Dugout Discussion
23 August 2026 449 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

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

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

    1. Fifa las vegas
      • 14 Years
      4 mins ago

      More like a back 3 with Guehi pushing on

    2. el polako
      • 9 Years
      3 mins ago

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

      1. Fifa las vegas
        • 14 Years
        just now

        That is also true

  2. krzys
    • 13 Years
    5 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
    4 mins ago

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

    1. Brosstan
      • 12 Years
      1 min ago

      Wow well done whoever is working the backend!

    2. Bobby Digital
      • 9 Years
      1 min ago

      Didn't even notice

    3. JBG
      • 8 Years
      just now

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

    4. Amartey Partey
      • 7 Years
      just now

      Yay! That was super annoying.

  4. Amartey Partey
    • 7 Years
    3 mins ago

    Rico Lewis is still the king of 1 pointers

  5. g40steve
    • 8 Years
    2 mins ago

    Guehi in front of Anderson is a joke

  6. CoracAld2831
    • 5 Years
    2 mins ago

    Haaland lost his powers when he cut his hair.

    1. CoracAld2831
      • 5 Years
      1 min ago

      of scoring.

    2. krzys
      • 13 Years
      just now

      More like when they hired Maresca

  7. Amartey Partey
    • 7 Years
    just now

    Semenyo is so wide is playing in the stands.

  8. g40steve
    • 8 Years
    just now

    Andersen broken