Southampton take on Manchester United in the Gameweek 4 curtain-raiser. Kick-off at St. Mary’s is at 12:30pm BST.
An injury to Anthony Martial (£7.7m) against Palace had dominated the build-up to this match, with speculation rife as to whether Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer could hand a start to Mason Greenwood (£4.5m).
That hasn’t transpired, with budget FPL forward Greenwood only among the substitutes.
Solskjaer has made three changes to the Manchester United side that lost 2-1 at home to Crystal Palace in GW3, with Ashley Young (£5.4m), Andreas Pereira (£5.0m) and Juan Mata (£6.4m) starting in the lunch-time kick-off.
Young replaces the injured Luke Shaw (£5.5m) at left-back, whilst Solskjaer has shuffled his pack in the absence of Martial: Mata and Pereira earning starts against the Saints as Jesse Lingard (£6.5m) drops to the bench.
The Norwegian boss has turned to the tried and tested Mata to add attacking impetus to United’s frontline, with the Red Devils aiming to prevent their sluggish Premier League start turning into something of a nightmare after a winless run of two games.
This is a game of extreme importance in the Solsjkaer era at United and the decision to opt for experience in the form of Mata as opposed to a youthful prospect such as Greenwood is telling of how pivotal this fixture could be for United’s momentum in the initial stages of the 2019/20 campaign.
Meanwhile, Southampton boss Ralph Hassenhuttl has made just two changes to his starting line-up for the game against United, with Cedric (£4.9m) and Sofiane Boufal (£5.5m) earning starts at the expense of Yan Valery (£5.0m) and Nathan Redmond (£6.4m).
The Saints will be looking to build on their impressive away victory over Brighton in Gameweek 3.
Southampton XI: Gunn, Cedric, Vestergaard, Bednarek, Danso, Højbjerg, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Boufal, Adams, Ings.
Manchester United XI: De Gea, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Young, McTominay, Pogba, Andreas, Mata, James, Rashford.
5 years, 22 days agoThat maguire pace