Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers are bracing themselves for a quick festive turnaround with little time to reconcile their Boxing Day returns against their Christmas restart wish list.
The tête-à-tête between Erling Haaland (£12.2m) and Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) is teetering on coin flip territory, with differentials from Tottenham Hotspur, Fulham and Newcastle United providing alternatives in the Gameweek 18 captaincy conundrum.
As usual, Captain Sensible is here to highlight which assets have the best chance of hauling.
First, we will assess the fallout of the captain poll, before then analysing the best options, Rate My Team (RMT) and the Premier Fantasy Tools ratings ahead of Friday’s 18:15 BST deadline.
THE CAPTAIN POLL
Haaland exerts his now customary dominance on the captain poll, backed by seven-tenths of the total votes cast by users at the time of writing.
No other player has garnered more than 16% of votes at this stage, with Salah currently in second place, backed by around one in six of our users.
Darwin Nunez (£9.0m) occupies third place with 2.47% of the vote, followed by Kevin De Bruyne (£12.6m) slightly further back.
THE MAIN CANDIDATES
ERLING HAALAND / KEVIN DE BRUYNE
Haaland bagged a brace on his hometown return to Leeds, registering a 13-point haul and taking his Premier League goal tally to 20 for the season.
The restart of the Norwegian’s campaign produced some big goal threat numbers, with eight goal attempts and five shots on target topping the division for Gameweek 17.
Looking at Haaland’s underlying numbers with the customary six-match lens, he places in the top three for shots inside the box (26), big chances received (nine), and shots on target (13).
Whilst volumes have slipped from Haaland’s default setting of total dominance, he leads the division for both expected goals (xG) and expected goal involvement (xGI) over the last six matches, with 5.33 and 5.95 respectively.
A slight cause for concern is Manchester City’s schedule and quick turnaround ahead of Gameweek 18. Pep Guardiola’s charges have just two full days to recover from Wednesday’s high-intensity exertions before facing Everton and Haaland played all 90 minutes at Elland Road.
Despite a commanding performance at Leeds that involved creating four chances and one big chance, De Bruyne blanked and played creative second-fiddle to the instrumental Jack Grealish (£6.8m).
However, the Belgian’s underlying numbers remain strong, placing in the division’s top four for chances created (21) and big chances created (five) over the last six matches.
Impressively, De Bruyne ranks third-best in this same period for non-penalty involvement (NPxGI), with his 4.03 only bettered by Nunez and Haaland.
Man City host an Everton side that is winless in their last four Premier League matches, with pressure mounting on Frank Lampard following Wolverhampton Wanderers’ last-gasp victory at Goodison Park.
Over the last six matches, Lampard’s defence placed in the bottom four for allowing shots inside the box (62) and shots on target (32).
Furthermore, the Toffees rank worst for non-penalty expected goals conceded (NPxGC) in these six outings, with 9.98.
MOHAMED SALAH / DARWIN NUNEZ
