Sterling and Cancelo survive Man City rotation as Foden and Walker miss out

Raheem Sterling (£11.4m) and João Cancelo (£5.5m) have made surprise appearances in the Manchester City starting XI for Gameweek 11.

The two players missed out on the win over Burnley last time out and featured extensively in midweek Champions League action.

That had convinced many that the pair would be benched in the following Premier League game but they both start against Fulham.

Sterling plays on the left-hand side of an attacking midfield trio, joined there by Kevin De Bruyne (£11.7m) and Riyad Mahrez (£8.4m) while Cancelo is preferred to Kyle Walker (£6.2m) at right-back, rather than left, which sees Benjamin Mendy (£5.9m) make a second Premier League start in a row.

Pep Guardiola has been previously known to favour a rotation policy where players miss the first match of a three-game week and play the second two in succession, even if they are close together.

Ferran Torres (£6.9m) and Walker had recently strung together consecutive Premier League starts but neither one features in the first XI today.

The former is on the bench, while Walker is not in the squad at all, although Guardiola has reported that he is not injured. That’s about as classic Pep as we’re ever going to get.

Gabriel Jesus (£9.4m) leads the Manchester City attacking line while De Bruyne appears to be in a number 10 role rather than a member of a central midfield trio.

Meanwhile, Fulham are unchanged from the side that won 2-1 at Leicester, which sees Ivan Cavaleiro (£5.3m) act as a lone centre-forward, Ademola Lookman (£5.0m) and Bobby De Cordova-Reid (£5.3m) providing the width either side of Ruben Loftus-Cheek (£5.9m).

For the second Gameweek in a row, Tom Cairney (£5.3m) and Aleksandar Mitrović (£5.6m) are named on the bench.

Manchester City XI (4-2-3-1): Ederson; B Mendy, Stones, Dias, Cancelo; Gündogan, Rodrigo; Sterling, De Bruyne, Mahrez; Jesus.

Fulham XI (4-2-3-1): Areola; A Robinson, Andersen, Adarabioyo, Aina; Zambo Anguissa, Reed; Lookman, Loftus-Cheek, De Cordova-Reid; Cavaleiro.