Team news for Gameweek 38: FPL updates on Aguero, Bale, Pope, Pereira and more

It’s the final Gameweek of the 2020/21 Fantasy Premier League season and we’ve got all the important team news in our weekly press conference summary below.

For more detailed information, check out our Predicted Line-ups page and Injuries and Bans feed, while will be further updated before Sunday’s deadline.

A video recap with Neale and Andy can be viewed here:

LEEDS UNITED V WEST BROMWICH ALBION

Diego Llorente (muscle) will miss the visit of West Bromwich Albion and joins Helder Costa (back) and Adam Forshaw (muscle) on the sidelines.

“Llorente is not with us. Throughout the first half against Southampton he felt something in his muscle that, had he continued, he could have got injured where he had been injured previously.

“That’s why we decided that he should not participate in the second half of that game, nor on Sunday.” – Marcelo Bielsa

Robin Koch and Mateusz Klich had previously been granted “early leave” and ruled out of the final two games of the season by their manager, while Kiko Casilla will again line up between the posts.

Leeds announced on Friday that both Gaetano Berardi and Pablo Hernandez would depart the club at the end of 2020/21, so there is a strong chance that both will feature in front of the Elland Road faithful one last time.

“They have been a reference for Leeds, for the team, for the squad, for the fans. Two excellent professionals, great team-mates. Footballers who are very influential, very decisive.” – Marcelo Bielsa

Matheus Pereira is an injury doubt for the Baggies, with Sam Allardyce set to assess his influential midfielder’s fitness in training tomorrow morning.

LIVERPOOL V CRYSTAL PALACE

There were no injury updates from Jurgen Klopp in the broadcast section of his press conference.

The Liverpool boss had said in midweek that Diogo Jota (foot) had a “tiny, tiny little chance” of facing Crystal Palace this weekend.

Naby Keita (muscle), Ozan Kabak (muscle) and Ben Davies (muscle) were sidelined when the Reds beat Burnley on Wednesday, alongside the longer-term absentees.

Roy Hodgson said he would “wait and see” on his injured players without naming names, although Christian Benteke (Achilles/ankle) and Scott Dann (muscle) are likely to be among those being assessed.

The Palace boss had previously said after the midweek loss against Arsenal that he thought Tyrick Mitchell was merely suffering from “fatigue”.

“We’re not good at three games in a week. The make-up of our squad and the fact that players coming back from injury etc, a third game after two very tough ones we’ve had is not the right situation for us to comfortably say yeah, we’re great, we’ll be able put out the same sort of team.

“I’ve really got to wait and see tomorrow. I really am hoping that it will be better than I fear it might be at the moment, but until tomorrow I don’t know.” – Roy Hodgson

Eberechi Eze is out long-term with an Achilles problem.

MANCHESTER CITY V EVERTON

Joao Cancelo (suspended) is Manchester City’s only absentee for the visit of Everton, with Pep Guardiola confirming that he otherwise had a fully fit squad.

Asked about whether his starting XI against Carlo Ancelotti’s side would be influenced by City’s involvement in next week’s UEFA Champions League final, Guardiola wasn’t playing ball.

“I’m going to put the players out I decide to win the game. We have six days until the final of the Champions League, if one player is injured, unlucky. They can be injured today, tomorrow, the moment you put the boots [on].” – Pep Guardiola

Sergio Aguero is back in training and could have a farewell appearance at the Etihad – although how long he will last is another question.

“Tomorrow, we will decide. As much as he can play he will play. He’s been injured, trained these two days, partial training sessions – tomorrow we will decide.” – Pep Guardiola

James Rodriguez (calf) and Seamus Coleman (unspecified) won’t be involved for the Toffees when they visit the Etihad.

“James Rodriguez, unfortunately, is not available for the game, he didn’t recover from his problem on his calf. Also, Coleman had a problem during the game against Wolves, he will not be available for the game.” – Carlo Ancelotti

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS V MANCHESTER UNITED

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said he’d make “a few changes” to the Manchester United side for the Wolves game, with one eye on the UEFA Europa League final.

Daniel James is fit again but Anthony Martial (knee) is a major doubt and Harry Maguire (knee) may not even make the match in Gdansk.

“You want to go into the final with loads of energy but also confidence. We’ll make a few changes, rest a few that’s been really playing and been regular in the team. We’ll get some minutes into a few that might need it before the final.

“Dan [James] will be involved. Unfortunately, I don’t think Anthony [Martial] will make this one for the squad so Harry [Maguire] and Anthony are still working hard to be available for the final.

“We’re recovering with Harry and resting with him. He’s not at the stage where he can work hard yet. He’s walking on it now but still it’s a long way from walking to playing football.

“To be honest, I don’t think we’ll see him in Gdansk.”

Scott McTominay and Fred “should be OK” after knocks.

Nuno Espirito Santo confirmed that Raul Jimenez (head) won’t feature again until 2021/22 in what was his final pre-match press conference as Wolves manager.

Jonny (knee), Pedro Neto (knee) and Daniel Podence (groin) are also long-term absentees.

ASTON VILLA V CHELSEA

Andreas Christensen is back available for Chelsea for their trip to Aston Villa but Kai Havertz and N’Golo Kante face late tests for muscle issues.

“Andreas Christensen will be in the squad, he did full training today and yesterday without any problems so he will be back.

“Kai did a test today and will be tested in team training today.

“With NG it’s going to be very close, still some hopes that he maybe joins team training tomorrow. If not, then he will join on Monday.” – Thomas Tuchel

Jack Grealish could be in line for another start after his 72-minute run-out in midweek, with Dean Smith talking in positive terms about his talismanic midfielder’s fitness in his pre-match presser.

