No Lanzini or Nasri…so here’s a ‘radical’ line-up

Manuel Pellegrini will again be thrown onto the back foot this weekend as he attempts to put a team together that can reproduce the sort of form we saw against Manchester United last weekend.

His big problem is in midfield where he doesn’t appear to have a single creative player available to him given Manuel Lanzini and Samir Nasri’s injury problems.

This couldn’t be the moment for a Jack Wilshere return could it? No stop being silly Hugh, he wasn’t even on the bench last weekend despite reports from the boss that he was training again.

There may be an answer but it would mean a radical overhaul of the team in that key position which could be filled by Felipe Anderson with Arthur Masuaku playing wide left and Aaron Cresswell slotting into the left back position again.

Masuaku would deserve to keep his place anyway after a top display at Old Trafford whilst Anderson can comfortably take on the play making role.

However, it’s also going to be difficult not to give Michail Antonio a start aftrer last week when he was hugely effective off the bench.

However, my starting X1 would be as suggested: Fabianski; Zaba, Ogbonna, Balbuena, Cresswell; Rice, Noble, Snodgrass, Masuaku; Anderson; Aranutovic.