point haul at Elland Road in Gameweek 2.

Leeds United XI: Meslier, Ayling, Koch, Cooper, Dallas, Phillips, Klich, Alioski, Raphinha, Harrison, Bamford.

Arsenal XI: Leno, Bellerín, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Xhaka, Ceballos, Pepe, Willock, Willian, Aubameyang.

Check your latest FPL rank LIVE on LiveFPL.net every Gameweek

Become a Member and get unrestricted access to our data and articles

Full-year memberships are now available for the price of £19.99. Monthly subscriptions also cost just £2.99. A FREE trial is now available during December.

Join now to get the following:

• Plot your transfer strategies using the fully interactive Season Ticker.
• Get projections for every Premier League player provided by the Rate My Team statistical model.
• Use Rate My Team throughout the season to guide your selections and transfers.
• Get access to over 150+ exclusive members articles over the season.
• Analyse our OPTA-powered statistic tables specifically tailored for Fantasy Football Managers.
• Use our exclusive tool to build custom stats tables from over 100 OPTA player and team stats.
• Enjoy our brand NEW Flat-Track Bully feature which introduces an opposition filter to your tables.
• View heatmaps and expected goals data for every player.
• Use our powerful comparison tool to analyse players head-to-head.

ALREADY A USER? CLICK HERE TO UPGRADE YOUR FREE ACCOUNT

NEW TO SCOUT? CLICK HERE TO START A MEMBERSHIP ACCOUNT