Having been leapfrogged by Leicester City earlier in the day, Manchester United will attempt to go back to second in the Premier League table at Old Trafford this evening.
A win over visitors Newcastle United will do just that and keep league leaders Manchester City within ten points’ reach, following a win for Pep Guardiola’s troops in the late-afternoon kick-off.
The last of four Premier League matches to take place on Sunday gets underway at 19:00 GMT.
Daniel James (£6.2m) and Nemanja Matic (£4.7m) are brought into Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s starting XI tonight.
Both of the United manager’s changes from Gameweek 25 are enforced, with Edinson Cavani (£7.9m) and Scott McTominay (£4.9m) missing through injury.
Mason Greenwood (£7.0m) is again only among the substitutes, with Anthony Martial (£8.7m) preferred up front.
Steve Bruce has made just the one change to the Newcastle side that lost at Chelsea last Monday as Joelinton (£5.7m) replaces Dwight Gayle (£5.9m) in attack.
Bruno Fernandes (£11.6m) is the second-most-popular captaincy pick of Double Gameweek 25 overall and within the top 10k, trailing Patrick Bamford (£6.9m) in both instances.
Selected by the vast majority of the top 10,000, Fernandes’ effective ownership is, once again, in excess of 100% – so any return means a small red arrow for those who own the Portuguese midfielder but haven’t captained him.
LINE-UPS
Newcastle United XI: Darlow, Krafth, Lascelles, Clark, Lewis, Willock, Hayden, Shelvey, Joelinton, Almiron, Saint-Maximin.
Manchester United XI: De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw, Matic, Fred, James, Fernandes, Rashford, Martial.
DOUBLE GAMEWEEK 25 SO FAR…
Ilkay Gundogan (£6.1m) made a swift return from injury at the Emirates this afternoon but couldn’t add to his season’s goal tally of 11.
The German started and finished the game in his now customary ‘number eight’ role but he, and City as a collective, never really clicked in an attacking sense in north London.
Not that Pep Guardiola’s side really needed to get out of second gear, with Arsenal failing to capitalise on some threatening positions in the final third and mustering only one shot on target in the entire game.
This was City’s 15th clean sheet of the season and their 13th in the last 16 Gameweeks.
Kevin De Bruyne (£11.8m) made his first start on his return from injury as a ‘false nine’ and provided some typically incisive through-balls, while the advanced Joao Cancelo (£6.1m) again saw plenty of penalty-box action and wasted a glorious chance to double City’s lead when toe-poking wide from 10 yards.
Raheem Sterling (£11.6m) was the visitors’ match-winner, nodding home Riyad Mahrez‘s (£8.1m) second-minute cross for his 13th attacking return in his last 14 league starts.
3 years, 8 months ago
DCL + Ings + Grealish
Or
Vardy + Bamford + Raphina