Top-flight clubs are arguably stronger than ever, but the growing tendency for Premier League managers to rest players balances out that advantage so it is very likely that, somewhere today, there will be a shock.
Chelsea do not expect the Belgium manager, Marc Wilmots, to rest Hazard for the forthcoming international window, when the national team take on Portugal in Brussels on 29 March.
The manager could afford to rest Gerrard by bringing on the 20-year-old Jay Spearing.
Yankees Manager Joe Torre planned to rest Jeter Wednesday, anyway, so Jeter will not play until Friday at the earliest.
Manager Larry Dierker decided to rest Bagwell for the first time this season and give the slumping Alou a day to regroup.
Roberto Alomar was out of the lineup, replaced by John Valentin, because Manager Bobby Valentine wanted to rest Alomar with a week of hot days looming in Philadelphia and Miami.
Southampton manager Nigel Adkins refused to rest on his laurels after his league-leading side's 2-0 defeat of Crystal Palace at St Mary's yesterday, stressing the need to bring in additional players to enhance his team's promotion push.
"By the same extent, if the manager did decide to rest a couple of players in the previous years, when the international qualifiers came around again you would expect them to be playing again".
Alex Rodriguez was not in the lineup for the Yankees' Saturday afternoon game because Manager Joe Girardi decided to rest him after the late finish of Friday's game, a 4-3 victoverover the Detroit Tigers in 10 innings.
David Wright looked tired on Monday night in the Mets' 5-2 loss to Seattle, with an error and a futile day at the plate, and Manager Jerry Manuel decided to rest him the next day.
