Fernandes widely captained as United’s Triple Gameweek gets underway at Villa Park

Manchester United get their Triple Gameweek 35 underway at Villa Park this afternoon.

Kick-off in the Red Devils’ clash with Aston Villa is at 14:05 BST.

There is unsurprisingly plenty of interest in players from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side in Fantasy Premier League, chiefly Bruno Fernandes (£11.5m).

The Portuguese schemer is the only Premier League player among the top 10,000 Fantasy managers with a double-digit ‘effective’ ownership (EO), which differs from conventional ownership in that it takes into account things like captaincies and benchings.

Luke Shaw (£5.5m) and Mason Greenwood (£7.2m) are the next most-owned United assets within the top 10k:

Looking at the overall captaincy figures, Fernandes has been handed the armband by more than twice as many FPL managers as any other player in Gameweek 35:

There were few surprises when the teamsheets were released, with Solskjaer making four changes from United’s Europa League semi-final against Roma in midweek.

It’s the same starting XI that would have taken to the field in the postponed clash with Liverpool last week, with Edinson Cavani (£8.0m) only among the substitutes.

Aston Villa are unchanged from their 2-1 win at Everton.

Jack Grealish (£7.5m) is still missing through injury but is back in first-team training and could be in line for a return for Thursday’s rematch with the Toffees.

LINE-UPS

Aston Villa XI: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett, Luiz, McGinn, Traore, Barkley, El Ghazi, Watkins. 

Subs: Heaton, Wesley, Nakamba, Elmohamady, Hause, Davis, Ramsey, Philogene-Bidace, Chukwuemeka.

Manchester United XI: Henderson, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw, McTominay, Fred, Greenwood, Fernandes, Pogba, Rashford. 

Subs: de Gea, Bailly, Cavani, Mata, Telles, Matic, Williams, van de Beek, Tuanzebe.

PREVIOUSLY IN TRIPLE GAMEWEEK 35…

Brighton and Hove Albion have often been their own worst enemies this season, failing to translate promising underlying and attacking numbers into meaningful results.

And they imploded in spectacular fashion on Sunday, contriving to lose a match that they had been winning comfortably and seeing two key players sent off.

Lewis Dunk and Neal Maupay will both be suspended for Gameweeks 36 and 37 as a result of their dismissals: Maupay’s sending off for dissent carries an automatic two-match ban, while Dunk’s red card – for a denial of a goalscoring opportunity, on this occasion – was his second of the season and he will also be unavailable until Gameweek 38.

Dunk had earlier opened the scoring with his fifth goal of 2020/21, a tally that only Stuart Dallas can better among FPL defenders.

Wolves may have triumphed but this was another unconvincing audition for their Fantasy assets, with Nuno Espirito Santo’s side second-best before Dunk’s red card and little better thereafter.

Santo looks to be rotating in the season run-in, too, with Adama Traore only named among the substitutes before coming off the bench to draw the hosts level.

Morgan Gibbs-White rounded off the comeback in the final stages, having squandered a glorious chance minutes earlier.

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