Pep Guardiola continues to ruffle the feathers of Fantasy managers as he named Raheem Sterling (£11.7m) on the bench for Manchester City’s Gameweek 34+ meeting with Newcastle.
The England international has been in decent form since the restart, returning double-figure hauls in both of his starts at the Etihad Stadium in that time.
But his 16.3% ownership will have to settle for, at most, an appearance off the bench tonight, where he has been selected alongside Kyle Walker (£5.6m).
Sterling’s place in the team has been taken by Phil Foden (£5.4m), snapped up by over 140,000 managers for Gameweek 34+ having averaged 11.3 points per game at home since the Premier League came back.
His backers will certainly be excited by the prospect of Foden playing in the front-three alongside Gabriel Jesus (£9.6m) and Riyad Mahrez (£8.6m), support in midfield by the Gameweek’s most popular captain: Kevin De Bruyne (£10.8m).
However, Newcastle will certainly do their best to put their bodies on the line as Steve Bruce has gone with a very defensive-looking 5-4-1 formation.
It features Matt Ritchie (£5.3m) and Valentino Lazaro (£5.3m) on the flanks of midfield supported by fellow defenders Danny Rose (£5.3m) and DeAndre Yedlin (£4.4m) behind them in the full-back roles.
Still, they may find it hard to ask too many questions on the counter-attack with Miguel Almirón (£ 5.8m) on the bench and Allan Saint-Maximin (£5.5m) sidelined with a knock.
Sheffield United will be in good spirits as they host Wolves, with Jack O’Connell (£4.5m) finally back in the starting line-up for the first time since Gameweek 29.
Chris Wilder also has John Lundstram (£4.6m) at his disposal, recovering from his shoulder injury ahead of schedule to sit on the Blades’ bench.
Wolves come to Bramall Lane in the familiar 3-4-3 formation, featuring Diogo Jota (£6.1m) and Adama Traoré (£5.7m) either side of Raúl Jiménez (£8.3m), Leander Dendoncker (£4.4m) dropping to the bench.
West Ham are another team with key reinforcements arriving just in time for Gameweek 34+ as Sébastien Haller (£6.8m) has been deemed fit enough for a place on the substitutes’ bench.
Michail Antonio (£6.9m) retains his starting centre-forward berth for now, but it will be interesting to see what impact Haller will have from this point onwards.
The mid-price midfielder, with three attacking returns in his last two matches, is supported by an attacking midfield of Andriy Yarmolenko (£5.2m), Pablo Fornals (£6.0m) and Jarrod Bowen (£6.4m).
Still without Ben Mee (£5.0m), Burnley hand another start to Kevin Long (£4.3m) alongside James Tarkowski (£5.2m).
Manchester City XI: Ederson; Zinchenko, Stones, Otamendi, Cancelo; Rodrigo, De Bruyne, D Silva; Foden, Jesus, Mahrez.
Newcastle United XI: Dúbravka; Rose, Fernández, Schär, Krafth, Yedlin; Ritchie, Bentaleb, Shelvey, Lazaro; Joelinton.
Sheffield United XI: D Henderson; O’Connell, Egan, Basham; Stevens, Osborn, Norwood, Berge, Baldock; McBurnie, Sharp.
Wolves XI: Patrício; Saiss, Coady, Boly; Jonny, Neves, Moutinho, Doherty; D Jota, Jiménez, Traoré.
West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Cresswell, Ogbonna, Diop, Fredericks; Rice, Soucek; Yarmolenko, Fornals, Bowen; Antonio.
Burnley XI: Pope; C Taylor, Tarkowski, K Long, Bardsley; Pieters, Westwood, Brownhill, McNeil; Vydra, Rodriguez.
3 years, 9 months agoWell that helps nobody