Rodgers’ quotes on Perez and Maddison absences as Antonio misses out

There are notable absences on either side as high-flying West Ham United and Leicester City meet in east London this afternoon.

Kick off at the London Stadium is at 14:05 BST.

The non-availability of Michail Antonio (£6.6m) had been heavily signposted in David Moyes’ pre-match press conference, with the striker missing as expected today.

His place in the Hammers’ attack is taken by Jarrod Bowen (£5.9m), with the hosts otherwise unchanged from the 3-2 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers and still without the sidelined Declan Rice (£4.7m).

As for Leicester, Brendan Rodgers has made two changes to the side that started last weekend’s 2-0 home defeat by Manchester City.

Ricardo Pereira (£5.9m) and Dennis Praet (£5.2m) are recalled, with Marc Albrighton(£5.2m) and Ayoze Perez (£6.0m) making way.

Perez isn’t in the matchday squad and neither is James Maddison (£7.2m), with unconfirmed rumours alleging that the pair – along with Hamza Choudhury (£4.6m) – are absent for disciplinary reasons.

Rodgers poured more fuel onto that fire ahead of kick-off when guaranteeing their availability for next weekend’s FA Cup semi-final:

They’re not available for this game, but after this game, they’ll be fine. They’ll join the group next week and be ready for next week’s semi-final.

Two of the three most-bought players of Gameweek 31 feature in this match, with Jesse Lingard (£6.4m) and Kelechi Iheanacho (£5.9m) both heavily transferred in ahead of Friday’s deadline.

West Ham United XI: Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Cresswell, Soucek, Noble, Fornals, Lingard, Masuaku, Bowen.

Leicester City XI: Schmeichel, Amartey, Evans, Fofana, Pereira, Tielemans, Ndidi, Castagne, Praet, Iheanacho, Vardy.

GAMEWEEK 31 SO FAR…

Nick Pope (£5.5m) was absent from the Burnley squad on Sunday as the Clarets made it six matches without a clean sheet when succumbing to a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United.

Sean Dyche said of the England international:

We don’t think it’s too serious. He’s just not made today.

The partnership between budget forwards Chris Wood (£6.3m) and Matej Vydra (£4.8m) continues to reap points in Fantasy Premier League, with the former assisting the latter for the game’s opener.

Wood has five FPL attacking returns in his last four outings, with Vydra registering three goals and an assist in his five most-recent appearances.

Newcastle were, as they so often have been without their first-choice attack, ineffective until the second-half introduction of the fit-again Callum Wilson (£6.5m) and Allan Saint-Maximin (£5.1m).

It was the Frenchman who turned the game on its head, first teeing up wing-back Jacob Murphy (£4.9m) for the equaliser before grabbing the winner with a fine solo goal.