Four Premier League matches take place on Wednesday evening as a mammoth Gameweek 36 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) slowly winds its way to a conclusion.
The north London derby will draw the Gameweek to a close tomorrow but there is plenty of Fantasy interest in tonight’s fixtures, with eight of the 12 ‘doublers’ in action.
Leeds United v Chelsea gets us underway at 19:30 BST, with Leicester City v Norwich City and Watford v Everton kicking off a quarter of an hour later. Finally, Wolverhampton Wanderers v Manchester City starts at 20:15 BST.
As for the team news, Thomas Tuchel has made four changes from the Blues’ disappointing 2-2 draw with Wolves.
Mason Mount is recalled along with Jorginho, Andreas Christensen and Trevoh Chalobah, as Cesar Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Timo Werner drop to the bench.
Marcos Alonso keeps his place as Tuchel attempts to draw a line under the tiff that he and the Spaniard had in the first half of Saturday’s game, while Kai Havertz has to again make do with a place among the substitutes.
Jesse Marsch has matched his opposite number and made four changes from the 2-1 defeat at Arsenal.
Rodrigo, Liam Cooper, Lewis Bate and Pascal Struijk come in for Junior Firpo, Mateusz Klich, Joe Gelhardt and the banned Luke Ayling.
The changes are plentiful at the King Power Stadium, too. Brendan Rodgers has made five of them, with James Maddison and James Justin both returning from injury to start.
Jamie Vardy, Harvey Barnes and Ademola Lookman also come into the team, as Wesley Fofana, Kelechi Iheanacho, Patson Daka, Ayoze Perez and Nampalys Mendy drop out. Fofana doesn’t even make the bench.
Dean Smith recalls Angus Gunn, Lukas Rupp, Dimitris Giannoulis and full debutant Tony Springett at the expense of the benched Tim Krul, Brandon Williams, Jacob Sørensen and Kieran Dowell.
Roy Hodgson has beaten all of the above managers for team tinkering, making seven alterations – six of which are enforced.
Jeremy Ngakia, Joao Pedro, Adam Masina, Ken Sema, Dan Gosling, Christian Kabasele and Samuel Kalu all start at Vicarage Road.
Craig Cathcart drops to the bench, while Kiko Femenia, Hassane Kamara, Tom Cleverley, Ismaila Sarr, Josh King and Emmanuel Dennis are absent through either suspension, illness or injury.
Frank Lampard, by contrast, makes just one tweak to his starting XI, and that too is enforced.
Yerry Mina is ruled out because of a minor calf injury, so the Colombian is replaced by Michael Keane at the back.
In the late kick-off, expected recalls for Fernandinho, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden have materialised. The benched Jack Grealish and Gabriel Jesus and the injured Ruben Dias drop out.
There is again no place in the starting XI for Riyad Mahrez, however; that’s a fourth straight Premier League benching for the Algerian.
A ‘working from home’ Bruno Lage, still ill with Covid, has kept the Wolves changes to a bare minimum, as Chiquinho makes his first Premier League start in place of the injured Romain Saiss.
GAMEWEEK 36 LINE-UPS
Leeds United XI: Meslier, Koch, Cooper, Llorente, Struijk, Bate, Phillips, Harrison, Raphinha, Rodrigo, James.
Subs: Klaesson, Firpo, Gelhardt, Hjelde, Cresswell, Greenwood, Klich, Shackleton, Gray.
Chelsea XI: Mendy, Chalobah, Rudiger, Christensen, Alonso, James, Kovacic, Jorginho, Pulisic, Mount, Lukaku.
Subs: Kepa, Silva, Werner, Loftus-Cheek, Barkley, Ziyech, Azpilicueta, Havertz, Sarr.
Leicester City XI: Schmeichel, Justin, Amartey, Evans, Castagne, Maddison, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Vardy, Lookman, Barnes.
Subs: Ward, Soyuncu, Albrighton, Iheanacho, Perez, Mendy, Daka, Thomas.
Norwich City XI: Gunn, Aarons, Hanley, Byram, Giannoulis, Rupp, Gilmour, Springett, Lees-Melou, Rashica, Pukki.
Subs: Krul, Gibson, Dowell, Placheta, Tzolis, Sorensen, Williams, Gibbs, Rowe.
Watford XI: Foster, Masina, Kabasele, Samir, Sema, Ngakia, Gosling, Sissoko, Kayembe, Kalu, Pedro.
Subs: Bachmann, Etebo, Ekong, Cathcart, Sierralta, Morris, Çukur, Blake, Grieves.
Everton XI: Pickford, Iwobi, Coleman, Keane, Holgate, Mykolenko, Gordon, Doucoure, Delph, Gray, Richarlison.
Subs: Begovic, Kenny, Allan, Calvert-Lewin, Gomes, Davies, Branthwaite, Rondon, Alli.
Wolverhampton Wanderers XI: Jose Sa, Boly, Coady, Jonny, Chiquinho, Dendoncker, Neves, Moutinho, Ait-Nouri, Jimenez, Neto.
Subs: Ruddy, Hoever, Marcal, Trincao, Mosquera, Silva, Toti, Hee-Chan, Cundle.
Manchester City XI: Ederson, Cancelo, Fernandinho, Laporte, Zinchenko, Rodri, Gundogan, Sterling, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Foden.
Subs: Steffen, Ake, Jesus, Grealish, Mahrez, Egan-Riley, Mbete, Palmer, Lavia.
