diff --git a/spacy/tests/conftest.py b/spacy/tests/conftest.py
index 7c6dcda1b..46eb1e22e 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/conftest.py
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ from ..tokens import Doc
 from ..strings import StringStore
 from ..lemmatizer import Lemmatizer
 from ..attrs import ORTH, TAG, HEAD, DEP
-from ..util import match_best_version, get_data_path
 
 from io import StringIO, BytesIO
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -91,10 +90,7 @@ def en_entityrecognizer():
 
 @pytest.fixture
 def lemmatizer(path):
-    if path is not None:
-        return Lemmatizer.load(path)
-    else:
-        return None
+    return English.Defaults.ceate_lemmatizer()
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
@@ -106,14 +102,6 @@ def text_file_b():
     return BytesIO()
 
 
-@pytest.fixture
-def path():
-    if 'SPACY_DATA' in os.environ:
-        return Path(os.environ['SPACY_DATA'])
-    else:
-        return match_best_version('en', None, get_data_path())
-
-
 # only used for tests that require loading the models
 # in all other cases, use specific instances
 @pytest.fixture(scope="session")
diff --git a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue781.py b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue781.py
index 8a98b48b8..1c48d1534 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue781.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue781.py
@@ -6,5 +6,5 @@ import pytest
 
 # Note: "chromosomes" worked previous the bug fix
 @pytest.mark.parametrize('word,lemmas', [("chromosomes", ["chromosome"]), ("endosomes", ["endosome"]), ("colocalizes", ["colocalize", "colocaliz"])])
-def test_issue781(path, lemmatizer, word, lemmas):
+def test_issue781(lemmatizer, word, lemmas):
     assert lemmatizer(word, 'noun', morphology={'number': 'plur'}) == set(lemmas)