Dugout Discussion
23 August 2026 297 comments
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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

297 Comments Login to Post a Comment
  1. Bobby Digital
    • 9 Years
    8 mins ago

    Do something, Haaland!

    1. Magic Zico
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      just now

      Yep please

  2. GENERATION X
    • 12 Years
    8 mins ago

    Res coming Villa

    1. GENERATION X
      • 12 Years
      7 mins ago

      Red

    2. FPL Blow-In
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      5 mins ago

      Some debut

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

        I think I'm watching the wrong match

  3. TheBiffas
    • 5 Years
    7 mins ago

    A premium membership pop up every time you switch between comments pages is a little excessive no?

    1. CoracAld2831
      • 5 Years
      4 mins ago

      Yes.

      Very annoying when you are a mobile user.

    2. x.jim.x
      • 11 Years
      2 mins ago

      Don't you dare complain or you'll get called embarrassing and told to stop coming here by one of the mods

      1. Brosstan
        • 12 Years
        just now

        That really happened? Some other mod was giving people advice on how to block the ads lol

  4. Warby84
    • 11 Years
    7 mins ago

    I only left Hinsh out due to transfer rumours

  5. Royal5
    • 15 Years
    7 mins ago

    Anderson awful so far

    1. el polako
      • 9 Years
      2 mins ago

      Kalvin Philips 2.0

      1. Royal5
        • 15 Years
        just now

        Could be

  6. tiger
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    7 mins ago

    Villa red card 😀
    Gomes

  7. TheTinman
    • 11 Years
    7 mins ago

    Oh my days Aston Villa wow

  8. City look scary going forward, you can tell none of this Pep shut up shop when 2-0 up will happen this season!

    1. Yeah but open to the counter too.
      Happy to have O’Reilly and Haaland. Looks like one can put it on a plate for the other.

  9. De cruyper punt paid off so far

    1. jacob1989
      • 4 Years
      4 mins ago

      Rank top 1000?

      1. Does it even matter at this srage?

  10. jacob1989
    • 4 Years
    6 mins ago

    What a shame i selected verbruggen and d gomes.

  11. Fifa las vegas
    • 14 Years
    6 mins ago

    Go hunt down that hattrick Hinshelwood

  12. Hinsh saving my gameweek

    1. jacob1989
      • 4 Years
      1 min ago

      Saving? More like an absolute awesome gw for u

  13. Went Gomez over Gross near the end of last season, Gomez got injured first half. Went Gross over Gomez this season of course...

  14. Emery still the best manager in the League? Hahahahahahahahaha

    1. x.jim.x
      • 11 Years
      4 mins ago

      Man's boxing shadows bigtime

    2. FPL Blow-In
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      3 mins ago

      Not his fault

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

      Definitely his fault, this...

  15. JBG
    • 8 Years
    6 mins ago

    Villa RC.

    Cuntent Creators on twitter tried to steer people away from Brighton assets, saying Villa have a great record against Brighton, which is true... but massive context was missing. Villa are horrendous, specially after missing multiple key players.

    1. Zilla
      • 8 Years
      4 mins ago

      Didn't see that but also few pushed that Brighton won't be focusing on this game due to the European fixture.

    2. BobbyDoesNotLook
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      4 mins ago

      Main reason I dropped Gross and Gomez was that for some reason they played big minutes in Europe Mickey Mouse cup. Most of the other PL teams have played second tier players at this stage of the same Euro league.

    3. FPL Blow-In
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      3 mins ago

      People need to make their own decisions and not whinge because a decision they made was suggested by a content creator.

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

      The biggest content creator of them all went De Cuyper to be fair

      1. TyroneGAA
        • 9 Years
        just now

        Oh wow a 4.5m midfielder anyone who needs an enabler will have him

  16. TochanMama
    • 14 Years
    6 mins ago

    What a bad ebening for Villa

  17. Feanor
    • 17 Years
    5 mins ago

    Idiotic by Emery to leave Gomes out there after the yellow. He clearly had lost his rag.

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

      Can't disagree with that; should arguably have had a second yellow already anyway.

  18. Ninja Škrtel
    • 12 Years
    5 mins ago

    Cherki is City's best player and biggest enabler for Haaland. Maresca must play him.

  19. Zilla
    • 8 Years
    5 mins ago

    This is gross.

    1. JBG
      • 8 Years
      4 mins ago

      Sure is for his owners

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

    Joao Gomes with one of the worst debuts I remember seeing.

    1. el polako
      • 9 Years
      just now

      Ali Dia did better

  21. jacob1989
    • 4 Years
    4 mins ago

    Brighton should be winning 8-0 atleast. 4 vs 11 men and now vs 10 men

    1. TochanMama
      • 14 Years
      just now

      It's looking like a preseason game against a lower league club

  22. Feanor
    • 17 Years
    3 mins ago

    De Kuyper just missed

    1. Feanor
      • 17 Years
      1 min ago

      A few feet wide but great chance

    2. FPL Blow-In
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      just now

      Straight at De Cuyper?

  23. City look vulnerable at the back

    1. Nomar
      • 16 Years
      just now

      Very much so

  24. FPL Blow-In
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    3 mins ago

    De Cuyper could have a hattrick.

  25. FPL Scoop
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    2 mins ago

    This could end 10-0 at this rate... big result if Villa can keep it to 5/6!

  26. Fifa las vegas
    • 14 Years
    2 mins ago

    Massive regret not getting De Cuyper. Had Kadioglu in my head as more secured long term, went neither in the end!

    1. TochanMama
      • 14 Years
      just now

      Same, has cold feet with them both, even had Hinshelwood in a couple of early drafts.
      By the looks of it, more goals are coming.

    2. Bleh
      • 9 Years
      just now

      Hopefully you went with someone not injured at least.

  27. Bleh
    • 9 Years
    2 mins ago

    Going Kadioglu over De Cuyper really bit me.

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

    It's like a training ground exercise of attack v defense

    Brighton have had 4 chances to score a 5th in the last few mins

  29. Feanor
    • 17 Years
    1 min ago

    Wonder if Brighton sub some guys at halftime with their European match coming up

  30. Hope all the sheep who picked Haaland are feeling good about themselves baaah