There was more armband misery for many of us in Gameweek 9, with the highest score among the top ten most-captained Fantasy Premier League assets being Raheem Sterling‘s (£12.1m) modest five points.
Coupled with no-shows and blanks from several other high-profile captaincy options, it was another weekend to forget in this difficult opening quarter to the 2019/20 campaign.
Sterling will be one of a handful of Manchester City assets expected to feature prominently in our latest captain poll, which is now live in the article below and on our homepage.
Pep Guardiola’s side take on Aston Villa at home in the Saturday lunchtime kick-off, with this being the first of two successive league matches that City enjoy at the Etihad.
Many of us will be waiting on Guardiola’s team selection for the Atalanta game on Tuesday, of course, with rotation a possible concern for Gameweek 10.
Ederson (£6.1m), indeed, is City’s only ever-present this season.
Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne‘s (£10.1m) owners will be yearning for more luck than they got at Crystal Palace last Saturday, while those of us who have Sergio Aguero (£12.2m) or Riyad Mahrez (£8.7m) in our squads will hope to see their assets back in the starting XI following their benchings in Gameweek 9.
The dreaded one-pointer off the bench, of course, is always a worry with Guardiola.
We ought to give a mention to David Silva (£7.6m), too, who can boast more double-digit hauls than any Premier League player this season.
Aside from City, Arsenal are back on home soil after their latest away-day struggles at Sheffield United.
The Gunners are unbeaten at the Emirates this season, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.1m) only blanking in one of their four home fixtures – although he is yet to deliver a double-digit haul in north London.
Two of the more free-scoring teams this season have trickier games on paper.
Chelsea are away at a Burnley side who have performed well in the opening two months, while Liverpool entertain a Tottenham Hotspur team who have already salvaged draws at Manchester City and Arsenal.
Spurs, of course, are in a fairly dire way at the moment, taking only one point from matches against Brighton and Watford and shipping seven goals in their recent Champions League tie with Bayern Munich.
Owners of Sadio Mane (£11.8m), Mohamed Salah (£12.4m) – if fit – and Roberto Firmino (£9.6m) may well fancy their prospects of an attacking return or two against Mauricio Pochettino’s below-par side, particularly as Liverpool average three goals per league game at Anfield this season.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have been more prolific on the road: 12 of their 19 league goals have been scored in their last three away fixtures.
Mason Mount (£6.8m) and Tammy Abraham (£7.8m) have delivered attacking returns in all three of those matches.
Bournemouth and Manchester United face appealing trips to Watford and Norwich City respectively, although the bad news for owners of Callum Wilson (£8.0m), Marcus Rashford (£8.4m) et al is that these two previously porous clubs showed a bit more defensive resilience in Gameweek 9.
Still, the Hornets and the Canaries have shipped a league-high 21 goals each in 2019/20.
You can now vote in the latest captain poll on our website, either below or in the sidebar on the right.
Joe and Neale will be having more captain-led discussion in our weekly video, which you can watch on our YouTube channel from 12:45 pm on Tuesday.
4 years, 6 months agoWhat is this Mark Southerns news I am hearing?