Dugout Discussion – Tuesday

Tuesday evening treats us to four more fixtures, as Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham prepare for their first matches of double Gameweek 22.

The big news is that Harry Kane starts on the bench at the Liberty Stadium.

Having headed into Monday’s deadline as a doubt, the Spurs striker has been handed the Fantasy Premier League captaincy by a relatively low 24.2% of managers. However, over 121,000 also played their Triple Captain chip on Kane after he produced back-to-back hat-tricks in his previous two Gameweek appearances. They will now hope that he gets used from the bench tonight and that he can deliver big against West Ham in 48-hours time.

Son Heung-min, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli are also among the top 13 armband picks and all start in Wales, with Fernando Llorente leading the attack against his former club. Indeed, Son was the top transfer target for Gameweek 22, acquired by 498,000+ new owners on the back of four goals and as many assists in six starts.

Despite a run of five strikes in as many matches, just 17,000 have placed their faith in West Ham’s form player, Marko Arnautovic.

Nonetheless, that output hasn’t gone unnoticed – he was brought in by over 368,000 for a Gameweek that sees him entertain West Brom at the London Stadium before making his way to Wembley later in the week. Interestingly, however, he looks to have dropped back to a support role behind the lone striker Andy Carroll.

Elsewhere, John Stones, David Silva, Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling all return to the Man City XI for a plum home clash against Watford.

Aguero’s tally of 20 points in a 6-0 win over the Hornets back in Gameweek 5 remains the highest individual haul of the season. With Gabriel Jesus sidelined for a month at the very minimum, he now has the opportunity to audition for our three-man frontlines ahead of visits from both Newcastle and West Brom before the end of January.

Sterling, meanwhile, has bagged double-digit hauls in each of his last three starts to move into second place in the FPL player standings behind Mohamed Salah.

Kevin De Bruyne also starts for the hosts as he recovers from the Jason Puncheon challenge that forced him off at Selhurst Park on Sunday.

Southampton and Crystal Palace square up at St Mary’s in the other Tuesday fixture.

With a goal or assist in four of the last six outings, the Eagles’ Wilfried Zaha is the form player in this one. Yet the home side will be buoyed by Saturday’s goalless draw at Old Trafford which helped them to a first clean sheet since Gameweek 9.