Captain Sensible – Gameweek 34

Next up is our usual Friday evening members’ article as we take a closer look at the leading armband candidates for the upcoming round of fixtures.

To start off, we run the rule over the Captain Poll contenders, then examine the Opta numbers and Rate My Team rankings before pinpointing a differential or two to help with your armband dilemma.

The Captain Poll

Prior to being forced off against Anderlecht last night, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the runaway leader in our previous Gameweek 34 Captain Poll for Manchester United’s upcoming pair of fixtures.

The veteran’s knee injury – with
reports suggesting he could be out for the season – forced us to reset the Poll earlier this morning, affording you another chance to assess the lay of the land.

This time around, United’s Marcus Rashford edges Middlesbrough frontman Alvaro Negredo into second spot.

Backed by 27%, Rashford’s goal and assist in the 2-1 win over the Belgians means he has now scored in three of his last four across all competitions. With the rest of United’s attackers misfiring, he’s been drafted in by over 144,00 FPL managers in the last 24 hours.

Yet his upcoming pair of hosts won’t make it easy – Burnley and Manchester City are amongst the top six sides in terms of resilient home defences, having conceded just 14 and 15 times in front of their own supporters.

United’s raiding right-back Antonio Valencia’s 3% of the votes cast. The Ecuadorian produced attacking or defensive points in eight of his last nine, though he’s started just one of the last three due to his manager’s late-season rotation.

Handed 21% of the votes, Negredo has netted twice in five fixtures under Steve Agnew and has the best pair of fixtures of any Double Gameweek frontman as the Teesside team travel to Bournemouth before hosting Sunderland in midweek.

The Cherries have conceded at least twice in seven of their last eight home matches, while David Moyes’ side have a single clean sheet on their travels all season.

By comparison, encounters with Liverpool and Spurs look tougher tasks for Christian Benteke (9%). A trip to his former employers at Anfield could still see the Belgian in profit – Jurgen Klopp’s side have injury worries at the back and have registered just one clean sheet in seven at Anfield.

At home to Spurs is far from straightforward, yet Benteke – with goals in three of the last four Gameweeks, including a ten-point tally at Stamford Bridge – has the form to prevail.

Only 3% are willing to gamble on Wilfried Zaha, while less than 1% are considering his team-mate Andros Townsend. The pair have both produced two goals and three assists in the previous six Gameweeks in a run that has seen the latter average seven points per appearance.

Golden Boot rivals Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku are rated as the best single-Gameweek prospects, earning 9% and 7% of the votes respectively.

The Spurs man has delivered double-figure hauls (20, 13, 12) in each of his last three starts ahead of a trip to Palace, while Lukaku has scored in nine successive appearances for Everton against weekend hosts West Ham.