Another Fantasy Premier League (FPL) deadline is fast approaching, with Gameweek 5 representing our first midweek round of fixtures in 2022/23.
And for the first time this season, we may not hear the latest injury news from every Premier League manager before the deadline. Brendan Rodgers and Erik ten Hag, for example, are set to face the media on Wednesday ahead of their meeting at the King Power Stadium the following day.
We’re also not getting bespoke Gameweek 5 press conferences from every manager, so in some cases, we’ll have to make do with some embargoed quotes from post-Gameweek 4 pressers that will be dribbled out over the coming days.
The managers of Chelsea, Everton, Leeds United and Southampton, for example, ought to have been facing journalists today ahead of their Tuesday night games, but weren’t on the schedule. We have, at least, heard from that quartet of head coaches in quotes newly released from Saturday.
What we do hear and know on the fitness front we’ll bring you in this article and in another one on Tuesday afternoon.
KEY UPDATES
- Tottenham Hotspur: Richarlison to start “for sure” soon
- Chelsea: Koulibaly returns, Gallagher banned
- Crystal Palace: Zaha and Mitchell a “wait and see”
- Everton: Maupay should make squad; Holgate out for weeks
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Lallana out; Veltman a doubt
- Leeds United: Bamford could return
- Southampton: No new concerns
- Fulham: Solomon and Wilson still out
- Brentford: Jansson touch and go
MONDAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
With a gruelling Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday schedule preceding the start of the UEFA Champions League group stage, rotation of some degree looks inevitable at Spurs in the next week.
Richarlison is one of the current fringe players who will be hoping to get more game-time across Gameweeks 5 and 6, and Antonio Conte said in Monday’s presser that he will “for sure” be in the starting XI in the coming week.
Conte initially said the Brazilian would start in the “next game” but when asked again, said that he meant in the near future rather than at West Ham specifically.
“I think about Richy we are really happy. We are talking about a player who can help us a lot in this season, we are talking about a player who is really good addition especially up front. In the past at Tottenham, [we] didn’t have a player of this level behind Harry, behind Son. Now we have a really good player and is in the best moment of his career to stay at Tottenham and to show his talent.
“Now every time he’s playing, for 20, 30, 40 minutes, he’s playing very well. For sure, in the next game(s), you will see him from the starting XI.
“I didn’t say this [that he will definitely start against West Ham]! I said that probably in the future you can see in the starting XI, Richarlison. Then if the game is against West Ham, Fulham or Marseille, then I have to decide. Not specific.” – Antonio Conte on Richarlison
Oliver Skipp (foot), Cristian Romero (muscle), Bryan Gil (unspecified) and Lucas Moura (tendon) are likely to be sidelined for the midweek trip to east London but most of them are on the cusp of a return.
“About Romero and Skippy, today they had the training session with us. For sure we have to wait to tell that they are completely recovered. But this is a good sign for us.
“Lucas has this inflammation in his tendon. I hope to recover him very soon. For sure, when I was a player, I had a lot of pain in my tendon. And you know very well that inflammation in the tendon doesn’t finish in only one weeks, two weeks, and I hope to have him early with us. Gil is not still available but in two to three days will start to work, to recover.” – Antonio Conte
CHELSEA
It’s one in, one out on the suspension front for Chelsea as Kalidou Koulibaly returns from a one-match ban but Conor Gallagher sits out Gameweek 5 after his red card on Saturday.
In freshly released quotes from the post-match presser that Thomas Tuchel delivered on Saturday, the Chelsea boss also revealed that Mateo Kovacic is not ready to last the course in a Premier League game.
N’Golo Kante remains out until after the international break, meanwhile.
“The headache before the season was ‘do we have too many players there?’. It comes to the fifth game of the season and maybe we have only two left with experience in this position, and Kova from the bench. At the moment he’s not ready to play full matches at Premier League level. He has only had one week of training after his injury.” – Thomas Tuchel
Elsewhere, Reece James was namechecked when Tuchel was asked about Cesar Azpilicueta‘s current lack of game-time.
“At the moment, it is one of the toughest decisions because he trains so good and is in such good shape and status mentally. He is pushing everybody, he is fully committed – it’s normally what you want on the field.
“But with the decision to play 4-4-2, it’s at the moment him or Reece James. It’s a luxury problem we have, but when we changed to a back five [against Leicester], we had the chance to have both of them on the pitch.
“Without tough decisions, we will get nowhere. We are used to competing for every title at Chelsea, to competing at the highest level. If we don’t have tough decisions, it will simply not happen.
“We hopefully have 60 matches, but to have 60 matches, we have to have a squad where everybody is ready to place and have a lot of difficult decisions to make.” – Thomas Tuchel
CRYSTAL PALACE
Patrick Vieira didn’t give us much to go off when it comes to the Crystal Palace team news for Gameweek 5, saying only that the Eagles would have to “wait and see” on injury concerns Wilfried Zaha and Tyrick Mitchell.
