Rudoni to start imo. I'm not sure about the modern phased return idea.
Eccles was out for a longer period yet was back in the starting line up after one sub appearance (started in place of Rudoni funnily enough).
I feel a bit like teams that win the league go through phases,
1. Start the run and surprise teams
2. Embed a winning routine
3. Become a team to beat
4. Get carried along by their own aura
5. Champions
We're getting into 3
Maybe it was a deliberate strategy to let them run out of steam (which they did mostly by the hour) but we seemed to step up a gear after that and looked dangerous