We’re straight back into the pre-match press conferences today, with the Gameweek 27 deadline fast approaching.
There are 10 Premier League managers facing the media on Monday, eight of whom lead their teams into action on Tuesday.
The headline team news from these pressers is in the article below.
We should hear from the other 10 Premier League bosses on Tuesday.
GAMEWEEK 27 TEAM NEWS: MONDAY’S INJURY UPDATES
- Aston Villa: Rogers + Mings to be assessed, Pau close, likely too soon for Barkley
- Chelsea: Chalobah injured, Jorgensen set to keep his place, Maresca on Palmer
- Bournemouth: Cherries appeal Zabarnyi ban, Iraola on Evanilson’s fitness
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Welbeck + Veltman remain concerns, Dunk still sidelined
- Fulham: Smith Rowe + Cairney to be assessed after knocks, three out
- Wolverhampton Wanderers: Guedes, Agbadou, Rodrigo + Hwang still out
- Brentford: Norgaard out with a concussion, no one returns
- Crystal Palace: No new issues from the weekend, Glasner on rotation
- Ipswich Town: Phillips + Cajuste to have scans, Chaplin trains
- Southampton: Bednarek to miss out, Harwood-Bellis may return
GAMEWEEK 27 TEAM NEWS: MONDAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE TIMES
ASTON VILLA
Tyrone Mings (knee) and Morgan Rogers (knock) will be assessed ahead of Villa’s clash with Crystal Palace.
Both players were substituted off in the win over Chelsea on Saturday.
“We are going to train this afternoon and after we are going to travel to Palace. We will see. I don’t know exactly, of course, we played on Saturday and we did a very big effort, physically and mentally. We have to recover firstly physically and secondly our energy. It’s going to be very important tomorrow.” – Unai Emery
“I don’t know [if they will train]. [Mings’] wishes, always he’s showing us, is to play, even when he was telling me on Saturday that he was not good. When I subbed him, he was telling me he could continue playing. He’s a very important player for us.
“The idea is to try to have subs performing well as well when we are not having every player available to play. One of them of course is Morgan Rogers but in case he will not be available for tomorrow, of course we are going to use another player and believe in our squad, in the players we have, to try to help in the moment we will need them.” – Unai Emery on Morgan Rogers and Tyrone Mings
The trip to Selhurst Park likely comes too soon for Ross Barkley (calf/knee), while Boubacar Kamara (hamstring) and Amadou Onana (unknown) will be out until March.
Loanee Axel Disasi is available again after he was ineligible to face the Blues, however.
Pau Torres (foot) is closing in on a return, too.
“We are progressively getting players with some players who are injured. Axel Disasi as well can play tomorrow. Tyrone Mings, we’ll see how he’s feeling for tomorrow. Konsa, after his comeback on Saturday, he felt good. Pau is close to adding to us. Maybe this week, maybe next week.” – Unai Emery
CHELSEA
Trevoh Chalobah has joined the injury list ahead of Gameweek 27. The defender appeared to be clutching his back when forced off early against Aston Villa on Saturday and will miss the trip to Southampton.
“He had a check yesterday and he will be around one week or 10 days. On the one side, it’s good because it’s not an important injury. On the other side, it’s a shame because we lose another player at this moment with the amount of injuries that we have.” – Enzo Maresca
Noni Madueke (hamstring), Romeo Lavia (muscle), Marc Guiu (hamstring), Benoit Badiashile (muscle) and Nicolas Jackson (hamstring) also remain sidelined.
Mykhailo Mudryk is still provisionally banned by the Football Association, too.
Wesley Fofana (hamstring) could be involved, however, if only as a substitute.
Away from injuries, Enzo Maresca seemed to confirm that Filip Jorgensen will remain in goal despite his Gameweek 26 error.
“Yeah, for sure. If we need to change players every time there is a mistake, we will need to change players game by game, many players. But no, nothing changed.” – Enzo Maresca on whether Filip Jorgensen’s error hasn’t changed his thinking in terms of who starts in goal
Maresca was also asked about Cole Palmer‘s dip in form.
“No, I’m not concerned. I’m always concerned about general performances, I’m not concerned about Cole because Cole is a human being and during the season, he can have some moments where he struggles a little bit more. The problem with Cole is probably that we rely on Cole for everything. I’ve said since we start, we need to rely on the team. For sure, we need big players, top players like Cole, but we are not worried about Cole at all.” – Enzo Maresca on Cole Palmer
Pedro Neto started up top on Saturday and may be set to do so again at Southampton.
“Yeah, could be a good option. We tried with Pedro days before the game and we see that he could do that. It was a positive one. The performance in general, I think, was positive. Some players, Enzo [Fernandez] was fantastic, even Reece after a long time [playing] 90 minutes, struggled in some moments but it is normal – overall, his performance was very good. Pedro, now with the Nico [Jackson] injury and the Marc Guiu injury, both strikers injured, could be a good option for us.” – Enzo Maresca on Pedro Neto playing up front
BOURNEMOUTH
Andoni Iraola couldn’t offer us much in the way of team news on Monday.
“I don’t know, I really don’t know. We are training this evening and we’ll see how they recover. Yesterday was a recovery day. I don’t know, today we’ll see how the players train, who is available for the game, who is available to start, who has more issues, but right now I don’t know.” – Andoni Iraola when asked if he had any fresh injury concerns
Illia Zabarnyi starts a three-match ban after his dismissal for serious foul play on Saturday – although Bournemouth are appealing the defender’s sending off. They’ll find out the results of that on Monday.
Enes Unal (knee), Julian Araujo (hamstring) and Marcos Senesi (quad) remain on the sidelines for the Cherries. We’re assuming it’s too soon for Adam Smith (muscle), too, although the surprise appearance of Evanilson (foot) on the bench at the weekend makes us question everything.
Speaking of Evanilson, Iraola was grilled on how fit the Brazilian striker was.
“With Eva, the problem is not his injury – it’s that he hasn’t trained. Obviously he’s training with us so he has recovered from the injury but when you have a bone injury, it’s not like other injuries where you can train, you can run, you can sprint, you can do a lot of things. With the bone injury, you have to wait until it heals. So basically you have to just keep it there, 2-3 weeks with the [protective] boot. So, he has lost a lot of training. Probably it’s a matter more of the shape he is in right now than the proper injury.
“I think he could start. The problem would be I don’t know how [long] he would last because he lacks the training days, the process that you normally go [through].” – Andoni Iraola, when asked if Evanilson would have to be eased back in
The Cherries boss was asked about the quick turnaround between matches, as well as playing an hour with 10 men in Gameweek 26.
“I know that we made a very big effort, the physical stats of the game were incredible from our players from the ones that finished the game. We had to make an extra effort because at the end you are playing one down and you want to go for the game. Obviously this takes a toll but I’m not too worried because we’ve shown this season that even playing every three days, our performance levels, even with the same players playing 90 minutes, they’ve been really good. I expect the same for tomorrow.” – Andoni Iraola
BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION
Lewis Dunk (ribs) isn’t ready to return and will miss out for the third straight Gameweek.
“No, there’s no chance [of him being available].” – Fabian Hurzeler on Lewis Dunk
Jason Steele (shoulder), James Milner (hamstring), Ferdi Kadioglu (toe) and Igor Julio (hamstring) also remain sidelined.
As for Danny Welbeck and Joel Veltman, who missed Gameweek 26 with unspecified issues, they remain concerns.
“I’m still concerned about Joel, concerned about Danny, and therefore we have to wait how the training will go today and then we can make a decision. These two are still doubtful.
“In the end, we have an important [cup] match again on Sunday so we won’t take any risks.” – Fabian Hurzeler
If Welbeck misses out again, then Joao Pedro could continue up top.
“For me, it’s more important how he behaves as a team player and he proved it the last week that he really was supportive with his teammates. Although he was not starting, he was always there for his teammates, he supported them and that showed me that he’s really committed to this club. He showed me that he really supports and wants to be the team player everyone needs from him and therefore I’m really happy that he now came back on the pitch and deserves what he gets because of his behaviour, because of his training in the last weeks and also, of course, because of his quality.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Joao Pedro
Pervis Estupinan returned to the matchday squad on Saturday and “is an option” for the starting XI, according to Hurzeler.
FULHAM
Emile Smith Rowe (knock) and Tom Cairney (knock) are minor concerns for the trip to Molineux.
The two limped off on Saturday and while they’ve avoided serious injury, the quick turnaround may be a factor.
“We [assessed] yesterday, as you expected. We are going to have another session today, we are going to assess the players when they start to arrive at the training ground and after we have to take a decision for the game tomorrow. Right now, it’s difficult to say if [Smith Rowe] is going to be ready, or not. Probably, yes [a chance].
“[Cairney] is the same. Both they were knocks. Not something that, right now, I consider to be really serious, it’s not that type of injury. Something that can be quickly recovered or can take a little bit more, 1-2 days. Because the game is really close, let’s see if they can be ready.” – Marco Silva
Reiss Nelson (hamstring), Kenny Tete (knee) and Harry Wilson (foot) remain on the longer-term injury list.
