It’s not quite last-chance saloon territory for Aston Villa but, seven points adrift of safety and with only four matches remaining, a victory over Crystal Palace is surely a must this afternoon if they want to keep their slim chances of avoiding relegation alive.
Kick-off at Villa Park is at 14:15 BST.
Both managers originally made one change apiece from the sides they sent out in Gameweek 34+ but an injury to Kortney Hause (£4.4m) in the warm-up has seen Ahmed Elmohamady (£4.1m) replace him.
Dean Smith has also recalled Conor Hourihane (£5.7m) to the Villa midfield, with Anwar El Ghazi (£5.3m) dropping to the bench.
That should see Jack Grealish (£6.0m) move to a more advanced position down the left of the hosts’ attack.
Keinan Davis (£4.3m) is only among the substitutes, as is the fit-again Matt Targett (£4.3m).
Pepe Reina (£4.2m) recovers from a hamstring strain to start.
Roy Hodgson’s one alteration is an enforced one.
Gary Cahill (£4.4m) looks set to miss the rest of the season with a hamstring injury, so Mamadou Sakho (£5.0m) gets the nod to replace him at centre-half.
Budget FPL defender Martin Kelly (£4.1m) is back on the bench after recovering from a calf problem.
It’s fair to say interest is limited in this one from a Fantasy perspective.
Grealish is the only player in either starting XI who has a double-digit ownership in Fantasy Premier League.
‘Ghost teams’ will account for some of that ownership and, if we instead look at the top 10,000 in FPL, not a single player from either Villa or Palace is owned by more than 3%.
Grealish’s ownership within this elite group is only at 2.13%.
Nine of Palace’s ten clean sheets this season have come against sides in the bottom half.
The Villans have scored just twice in their last eight Premier League matches.
Aston Villa XI: Reina, Elmohamady, Konsa, Mings, Taylor, McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Hourihane, Trezeguet, Samatta, Grealish.
Crystal Palace XI: Guaita, Ward, Dann, Sakho, van Aanholt, Zaha, Kouyate, Milivojevic, McArthur, Ayew, Benteke.
3 years, 9 months agoCould people post their FH team here so we can start a discussion about the picks.
Here's mine
Pope (Henderson)
Awb Mendy Azpi (Bertrand, Egan)
KDB Antonio Willian Bruno (Martial)
Giroud Ings Jesus (C)
Depending on Man Utd game I might start Martial ahead of Bruno but we'll see.