FPL: Hazard regained his fitness, Kane ready to take the lead

CAIRO –13 October 2017: The English Premier League is back after the international break, which was crucial to qualify many national teams to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. This ensured the qualification of several teams, notably England, Portugal, Egypt, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay.

The eighth round of the English Premier League will be exciting because its matches are not easy at all. It will be difficult for coaches to pick some players because of the inconvenience of some players and frustrate some of them because they are not qualified for the World Cup, most notably Aaron Ramsey, Alexis Sanchez and Sead Kolašinac.

The next round is expected to see a lot of changes for the difficulty of some matches, such as Liverpool’s match against Manchester United at Anfield. Some games will be difficult because of injuries and suspensions of some players, and the psychological state of others. Arsenal players will meet Watford in the absence of Mustafi and Koscielny, and there is a possibility Kolašinac will be absent. As for Alexis Sanchez, another of Arsenal’s players, his morale is very low after Chile did not qualify to the 2018 World Cup.

Another game that looks very easy is that between Crystal Palace and Chelsea, but the absence of scoring for Crystal Palace players after seven weeks may put a lot of pressure on players to achieve their first goal of the season, especially as the game is at home and among their fans. Álvaro Morata is expected to be absent because of injury.

Tottenham also wants to gain the first win at Wembley, where they did not win this season. The Spurs will face Bournemouth, while Manchester City will meet Stoke City.

Everton needs a win; it has only won two games this season in seven rounds, lost four and drew once. West Ham must also win to keep Croatian coach Slaven Bilić in his position.

Players that may shine in the next game:

- Richarlison

- Eden Hazard

- Virgil van Dijk

Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham are also advised to rely on their defenders because they will not receive a large number of goals in that round.

Captain Candidates:

- Hary Kane

- Eden Hazard

Some effective absences for the next round are due to suspension and injury. Those include Sadio Mané, Danny Welbeck, Paul Pogba, Danny Rose, Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny.