Dugout Discussion
23 August 2026 218 comments
avfc82 avfc82
Share:

Three more Premier League matches take place on Sunday, with a double-header up first at 2pm BST.

Brighton and Hove Albion host Aston Villa on the south coast, while Manchester City meet Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium.



TEAM NEWS

Man City boss Enzo Maresca makes two changes from last weekend’s Community Shield defeat by Arsenal.

Rico Lewis replaces the benched Mateo Kovacic, while the injured Jeremy Doku drops out for Marc Guehi.

Nico O’Reilly subsequently looks set to play in a more advanced role.

Erling Haaland unsurprisingly leads the line.

Alex Scott was suspended for Bournemouth’s final pre-season friendly. He’s the only change from that kickabout, with Alex Toth making way.

Finally, at the Amex, Fabian Hurzeler makes just one change from his final pre-seaason line-up: Lewis Dunk is in for Ferdi Kadioglu, who has a minor injury.

Maxim De Cuyper will likely play ‘out-of-position’ as a left winger.

There’s no Emiliano Martinez or Ollie Watkins in the Aston Villa squad due to ongoing transfer uncertainty.

New recruit Joao Gomes is fit to start for the visitors, however, while £4.5m midfielder George Hemmings is preferred to Alejandro Garnacho on the left flank.

Emiliano Buendia or Ross Barkley could lead the line in Watkins’ absence.

Other transfer window captures Zion Suzuki and Matteo Ruggeri are substitutes.

LINE-UPS

Brighton and Hove Albion XI: Verbruggen, Wieffer, Vuskovic, Dunk, Boscagli, Ayari, Gross, Gomez, Hinshelwood, De Cuyper, Rutter

Subs: Steele, Struijk, Promise, Osman, Kostoulas, Costinha, Svoboda, Yalcouye, Yohanna

Aston Villa XI: Bizot, Cash, Lindelof, Pau, Maatsen, Kamara, J Gomes, McGinn, Buendia, Hemmings, Barkley

Subs: Suzuki, Mings, Ruggeri, Garnacho, Bogarde, Rowe, Alysson, Burrowes, Lynch


Manchester City XI: Donnarumma, Khusanov, Dias, Guehi, Gvardiol, Lewis, Anderson, O’Reilly, Semenyo, Foden, Haaland

Subs: Rulli, Marmoush, Kovacic, Cherki, Nico, Grealish, Ait-Nouri, Reis, Nunes

Bournemouth XI: Petrovic, Smith, Hill, Silva, Truffert, Cook, Scott, Rayan, Kluivert, Tavernier, Evanilson

Subs: Dennis, Brooks, Gannon-Doak, Adams, Diakite, Juanlu, Toth, Jebbison, Rodriguez


LIVE GAMEWEEK PAGE + MATCH CENTRE

You can follow all the day’s action via the Live Gameweek page, which you can find in the all-new FPL Toolkit section.

Here you can follow the scores, watch the defensive contribution (DefCon) points roll in, see who the leading players are for xG and more as the games play out.

And there’s also the all-new Match Centre to explore.

A snapshot of this page can be seen below; it’s basically a condensed version of the one you can find in the Members Area.

debuts

FPL Stats Centre

218 Comments Login to Post a Comment
  1. TheBiffas
    • 5 Years
    4 mins ago

    4-0 is crazy but that Villa lineup is absolutely shambolic

  2. Bloody hate this randomness at the start of a season

  3. FPL Scoop
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    4 mins ago

    Good lord, Villa...

  4. Feanor
    • 17 Years
    4 mins ago

    Hinshelwood brace

  5. BobbyDoesNotLook
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    3 mins ago

    Dropped Gomez since everyone at Brighton forum hated him. Usually the more info I have gotten from team fan forums the more my FPL has failed 😀

  6. Wolfman180
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    3 mins ago

    Worst part of GW1 is watching all the players that you had in your team predeadline score and brace whilst the donkeys you ended up with do jack

  7. Anything for Groß yet apart from YC?

    1. TheBiffas
      • 5 Years
      3 mins ago

      Obviously not

      End the season already

      1. Haha no chance

  8. Gizzachance
    • 11 Years
    3 mins ago

    4 goals all gross has is a y /c

  9. Sun Jihai
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    3 mins ago

    Might captain an Arsenal player next GW

  10. MIGHTY JOE
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    2 mins ago

    BB mudded.

  11. tiger
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    2 mins ago

    Without Pep, Man City might just become average

  12. TheBiffas
    • 5 Years
    2 mins ago

    Scott is so good

  13. SpaceCadet
    • 12 Years
    2 mins ago

    4 goals and gros on 0 points. Bb save success.

  14. Camzy
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 16 Years
    2 mins ago

    Tbf if you thought Brighton attack was good, Hinshelwood was the one to go for based on the numbers from last season.

    I didn't think Villa were going to be this bad...

    1. AC/DC AFC
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      1 min ago

      I did tip him over Gross on here a couple of days ago

    2. TheBiffas
      • 5 Years
      just now

      Groß had similar PPM, inherited pens, and is 0.5 cheaper. Post this before the match next time

  15. AC/DC AFC
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    2 mins ago

    Brace for H

  16. JBG
    • 8 Years
    2 mins ago

    Hinshelswood legend!

  17. Ajax Hamsterdam
    • 12 Years
    2 mins ago

    Have been playing the game for 20 years and I think these de Cuyper and hinchelwood goals rank right up there with my favourite fpl moments ever. I nearly feel emotional lol...

  18. Thanos
    • 5 Years
    1 min ago

    Isak you better do something.
    Sacrificed DeCuyper for you

  19. GENERATION X
    • 12 Years
    1 min ago

    Laterisers boy but dont think he put him in

  20. Ball Ake
    • 2 Years
    1 min ago

    Hinshelwood 0.4% owned. As a Brighton fan I talked him up on here. Do I own him?, of course not. Nice scoreline though.

    1. I genuinely was shocked by his ownership. Every other half decent differential was at least 2%

  21. Go on Jack! I am the 0.4%

  22. The Philosopher
    • 6 Years
    just now

    Season over

  23. Nightf0x
    • 11 Years
    just now

    Ofc its hinshl my last transfer out for schade ops

  24. diesel001
    • 9 Years
    just now

    I reckon FPL is about 50% luck to 50% skill these days

    Eight years ago, Marc Rubenstein tweeted about the paradox of skill and how it applies to FPL

    The game has tilted more towards luck since then

    https://x.com/MarcRuby/status/1064214512205815809