Zaha missed the defeat at Manchester City with a knee problem, while Mitchell limped off at the Etihad with what seemed like a muscular issue.
“We have to wait and see tomorrow because they did some training. They did individual and some team training and we have to wait and see how they will recover tomorrow.” – Patrick Vieira
EVERTON
Frank Lampard didn’t host a press conference today but he did have the good grace to give us some team news in the aftermath of the Toffees’ draw with Brentford.
Neal Maupay should be in the squad to face Leeds United but Mason Holgate is facing weeks on the sidelines.
“Neal trained [on Saturday] at the training ground and we will all be in [on Sunday], so he’ll be able to train with some players who didn’t get lots of minutes against Brentford. We’ll see where he is but he’ll be involved in the squad I’m pretty sure.
“Mason opened up his knee and felt some pain so we’re going to scan it in the next day or so. The feeling is it’ll be weeks, as a maximum, we hope. It may take him out of the next couple of games, for sure, but I don’t want to jump the gun too much on that. Hopefully, it’s not a really bad injury but we’ll scan it in two days’ time.
“As much as it’s difficult in the squad, you need cover and you need to be stable. The ones who aren’t playing don’t like not playing and the ones that are playing hopefully give you stability, so in the moments when Mason comes out and Keano comes on… We’ve got also Seamus there, Ruben that can play left-wing back and Myko who can play left centre-back.” – Frank Lampard, speaking on Saturday
Yerry Mina (ankle), Ben Godfrey (fractured fibula), Abdoulaye Doucoure (hamstring), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (knee) and Andros Townsend (ACL) are also sidelined for the Toffees.
BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION
Adam Lallana (calf) is likely out until the other side of the international break, while Albion will assess Joel Veltman, who came off on Saturday with some stiffness in his neck. Graham Potter said the Dutchman was “better today” and that he would be assessed closer to kick-off.
“We’re just assessing Joel Veltman, obviously he came off at the weekend with a bit of stiffness in his neck and a bit of dizzyness. Reported better today, we’ll take as long as we can to make that decision. Everybody else will be fine and it’s pretty much as you were.” – Graham Potter
Jakub Moder (knee) is a long-term absentee.
LEEDS UNITED
Patrick Bamford (groin) could be back in the Leeds squad to face Everton, while assessment continues on Liam Cooper (calf) after he reinjured himself on the cusp of a comeback.
“Patrick Bamford will be really close for that match, so we should have options.
“[Liam Cooper] picked up a little something in his calf and so we just again decided to be a little bit safe.” – Jesse Marsch, speaking on Saturday
Stuart Dallas (leg), Luke Ayling (knee) and Junior Firpo (knee) remain out.
Having not made any unenforced changes to his starting XI this season, Jesse Marsch was also asked about the prospect of Mateusz Klich and Luis Sinisterra starting in Gameweek 5 with the fixtures coming thick and fast.
“I think that we think both are in good form. I thought both played very well against Barnsley. Klichy’s clearly 100% fit and I think that Luis is getting more and more fit. So I think that both will be candidates for the starting XI.
“And then we’ll just try to evaluate physically where guys are at so that we will see who’s ready to repeat-and-go – it’s a good thing that we didn’t push too many guys midweek [in the EFL Cup].” – Jesse Marsch, speaking on Saturday
SOUTHAMPTON
The team news was short and sweet on the Saints website, which said that the club has no fresh injury concerns ahead of Tuesday’s meeting with Chelsea.
Tino Livramento (knee) is out long-term.
FULHAM
Marco Silva didn’t report any fresh concerns in his pre-match presser but Manor Solomon (knee) and Harry Wilson (knee) remain sidelined for the foreseeable future.
BRENTFORD
Kristoffer Ajer (match fitness) and Pontus Jansson (foot) could be involved against Crystal Palace but the pair remain close calls for the Tuesday game.
“[Jansson’s] foot is better. It will be touch and go if he’s available but we’d like to take our chances on it – if he’s ready to play, he will play.
“Sergi, not. He’s still a tiny bit away, to be sure. He’s training in small bits to make sure there’s no re-injury risk.
“With Ajer, it’s about fitness. He played his first minutes for the B-Team, he did well and could be involved tomorrow. But it could also be that we actually want him to play a game or two more before he’s where he should be.
“Pinnock, I shouted at him earlier to say work harder! No, he’s working very hard. He’s at a place where he’s training by himself but he’s on the pitch, and he’s been doing that for a couple of weeks.” – Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank also confirmed that Mikkel Damsgaard won’t be ready to start, while he hinted at a couple of changes at Selhurst Park:
“The balance between rotating with freshness and energy. How many players can you do it with? Probably four/five is too much but one is [not enough]. That’s my thinking: should I freshen up a tiny bit? Plus you still want to go with the team that has done well. So that is the decision I have to make before tomorrow.” – Thomas Frank
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