With the time edging closer to this evening’s 7pm deadline, we roll out our pre-Gameweek members article, offering insight on the armband conundrum for the upcoming round of fixtures.
As always, we assess the key Captain Poll protagonists, before analysing the Opta numbers and Rate My Team ratings prior to offering up a couple of differential options in light of the data analysis.
The Captain Poll
Gameweek 7 looks one of the most open armband races of the season so far, with a quartet of players battling it out for our attentions.
At the summit, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has slightly edged ahead of Alexis Sanchez by 22% to 21%.
The Chilean continues to thrive as the Gunners’ lone striker and has racked up four goals and three assists in the last four Gameweeks.
Ahead of a visit to Burnley, he’s served up double-figure hauls in each of his previous two away trips against West Ham and Hull.
Ibrahimovic has netted just once in the last four but is backed to return to form as United welcome Stoke to Old Trafford.
Jose Mourinho’s side looked vastly improved at home to Leicester last weekend and are heavily favoured to turn over a toiling Potters outfit that have shipped 15 goals already.
Man City’s trip to Spurs means that, for the first time this season, Sergio Aguero fails to top the Captain Poll when available for selection.
The Argentine maintained his relentless form under Pep Guardiola with a brace away to Swansea – it’s 11 goals in six outings in all competitions now.
Despite serving up 13 points in both his away outings this season, a trip to the Premier League’s tightest defence means only 16% are prepared to back him.
A home clash with Palace later tonight has persuaded 14% to consider Romelu Lukaku as captain.
The Eagles have yet to earn a clean sheet and, having conceded twice at Sunderland last Saturday, remain without the influential Scott Dann in the heart of defence through injury.
Lukaku bagged four goals and an assist prior to last week’s blank at Bournemouth and is set to start, despite being hampered by a toe problem.
Below that quartet, a host of differentials are jostling for our attention.
Liverpool quartet Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino (both 2%), Sadio Mane and Adam Lallana (both 1%) are also in contention for the trip to Swansea.
The Reds look in rampant form and, whilst selecting the correct one has been near-impossible to predict, all four have racked up double-figures over the first six and are clearly capable of substantial hauls against Francesco Guidolin’s strugglers.
Marcus Rashford (2%) fired a third goal in four Gameweeks in United’s win over Leicester and looks to have secured himself a place in Jose Mourinho’s first XI for now.
With a midweek brace against Basel, Theo Walcott has now notched five times in seven appearances and looks a real differential punt with just 1% backing for the Burnley encounter.
In spite of a very favourable trip to Hull, Chelsea duo Diego Costa (3%) and Eden Hazard (1%) remain overlooked as the Blues start to struggle for form and consistency under Antonio Conte.
It’s a similar situation for Dimitri Payet and Michail Antonio ahead of a home clash with Middlesbrough, with less than 1% of voters willing to back either player.
Antonio has five goals in as many outings and Payet has four assists in the last three, yet West Ham’s limp display against Southampton – where they failed to produce a single shot on target – is clearly enough of a deterrent.
