Dugout Discussion
23 August 2026 482 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

482 Comments Login to Post a Comment
  1. Fifa las vegas
    • 14 Years
    11 mins ago

    Not sure Gvardiol is much of a pick in this City setup either.

    1. Fifa las vegas
      • 14 Years
      9 mins ago

      More like a back 3 with Guehi pushing on

    2. el polako
      • 9 Years
      8 mins ago

      Not sure any City are much of a pick, they look clueless and disjointed in attack.

      1. Fifa las vegas
        • 14 Years
        5 mins ago

        That is also true

  2. krzys
    • 13 Years
    10 mins ago

    If Villa fans think it can't get any worse, please remember that you have Garnacho waiting to come on the pitch.

    1. el polako
      • 9 Years
      just now

      LoL

  3. Brosstan
    • 12 Years
    9 mins ago

    Did they fix the "there was a problem saving your comment" error?

    1. Brosstan
      • 12 Years
      5 mins ago

      Wow well done whoever is working the backend!

    2. Bobby Digital
      • 9 Years
      4 mins ago

      Didn't even notice

    3. JBG
      • 8 Years
      4 mins ago

      Genuinely got worried when my posts kept getting posted without that interruption, haha.

    4. Amartey Partey
      • 7 Years
      3 mins ago

      Yay! That was super annoying.

  4. Amartey Partey
    • 7 Years
    7 mins ago

    Rico Lewis is still the king of 1 pointers

    1. Raoul Nogues
      just now

      Haaland lookalike now

  5. g40steve
    • 8 Years
    7 mins ago

    Guehi in front of Anderson is a joke

  6. CoracAld2831
    • 5 Years
    7 mins ago

    Haaland lost his powers when he cut his hair.

    1. CoracAld2831
      • 5 Years
      6 mins ago

      of scoring.

    2. krzys
      • 13 Years
      5 mins ago

      More like when they hired Maresca

      1. CoracAld2831
        • 5 Years
        1 min ago

        They thought he was Pep's twin and had the same skill as a manager

    3. Raoul Nogues
      3 mins ago

      How long before it grows back ?

      1. Fifa las vegas
        • 14 Years
        just now

        Christmas

  7. Amartey Partey
    • 7 Years
    5 mins ago

    Semenyo is so wide is playing in the stands.

  8. g40steve
    • 8 Years
    4 mins ago

    Andersen broken

    1. CoracAld2831
      • 5 Years
      just now

      And subbed off.

  9. Bobby Digital
    • 9 Years
    4 mins ago

    Beef Cherki coming on

  10. Thanos
    • 5 Years
    4 mins ago

    Andersen broken

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

    Newcastle team news

    Team to play Liverpool: Hornicek, Dedic, Thiaw, Botman, Hall, Miley, Steur, Barnes, Elanga, Wissa, Osula

    Liverpool team news

    Team to play Newcastle: Alisson, Frimpong, Jacquet, Van Dijk, Kerkez, Gravenberch, Szoboszlai, Ngumoha, Wirtz, Gakpo, Isak

    1. g40steve
      • 8 Years
      3 mins ago

      Bosh Jacquet

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

      The Newcastle attack could do okay.

      Will Barnes benefit the most from regular starts?

      1. JesusSaves
        • 17 Years
        just now

        Barnes will lose his place in about 2 weeks. Toure is better.

  12. MarcusAurelius
    • 10 Years
    3 mins ago

    City playing 4 center backs plus Lewis and O’reilly is mental. No one predicted that

    1. Amartey Partey
      • 7 Years
      just now

      It wasn’t on my bingo card.

  13. JBG
    • 8 Years
    3 mins ago

    Welp looks my worries about Maresca being too shite for City might come true(FPL wise that is, for IRL it would be lovely).

  14. g40steve
    • 8 Years
    3 mins ago

    Game needs Marmoush & Cherki

  15. Sgt. Schultz
    • 9 Years
    3 mins ago

    O'Reilly subbed

    1. Fifa las vegas
      • 14 Years
      1 min ago

      CS banked at lea…oh wait

  16. AC/DC AFC
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    3 mins ago

    Nico fizzled out there

  17. Morrissey1986
    • 17 Years
    3 mins ago

    O' Riley

  18. Fifa las vegas
    • 14 Years
    3 mins ago

    How did DCL look yesterday? Will he be a problem or likely to chip away with his goal every few games?

    Need to bench one of these next GW:
    Hume, KDH, Hinshelwood, DCL

    1. Bench Hume

      1. Fifa las vegas
        • 14 Years
        just now

        Was thinking similar. Fearful he does a De Cuyper on it next week!

    2. g40steve
      • 8 Years
      just now

      Didn’t get much of a sniff, second half all Forest, smash & grab dying mins

  19. jacob1989
    • 4 Years
    2 mins ago

    Hinshelwood subbed off

    1. Fifa las vegas
      • 14 Years
      1 min ago

      Ah balls

    2. AC/DC AFC
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      just now

      Lad done well

  20. BobbyDoesNotLook
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    1 min ago

    Glad I owned NOR and Hume OOPs for this gw.

    1. The Pretender
      • 10 Years
      just now

      Same!

  21. GREEN IS GOOD
    • 10 Years
    1 min ago

    Should I do Gross to Sangare today?

  22. jacob1989
    • 4 Years
    just now

    Never seen title decided in gw1. Who is going to challenge arsenal?

    1. JBG
      • 8 Years
      just now

      Brighton if we are using GW1 games as that logic....

  23. Sun Jihai
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    just now

    All the Haaland Vs. Bruno captaincy debate and they both score 2 points!

  24. The Pretender
    • 10 Years
    just now

    What was Anderson's injury?