Don't know about that rumour. If he did bare a grudge it was a mistake, first name on my team sheet...
Of course it's not just 4 games out though is it?
E.g. Leon returns from injury and gets a lot of minutes because we are so threadbare.
Starts at Fulham, a few days later we've got West Ham, so he rests him...made extra sense as they are great in the air and we are poor (and Leon's tiny)...he was hoping we'd defend the aerial ball better with Amat in and nick an away point. With the bonus of having Leon fresher for the derby.
Makes sense too me. I didn't think Leon had been dropped. Just horses for courses.
We don't defend well, we don't keep the ball as well as we should and people use Leon to beat Laudrup over the head.