Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers prepare for a reduced fixtures schedule ahead of Blank Gameweek 26 with four teams missing out: Chelsea, Liverpool, Luton Town, and Tottenham Hotspur.
But, as usual, the Captain Sensible article is here to highlight which assets have the best chance of hauling – and who should be trusted with the armband.
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 Saturday’s 13:30 GMT deadline.
THE CAPTAIN POLL
Erling Haaland (£14.4m) punished a defensive error by Brentford to seal Manchester City’s 1-0 victory over the Bees, drawing a collective sigh of relief from those who backed the Norwegian with the Triple Captain chip.
But it was very much a case of what might have been for Haaland triple backers.
The former Dortmund striker started slow and blanked in Man City’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea despite registering nine efforts in the box and a non-penalty xG tally of 1.58.
Indeed, over the two fixtures, the Norwegian was the biggest under-performer in the ‘double’ with one goal from 2.44 non-penalty xG making a persuasive case for categorising the chip deployment decision as ‘well done, good process.’
Haaland is backed by just under half of our users, at the time of writing, to continue his goal-scoring form when the Citizens travel to Bournemouth for Saturday’s first evening kick-off.
Meanwhile, Ollie Watkins (£8.7m) bagged a brace during Aston Villa’s 2-1 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage.
The England international was unplayable against the Cottagers in a performance that garnered four shots in the box, two of which worked Bernd Leno (£4.8m), and a non-penalty xG tally of 0.86.
Notably, Watkins’ double took his Premier League tally to 12, with the Villans’ striker sitting at the summit for attacking returns (27) among all outfield players this season.
The former Brentford ace is backed by just over one-sixth of our users to fire against Nottingham Forest.
Bukayo Saka (£9.1m) occupies third place with 10% of the vote, followed closely by Rasmus Hojlund (£7.2m) with Hwang Hee-chan (£5.6m) further back.
THE PLAYER STATISTICS – LAST SIX MATCHES
2 months, 28 days agoAnyone else got a benching headache this week. Estu or Taylor? Think I’ll be rolling.
Areola
Trippier Ake Estu Gabriel
Gordon Saka Foden
Watkins Haaland Toney
Dubravka Taylor Palmer Jota