“In some positions, we are capable to do it definitely because we have some positions that the competitiveness is really good. Other positions we are really short. You have to see, you have to assess the players if they are in conditions or not because we don’t want to take risks with some players. The wide areas of attack we are really, really short. In other positions, too. You have to assess them to see. Of course, in this type of [week] when you play three and three days, you are always on the edge of something happening, but we are going to try to manage as much of the load as we can.” – Marco Silva on the prospect of rotating in midweek
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
Rodrigo Gomes (pelvis), Hwang Hee-chan (hamstring), Emmanuel Agbadou (muscle) and likely Goncalo Guedes (knee) won’t be ready to return on Tuesday.
“They are working to recover but they are out of the game. Agbadou, Chan, Rodrigo and maybe Guedes.
“I think [Guedes] went in the morning for an MRI. We will see. I think he has pain on the knee. Difficult to recover for the game.” – Vitor Pereira
Longer-term absentees Sasa Kalajdzic (knee), Yerson Mosquera (knee), Leon Chiwome (knee) and Enso Gonzalez (knee) also remain sidelined.
“Larsen is better now, of course. He played 45 minutes, he’s recovering his fitness but I think now he is in condition to help the team.” – Vitor Pereira on Jorgen Strand Larsen, who returned as a substitute at the weekend
BRENTFORD
Christian Norgaard (head) will miss the visit of Everton as he has to observe the concussion protocol.
“Unfortunately, not. He will be out with a concussion. He felt fine on the pitch, got a little bit worse at half-time, so we unfortunately had to sub him off.
“He’s out, unfortunately.” – Thomas Frank on whether Christian Norgaard will be available
Sepp van den Berg (knee), Mathias Jensen (muscle), Josh Dasilva (knee), Gustavo Nunes (back), Igor Thiago (joint infection), Rico Henry (hamstring) and Aaron Hickey (hamstring) remain out.
“Nope, same squad except Christian for tomorrow.” – Thomas Frank on whether any of his longer-term absentees will be returning
CRYSTAL PALACE
The Eagles have come through their victory over Fulham unscathed.
“Good! Of course, always after winning, the mood is good and everybody is feeling well. The players are fit. We have no [new] injuries, and so all good.” – Oliver Glasner when asked how his team were looking after Saturday
Three players remain unavailable, however.
Chadi Riad and Cheick Doucoure are out for the season with knee injuries, while Joel Ward has been sidelined since late 2024 with an unspecified issue.
“We have to think about what’s best for the Aston Villa game, how they play and finding the perfect fit. And also, maybe some players are a little bit fatigued.
“Finding the right mix, the right players, we still have one-and-a-half days more to take decisions.
“Adam is doing well, he’s fine, and it’s possible that he starts the game.” – Oliver Glasner when asked if Adam Wharton would start in midweek
IPSWICH TOWN
Wes Burns (knee), Chiedozie Ogbene (Achilles) and Christian Walton (groin) are all on the medium-to-long-term injury list.
Julio Enciso (knee) also remains unavailable.
Conor Chaplin (knee) has been involved in training since the end of last week, so is nearing a playing return.
Kalvin Phillips (calf) and Jens Cajuste (ankle) both hobbled off in Gameweek 26. They’ll get scan results today to determine the extent of their injuries and whether they’ll be fit to feature on Wednesday.
“Jens and Kalvin going off was a blow. They’re still being assessed, to be honest, so we don’t know the severity.
“It looks like, hopefully, neither is a very, very serious injury. But they’re still getting some scans and assessments.
“Honestly, I don’t think we can rule anything in or out. That’s not being flippant. They’re getting some scans this morning which we’ll get the results of this afternoon. We don’t think either injury is severe and we can’t put any timescale on them at the minute.” – Kieran McKenna, as quoted by the EADT
Axel Tuanzebe returns from a one-match ban.
SOUTHAMPTON
Jan Bednarek has avoided serious injury despite limping out of Saturday’s defeat to Brighton. Nevertheless, he will miss the trip to Chelsea with a “bit of [muscle] fatigue”.
Loanee Lesley Ugochukwu can’t face his parent club, either. Ivan Juric said that he “thinks” Flynn Downes will start in midfield instead.
In better news, Juric said that Taylor Harwood-Bellis (ankle) could be back involved.
“Of course, we have problems with the left centre-back and now without Bednarek. Harwood-Bellis will be in the team, I think so. If he does training today, he will come to the bench.” – Ivan Juric
Longer-term injury victims Juan Larios (unknown) and Ross Stewart (hamstring), who are back in training, built up their minutes with the under-21s on Friday.
Adam Lallana (hamstring) remains out. Given the lack of an update, we’re assuming Ryan Fraser (calf) is still sidelined, too.
