Who are the best FPL captain options for Gameweek 34+?

Fantasy Premier League managers are looking at Manchester City, Manchester United and Spurs assets for the Gameweek 34+ captaincy.

But who is the best candidate for the armband? That’s what the Captain Sensible article is here for.

We have compared each asset for various aspects of form over the last four matches of the Premier League restart against the defences they are set to face midweek.

As this article uses data from the Fantasy Football Scout Members Area, only those with a valid subscription can view it in full.

Captain Poll

After several Gameweeks of tight calls, Kevin De Bruyne (£10.8m) has cut through the noise to become the overwhelming captaincy favourite for the next round of action.

The Belgian’s latest rest looks to have locked in a start for the Newcastle game on Wednesday evening and encouraged the interest in his Fantasy credentials.

Since the Premier League restarted, De Bruyne has produced attacking returns during every game in which he has featured from the beginning, totalling three goals, two assists, two double-digit hauls and an average score of 12 points per game. Impressive stuff.

Meanwhile, Newcastle have kept just one clean sheet since Gameweek 30+, conceding twice in their recent draw with West Ham, so De Bruyne will fancy his chances of making a breakthrough, or assisting one of his colleagues. As a result, 44.1% of our voters have singled him out as the best captain for Gameweek 34+.

Bruno Fernandes (£8.9m) takes up the silver medal position this time around, earning 19.8% support ahead of a trip to Aston Villa, just under half the backing of De Bruyne.

The disparity between the two players could be a result of more voters cottoning onto the recent defensive improvements made by Dean Smith’s men. While they have just one clean sheet since the Premier League restart, Villa do look a lot harder to break down than before. Pre-lockdown, they conceded an average of two goals per game across the first 28 matches of the campaign. Since then they have managed to decrease that to just 1.2 per game.

That said, Fernandes comes into Gameweek 34+ in excellent form. After slight blip when starting alongside Paul Pogba (£8.3m) for the first time against Sheffield United, the Portuguese international has responded with two scintillating performances.

In Gameweeks 32+ and 33+ he scored three goals and assisted a further two, racking up 15 points in each match, despite gifting a penalty to Marcus Rashford (£9.1m). Even outside of spot-kicks, Fernandes retains considerable threat on his long-range, but accurate, shots on goal, as well as direct free-kicks and corners.

Harry Kane (£11.0m) sits a distant third in the captain poll this week, backed by just 6.2% ahead of Spurs meeting with Bournemouth.

The Cherries have certainly been in an obliging mood of late, conceding more goals than any other side since the Premier League restarted (12).

However, it must be remembered that Steve Cook (£5.0m), Simon Francis (£4.4m), Chris Mepham (£4.3m) or Jack Simpson (£3.9m) were all absent for the most recent outing, the 5-2 defeat at Manchester United, so Kane backers may want to consider that some of them could return to action.

The centre-forward has put in some mixed performances since Gameweek 30+, scoring twice in that time, but struggling to offer much in the way of justification for the armband in Monday’s win over Everton, which you can read about in more detail HERE.

Willian (£7.2m) has scored a penalty in each of the last three Chelsea matches, helping him climb to the fourth-most-popular captain for Gameweek 34+.

Chelsea travel to a Crystal Palace side that has lapsed defensively since their four clean sheets from four between Gameweeks 27 and 30+. Over their last three matches, the Eagles have shipped a total of eight goals, while Frank Lampard’s men have found the net at least twice in every outing since the Premier League restart.

Willian has played a bit part in that, hence the 3.9% backing for the captaincy, while Christian Pulisic (£7.2m), the man who has won several of the Brazilian’s penalties, has accrued the support of 3.3% of voters.

The two Chelsea options sit either side of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.9m) in the popularity charts, 3.4% selecting him as the best captain for Gameweek 34+.

On Tuesday evening, Arsenal host a Leicester side with just one clean sheet in their last five away matches. Aubameyang, meanwhile, has five goals in his last four at the Emirates Stadium.

A rather laboured display for Liverpool in their 2-0 win over Aston Villa has sent Mohamed Salah (£12.6m) down the captaincy pecking order for Gameweek 34+. Ahead of a trip to Brighton, who have conceded in every home game since Gameweek 20+, the Egyptian has the support of just 2.4%.

The differential power of Raheem Sterling (£11.7m) is also rather high, considering that 1.9% have selected him as the best Gameweek 34+ captain, and the same goes for Phil Foden (£5.4m), who has the same amount of support. The latter has produced attacking returns in every home match since the Premier League restart, averaging 11.3 points per game.

Anthony Martial (£8.3m), Son Heung-min (£9.8m), Rashford, Mason Greenwood (£4.6m) and Gabriel Jesus (£9.6m) are the only options with more than 1% backing in the poll.

Player statistics – Last four matches