Jonny, Boly and Moutinho missing as West Ham visit Wolves without Rice

Ahead of interest in their defensive assets for Gameweek 31, Wolves are forced into several key changes as they host West Ham.

Jonny (£5.4m) has suffered another anterior cruciate ligament injury in training and is replaced at left-back by Rayan Aït-Nouri (£5.0m).

However, the unfortunate Spanish defender is not the only important absentee tonight, Willy Boly (£5.4m) missing out due to a positive coronavirus (COVID-19) test.

Without those two first-choice options, Nuno has gone with a four-man defence featuring Aït-Nouri and Nelson Semedo (£5.2m) either side of Conor Coady (£4.8m) and Romain Saïss (£4.9m).

Fantasy Premier League managers will have a watchful eye on how the Wolves defence performs without Jonny and Boly tonight, considering the impending swing of fixtures in their favour.

João Moutinho (£5.2m) misses out with a groin injury so Leander Dendoncker (£4.6m) and Ruben Neves (£5.1m) form a two-man midfield anchor behind Pedro Neto (£5.7m), Daniel Podence (£5.3m) and Adama Traoré (£6.0m) in support of Willian José (£6.8m).

There is a similar dynamic in the West Ham squad for Gameweek 30 with Declan Rice‘s (£4.7m) enforced absence triggering a formational shift.

Mark Noble (£4.5m) fills in for the England international while Arthur Masuaku‘s (£4.3m) return from injury leads to a first start since Gameweek 11 and a return to the 3-4-2-1 shape David Moyes favoured at the beginning of 2020/21.

After enjoying a meteoric rise to the top of the FPL defenders’ scoring charts this season, Aaron Cresswell (£5.9m) is back in a centre-back role, on the left-hand side of a three-man defence with Issa Diop (£4.3m) and Craig Dawson (£4.5m).

Still, the Hammers’ appealing encounters do not surface as a concentrated batch of matches until a Gameweek 34 trip to Burnley so there is still plenty of scouting to be done between now and their fixture swing.

Vladimir Coufal (£4.6m) joins Masuaku, Noble and Tomas Soucek (£5.3m) in a four-man midfield, a more advanced role than he has enjoyed in a 4-2-3-1 system.

Jesse Lingard (£6.2m) and Pablo Fornals (£5.8m) are in support of Michail Antonio (£6.7m).

Gameweek 30 Line-ups

Wolverhampton Wanderers XI (4-2-3-1): Patrício; Ait-Nouri, Saïss, Coady, Semedo; Neves, Dendoncker; Neto, Podence, A Traoré; Willian J.

West Ham United XI (3-4-3): Fabianski; Cresswell, Diop, Dawson; Masuaku, Noble, Soucek, Coufal; Lingard, Fornals; Antonio.

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