Ahead of Fulham’s enticing home fixture with relegated Reading, Dimitar Berbatov has shrugged off the calf complaint that forced him off against Everton last week. Sascha Riether is also back, though Mladen Petric misses out for the Cottagers.
As City prepare for a double Gameweek against Swansea and West Brom, Roberto Mancini has confirmed Joe Hart has recovered from the back spasm sustained in last Saturday’s win over West Ham. Good news, then, for the 11,000+ Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers who have drafted him in this week.
Elsewhere in Manchester, Nemanja Vidic and Paul Scholes are available for United’s home clash with Chelsea. Sir Alex Ferguson expects Scholes to begin the game on the bench and has hinted at handing him a start next week against Swansea. Danny Welbeck is sidelined once again due to a knee problem.
David Moyes has ruled Phil Neville out of Sunday’s Merseyside derby at Anfield due to a knee injury. Darron Gibson “has a chance” of making it for the Toffees, though – his potential return would allow Marouane Fellaini the opportunity to move forward into the advanced role behind a lone forward in Moyes’ preferred 4-4-1-1. Indeed, Moyes reckons the stage could be set for Fellaini’s return to form this weekend after the Belgian has failed to find the net in each of his last five:
“He’s been better in all the big games. Let’s hope he does it again. He has been playing well at this moment in time and more of the same would go down nicely.”
Chris Samba is still a doubt ahead of QPR’s home clash with Arsenal. The centre-half missed out last week due to illness and a knee injury – in this morning’s press conference, Harry Redknapp admitted he will be assessed later in the day.
Tony Pulis is sweating on the fitness of Marc Wilson, Andy Wilkinson and Glenn Whelan as Stoke get ready for Monday’s trip to Sunderland. Geoff Cameron looks likely to deputise at left-back if the former two fail to recover in time and seems set to go head-to-head with Adam Johnson the flank as the Black Cats attempt to bounce back from Monday’s mauling at Villa.
As always, this has all been collected for you in our team news section, where you’ll find our current predicted lineups for the weekend matches.
Rate My Team has also been updated to reflect the very latest with the Projections. Keep an eye on our Twitter stream as always, for any late breaking news.