“He’s getting up to full fitness, he showed a real confidence in his performance at Tottenham and hopefully we will see more of that on Sunday.” – Dean Smith

Matty Cash (hamstring), Morgan Sanson (knee) and Trezeguet (knee) will all miss the visit of Chelsea, while loanee Ross Barkley will be ineligible to face his parent club. 

LEICESTER CITY V TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

Ryan Mason’s press conference was predictably dominated by questions on the supposedly wantaway Harry Kane, with the interim Spurs boss playing it with a straight bat throughout.

“I’ve been preparing for a game at the weekend. It’s a game that’s important for us, we need to win. We’re going to go there to win and Harry is going to be part of that as well. They are the only comments I have on it.” – Ryan Mason

Japhet Tanganga (ankle) and Ben Davies (calf) are the Lilywhites’ only two confirmed absentees, although Mason did suggest that Gareth Bale – who was benched in midweek – had been playing through the pain barrier of late.

“Japhet and Ben are the only two at the moment. Japhet sustained a naughty ankle injury I think to his ligament so he won’t feature at the weekend and hopefully, it isn’t too long for him out.

“Ben resumed some light training today so they are the only two at the moment who aren’t available for selection.

“Last weekend was the most minutes [Bale] has played in the Premier League all season, pushing close to 90 minutes. I think if you were to look at Gareth in that moment he looked fit, he looked strong, he was brave, he added a different dimension for us and he has quality as well.

“But that spike in terms of the minutes played he felt his quad. In terms of him thinking about the summer, I don’t believe so because he was out there the other night. He was playing through some pain, playing through a problem that he had for me, for himself and for the football club.” – Ryan Mason

Bar the long-term absentees, Jonny Evans (heel) is the only injury of note for the Foxes.

“Jonny will miss out. Everyone else that was available the other night will be available for this game.” – Brendan Rodgers

SHEFFIELD UNITED V BURNLEY

Robbie Brady (Achilles), Kevin Long (calf), Phil Bardsley (hernia) and Dale Stephens (ankle) remain out for Burnley but Nick Pope (shoulder/knee) “has a chance” of featuring according to manager Sean Dyche.

The most positive news so far is that Popey has a chance. His body has settled down – his knee that was just troubling him a little bit.

We’ll see how he goes over the next couple of days, but that’s positive. He is up for selection at this moment in time. We’ll monitor it for the next 48 hours.

Paul Heckingbottom isn’t expecting any of his injured players back this weekend “as it stands”.

ARSENAL V BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION

Hector Bellerin (muscle) and Mathew Ryan (ineligible) are confirmed absentees for the final day of the season but there was no word from Mikel Arteta on David Luiz (hamstring), who the Arsenal medical department said in midweek was “working hard to be in contention” for the visit of Brighton.

On his team selection and the push for a Europa Conference League spot in Gameweek 38, Mikel Arteta said:

“[The ECL] is a new competition so I don’t really know what will happen. First of all, let’s try to finish as high as possible and then after we will determine, once we are involved, what the best way is to do it.

“This club has to be in Europe.

“The selection is just the best possible selection to win the game. What is going to happen afterwards is part of the future and what we have to try to control is what happens on the day.” – Mikel Arteta

Danny Welbeck (hamstring) has joined Neal Maupay (suspended), Joël Veltman (calf), Davy Pröpper (ankle), Solly March (knee) and Tariq Lamptey (hamstring) on the sidelines for the trip to the Emirates but Lewis Dunk is back from a two-match ban.

WEST HAM UNITED V SOUTHAMPTON

Che Adams (groin) will miss out in Gameweek 38 but Oriol Romeu could be back from a three-month absence.

[Oriol] was training today so only Will Smallbone is out and Ché Adams is out. Ché cannot play at the weekend as he has a small groin injury, so he will also definitely be out. The rest are fit.

[Adams’ injury is] 5-10 days so his chance at the weekend is a small one but we won’t take the risk as we know he has the Euro coming up, which for him is a big tournament and it’s not a big issue for him.

David Moyes said that West Ham United will make a “last-minute call” on Lukasz Fabianski (knee) ahead of the game.

FULHAM V NEWCASTLE UNITED

Callum Wilson (hamstring), Jamaal Lascelles (foot), Isaac Hayden (knee), Karl Darlow (knee) and Ryan Fraser (groin) remain on the sidelines but there was relatively good news from Steve Bruce on the walking wounded from the Sheffield United victory, with the Newcastle boss saying that he “expects” Allan Saint-Maximin (calf) and Martin Dubravka (hamstring) to be fit for the trip to Fulham providing they come through the final training sessions.

“We’ll not know until we see how they are today – Allan Saint-Maximin in particular and Martin [Dubravka]. We expect them to be OK but we’ll not know 100% until they go on the grass today.” – Steve Bruce

Bruce had previously said that Joelinton was suffering only from a “knock” against the Blades, while he put Joe Willock‘s departure in Gameweek 37 down to mere “fatigue”.

Fabian Schar is available after suspension.

Scott Parker will be without a trio of players for Sunday’s match, while Harrison Reed (ankle) will be assessed.

“[Tom Cairney, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Antonee Robinson] all won’t make the weekend, they’re all out. Harrison Reed has a little bit of an issue as well, we’ll make that call nearer the time. Other than that, we’re all pretty much fine. [Reed] has an issue with his ankle.” – Scott Parker