The pre-match press conferences have started ahead of Gameweek 11 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL), although the team news that you’re probably after – namely updates on Reece James (£6.1m) and Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.8m) – won’t arrive until Friday.
Five managers faced reporters this afternoon, with Erik ten Hag and Mikel Arteta set to fulfil their media duties after the UEFA Europa League tonight – although the ‘Gameweek 11’ part of those press conferences will be embargoed until the following day.
The other 13 top-flight bosses look set to hold pressers on Friday, meanwhile, and we’ll round those up in a separate article tomorrow.
KEY UPDATES
EVERTON
Anthony Gordon serves a one-match ban after he collected his fifth yellow card of the season in Gameweek 10, while Nathan Patterson (knee), Andros Townsend (knee) and Ben Godfrey (leg) are all on the sidelines ahead of the trip to Spurs.
Mason Holgate (knee) and Yerry Mina (calf) have been back in training after lengthy lay-offs but the former isn’t match-fit enough to be considered for selection, while Mina has suffered a setback in the form of a minor calf injury.
Abdoulaye Doucoure (personal reasons) is available again, however.
“Patterson, we’re hoping will be fit in 2-3 weeks. Ben is a bit behind, it’s his first day out on the grass, so we’re still probably looking at the other side of the World Cup break.
“Doucs had a family issue but he’s back in the squad for tomorrow. Mason is training, not ready to be in the squad yet but training really well. Yerry had a little bit of a setback this week so he won’t be available.” – Frank Lampard
One Everton player who is injury free is Dominic Calvert-Lewin but Lampard suggested that it might be a while before the striker breaks back into the Toffees’ starting XI:
“He’s not taking part in every part of training in terms of where we want to push him to get him completely match fit. We’ll just have to see over the next days and weeks how we get him to that optimum level and how quickly we can get him there.” – Frank Lampard on Dominic Calvert-Lewin
LEICESTER CITY
Jonny Evans (calf) is a doubt for the visit of Crystal Palace but Timothy Castagne (eye) has been passed fit, while Nampalys Mendy (knee) and Dennis Praet (unknown) have both been back on the grass after missing training earlier in the week.
Wilfred Ndidi (hamstring), Ryan Bertrand (knee) and Ricardo Pereira (Achilles) remain out.
“We’ve had a couple of players who haven’t trained so much but came back in. Dennis Praet and Papy Mendy have come back in having not trained a lot during the week. Apart from that, we’ll have to assess Jonny Evans just before the game to see where he’s at with a tight calf, but apart from that it’s been a good training week.
“Jonny has obviously been a fantastic player for me. He’s the club captain, a great leader for the team. If he’s not ready, we’ve got other players to come in.
“[Castagne] had quite a bruised eye but he’ll be okay.
“[Ndidi] will probably be a few weeks. When he came off, we were looking at about three weeks. We think it’ll be around that period of time from last week.” – Brendan Rodgers
BRENTFORD
Keane Lewis-Potter (ankle/foot) is back available and could come into the matchday squad but Christian Norgaard (Achilles), Pontus Jansson (hamstring) and Thomas Strakosha (ankle) all remain out ahead of the Friday night kick-off.
Thomas Frank said he was aiming to have Norgaard back by the end of October.
BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION
Long-term absentee Jakub Moder (knee) remains sidelined until March, while this week brought some shock news when it was announced that Enock Mwepu would have to retire with immediate effect on medical grounds.
Roberto De Zerbi confirmed in Thursday’s pre-match press conference that the Seagulls have no fresh concerns going into the weekend.
NOTTINGHAM FOREST
Omar Richards (leg), Moussa Niakhate (muscle) and Jack Colback (back) look set to remain sidelined for the trip to Wolves but there are no other known injury concerns for Forest.
“No, [Niakhate] is not close. He is still very much in his rehab. He is nowhere near consideration, really. I am not sure [if he could miss the World Cup] at the moment, I am just thinking about him and Nottingham Forest. But that is far from being anywhere in our consideration at the moment. He is very much with the medical team and going through the process with them.
“[Colback] is a bit in and out. He is struggling with his back. It is a bit of a frustrating one for him really, because he can’t quite get up to where he wants to be physically. We’re having to be careful with his management programme at the moment. Hence, why he has not been too involved recently, and that is still continuing.” – Steve Cooper
