Amidst all the Diego Costa chatter, we now move to our regular article for members that analyses the Gameweek’s captaincy dilemma. To get things up and running, we analyse the main contenders in this week’s Captain Poll, then assess the Opta numbers and Rate My Team rankings before suggesting some differentials to help solve the armband conundrum.
The Captain Poll
Arsenal and Spurs dominate our Gameweek 21 Captain Poll, with the north London duo taking up the top four places ahead of clashes against Swansea City and West Brom respectively.
A trip to the Liberty Stadium ensures that Alexis Sanchez is the runaway leader, with the Chilean earning over 40% of the votes cast – he’s already served up four double-figure hauls on his travels and faces a defence that boast the worst home record in terms of goals against.
Olivier Giroud’s recent renaissance hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Exactly 8% of voters are backing the Gunners frontman, who has scored in three successive Gameweeks and also netted a weekend cup winner at Preston.
Dele Alli and Harry Kane split the Arsenal pair, both collecting 10% of the votes for a home clash against the Baggies.
Three successive braces has earned Alli an intimidating bandwagon over the break, with 427,000+ transfers in since the previous deadline passed, though Kane has struggled for form at the Lane, blanking in each of his last three.
Spurs team-mate Christian Eriksen (2%), with five double-figure hauls in the last eight, offers a explosive alternative, yet Tony Pulis’ side are no pushovers on the road, conceding just 10 goals in as many away matches so far.
A trip to Everton offers Sergio Aguero the chance to get back amongst the goals.
The Manchester City forward has scored in both appearances in all competitions since returning from injury and has bagged a brace in four of his seven away appearances this season.
Yet with the Toffees conceding only seven goals at Goodison, just 5% of voters are willing to back Aguero with the armband.
Both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Diego Costa collect just 4% backing for clashes with Liverpool and Leicester respectively.
Expected to shrug off the illness that forced him to miss the midweek cup win over Hull, the United frontman has racked up nine goals and four assists in his last nine league outings.
Costa has netted eight of his 14 goals on the road, producing points in seven of his 10 away matches. With just two strikes on his travels, Chelsea team-mate Eden Hazard earns less than 1% of the votes cast.
However, with reports suggesting that Costa has been dropped for the trip to Leicester City, though, few, if any, will now be prepared to gamble.
Jermain Defoe is another in-form differential as Sunderland welcome Stoke to the Stadium of Light.
A brace against Liverpool took his tally to 11 for the season last time out, yet just 2% are willing to captain the Black Cats veteran against a defence that’s conceded at least three times in each of their last three away matches.
Junior Stanislas (1.6%) is the budget midfielder of choice as Bournemouth make their way to Hull.
The fit-again wide man has supplied an assist in each of his last two starts since returning from injury, taking his average to 5.3 points per match this season.
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