Dilemmas of the Week - GW4 (26/27)

Remarkably, despite a heavy midweek schedule (Bournemouth, Palace, Sunderland, Hull, Newcastle, Chelsea and Leeds involved in League Cup ties; Arsenal, City, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Aston Villa in the Champions League), we seem to have suffered hardly any new injuries this week - so this can be a very short roundup! [I'll try to update later, if there's an expected flood of bad news at today's press conferences!]

For some years, I have found the 'Injuries & Bans' summary on Fantasy Football Scout the most reliable resource for this kind of information; although this site, Premier League Injuries, is a very good alternative (often a little quicker to update, I think - though it did go through a bit of a glitchy period for a while last year).  Go check these out for more comprehensive coverage. 

The Fantasy Premier League site itself now has a 'Player Availability' page (though hidden under 'The Scout' tab?!). That also seems to be reasonably comprehensive and up-to-date, but god knows how it's supposed to be 'organised' - maybe by 'date of injury'? Obviously, arranging it by club and alphabetical order would be more sensible; but the denizens of FPL Towers seem to have a deep aversion to the sensible.

I've recently discovered this additional resource, the weekly Predicted Lineups from Fantasy Football Edits. My longtime standby for this sort of news, Fantasy Footall Scout, does usually provide some explanatory commentary on its predictions, even including reminders of the key injury concerns, and sometimes also some discussion of possible alternate selections; so, if you like a bit more detail with your 'probable lineups' for the week, that could still be the preferable roundup to look at. But because FPL Edits is so stripped-down, it's rather more straightforwardly accessible, easier to scan through quickly; and I think it's also perhaps a tad more reliable with its expected formations and lineups, and a little quicker to update.

So, what are the conundrums we face ahead of Gameweek 4?

Does anybody need to be moved out because of injury?

The most consequential injury of the week is a thigh strain for Cody Gakpo, which kept him out of Wednesday's Champions League win over Atleti. Iraola hasn't been drawn yet on how serious it is, and the FPL injury flag so far rates him as having a '75% chance' of turning out against Fulham this weekend; but the rumours suggest he could be sidelined for at least 3-4 weeks. After his excellent start to the season (3 assists and a goal in the opening 3 games), over 600,000 people had transferred him in this week; since news of the injury broke, nearly 300,000 have transferred him out! Gakpo's absence facilitated an immediate start for Bradley Barcola on the left wing on Wednesday night (but he didn't exactly cover himself in glory - fluffing an excellent one-on-one chance; as, unfortunately, is his wont).

Matty Cash missed Villa's trip to Bruges on Tuesday with 'muscle soreness': doesn't sound too bad, but he's a slight doubt for this weekend.

Nico O'Reilly was a late withdrawal from last week's game against Coventry (handing an 'unexpected' immediate start to Enzo Fernandez), complaining of a back problem in the warm-up. Maresca seems hopeful he could be available again this weekend; but a regular start for him must now be in doubt anyway, with the arrival of Fernandez and Bouaddi in central midfield, and Gvardiol looking likely to again become the favoured left-back.

Newcastle's impressive Bosnian right-back Amar Dedic felt a hamstring problem in Tuesday's League Cup tie against Milwall and was withdrawn at half-time. He was another player riding a wave of FPL popularity, with over 425,000 transfers in this week - but has now quickly seen 125,000 transfers out.

It's just been revealed that Sunderland's Romaine Mundle has recently had to undergo knee surgery, and will be out for some months.

Do we have any players who are dropped, or not looking likely to get the starts we hoped for?

Villa's Joao Gomes is completing his three-match ban this week, and will be available again next weekend.

Did anyone give other cause to consider dropping them?

There were signs of improvement from Coventry, Spurs, and Villa last week - but I still wouldn't consider going near any of them for FPL picks (with one possible exception: see below). I can't think of any individual players who were worryingly awful last week - but, as I just mentioned above, Nico O'Reilly seems likely to be squeezed out of a regular start at City now by a combination of Gvardiol, Fernandez, and Bouaddi; Phil Foden might be under similar rotation - or exclusion - pressure because of the form of Cherki, Ndiaye, and Semenyo.

Did anyone play so well, you have to consider bringing them in immediately?

There's been a bit of a reaction against Newcastle players in FPL this week, after their disappointing home performance against Bournemouth; but I think Anthony Elanga, Yoane Wissa, and Harvey Barnes are still looking very promising attacking options (pick one, not all three).

Alexander Isak was starting to look back to his best with two slick finishes last week - but both were set up by Cody Gakpo, who's now injured, so there might still be some doubts about how consistent his returns will be in this rebuilding Liverpool side.

Although Villa are still struggling a little bit, their new Japanese keeper Zion Suzuki has looked extremely impressive.

Despite the almost inevitable loss to Arsenal last week, Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers, and Joao Pedro continue to look like consistent attacking threats (and again in Wednesday's League Cup thrashing of Leeds); but I'd go for just one, or at most two of these; many folks are rashly rushing in for all three!

BEST OF LUCK, EVERYONE!