A Manchester City squad hit by injury and illness take on Chelsea in the second of today’s two Premier League fixtures.
Kick-off at Stamford Bridge is at 16:30 GMT.
The visitors are missing six of their squad because of COVID-19 positive tests.
The unavailability of Kyle Walker (£6.1m) and Gabriel Jesus (£9.1m) we were already aware of, while social media posts from Ederson (£6.0m) and Tommy Doyle (£4.4m) all but confirmed that they too were among those self-isolating.
Ferran Torres (£6.9m) and Eric Garcia (£4.7m) have reportedly been added to that list, with the latter still struggling with injury, too.
Despite the shortage of options, Sergio Aguero (£10.3m) is still only among the substitutes for this afternoon’s fixture.
Goalkeeper Zack Steffen (£4.4m) makes his Premier League debut as Pep Guardiola makes three changes to the City side that beat Newcastle 2-0 in Gameweek 15.
Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.5m) and Phil Foden (£6.2m) are also recalled, with Ederson, Torres and Nathan Ake (£5.4m) dropping out.
Ake is absent because of “fitness issues”, while Aymeric Laporte (£6.0m) misses out because of a tight hamstring.
Benjamin Mendy (£5.9m) is on the bench, despite his off-field misdeeds.
Frank Lampard makes five changes to the Chelsea team that drew 1-1 at home to Aston Villa last Monday.
Timo Werner (£9.2m) is recalled, while Hakim Ziyech (£8.1m) makes his first appearance since suffering a hamstring injury in early December.
Thiago Silva (£5.6m), Kurt Zouma (£5.8m) and Mateo Kovacic (£5.3m) also return to the side.
Reece James (£5.2m) is again absent through injury, while Olivier Giroud (£6.7m), Andreas Christensen (£4.7m), Antonio Rudiger (£4.7m), Callum Hudson-Odoi (£5.7m) and Jorginho (£4.7m) drop out of the starting XI.
Chelsea XI: Mendy, Azpilicueta, Zouma, Thiago Silva, Chilwell, Kanté, Kovacic, Mount, Pulisic, Werner, Ziyech.
Manchester City XI: Steffen, Cancelo, Dias, Stones, Zinchenko, Rodrigo, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Foden, Bernardo, Sterling
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Lessons learned from FPL Gameweek 17
- Everton 0-1 West Ham United
- Manchester United 2-1 Aston Villa
- Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 Leeds United
- Crystal Palace 2-0 Sheffield United
- Brighton and Hove Albion 3-3 Wolverhampton Wanderers
- West Bromwich Albion 0-4 Arsenal
- Burnley P-P Fulham
- Newcastle United 1-2 Leicester City
- Chelsea 1-3 Manchester City
- Southampton 1-0 Liverpool
3 years, 3 months ago
So Kdb captain next gw?