Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 21 – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16
Hello ladies and gents, and welcome to the Captain Picks for GW 21! This game-week sees several of the big teams in tough matchups, with Man City welcoming Everton after coming up short against them in the Capital One Cup, Leicester going to White Hart Lane for the second time in a matter of days, and Liverpool hosting Arsenal at Anfield. In such a GW it might be hard to get the captaincy right as several of the usual choices face tough teams. For example, Mahrez misses out in this article as he’s failed to deliver in recent weeks and goes up against the meanest defence in the league in Tottenham. Last GW was low-scoring for many of us and there is a fear this GW will pan out similarly due to the fixtures, but let hope abound that they will turn out to be entertaining goal fests instead. Nevertheless, let’s go look at the different captain picks for this week.
[clear]Harry Kane (home vs Leicester)
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[/three_fourth]Tottenham and Leicester will face off against each other only a couple of days prior to their PL match in the FA Cup, so we’ll get a hint as to how this match will pan out beforehand. Regardless, Kane has been hot and cold recently, blanking in 3 of his last 6 matches and getting 3 goals and 1 assist in the other 3. Spurs actually sit 2nd in the form table, and are the 3rd highest scoring team in the league alongside Arsenal with 34 goals, 11 of them being scored by Kane. While Leicester have been known for both scoring and conceding plenty of goals, they have scored none and conceded only 1 in their last 3 matches, and sit 3rd in the form table. As Leicester really don’t know what defensive football means, expect an entertaining match with chances for both sides, with Tottenham as favorites to take all 3 points in this match, and with Kane as the focal point of their attack.
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Romelu Lukaku (away vs Man City)
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[/three_fourth]While Everton have not performed so well recently, sitting 15th in the form table, Romelu Lukaku has performed week in and week out. He has only blanked once in his last 10 matches. While going to the Etihad might put you off, I expect Man City and Everton to go at each other with an attacking intent, creating plenty of chances for both sides. In the Capital One Cup, it was City that had the most shots with 18, yet Everton looked more lethal and even had 2 goals disallowed despite having only 8 shots (7 on goal). City have only kept 1 clean sheet in their last 8, in a scoreless match against Leicester that honestly shouldn’t have ended scoreless. Hence, City should be expected to concede and Lukaku has been the top attacking player for Everton this season, as he proved when he scored against City in the Carling Cup. Lukaku’s fitness is currently uncertain, but early news suggests that he’s likely to be ok for this match as the injury wasn’t too serious. Keep an eye out for more news.
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Mesut Ozil (away vs Liverpool)
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[/three_fourth]With their team sitting atop of the league, Arsenal fans mostly have one man to thank for that – Mesut Ozil. The Frog-Eyed Playmaker has provided 16 assists and scored 3 goals, and has finally shown us why he was considered world class at Real Madrid. While he has blanked in 2 of his last 3 matches, Arsenal only scored 1 goal in the matches he blanked, so his lack of points in those matches is no fault of his. In the other match, he scored 1 goal and assisted another – meaning that he was involved in two-thirds of Arsenals goals in these matches, so don’t jump the gun and think that his form has waned yet. In fact, you will have to go all the way back to GW 6 to find the last time he blanked before these last matches. His opponent, Liverpool, sit 13th in the form table, and while they have kept 2 clean sheets in their last 3 matches, they have been defensively unstable under Klopp, conceding 9 goals in recent matches against Newcastle, West Bromwich, Watford, and West Ham – all teams that, in theory, are inferior. I see no reason to believe that Liverpool should be able to prevent Arsenal from scoring in their quest to stay top of the league, and Ozil will certainly be in the middle of it all if and when they do.
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Odion Ighalo (away vs Southampton)
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[/three_fourth]I never thought I’d say these words when you look at the big names in this article, but Ighalo is perhaps the safest pick this week. While most of the other captaincy candidates have tough matches, he faces Southampton, a team that sits 18th in the form table with 4 losses, 1 draw, and 1 win – that ironically was against Arsenal – in their last 6 matches. Against Arsenal, Southampton also kept their only clean sheet in their last 8 matches. Ighalo blanked for the first time in 8 matches last round against City, but he came close a couple of times and was a constant pain to deal with for Mangala (who isn’t!), and scored 4 goals altogether against Liverpool, Chelsea, and Tottenham in the matches before City. In other words, he has proven that he has no problem scoring even against big teams, and given Southampton’s form, there is little reason to believe that he won’t torment their defenders as well, and I would suggest that he’s very likely to pick up points in this match.
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Sergio Aguero (home vs Everton)
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[/three_fourth]While he is still nowhere near his top form, Sergio Aguero shows improvement with every match, having scored the winning goal against Watford and assisted Navas’ goal against Everton. He completed 85 minutes against Watford and played the entire match against Everton, proving that he is fit enough to now go the 90; it is currently his sharpness that is lacking. While his returns this season have not been anywhere near what we are used to, he has played better in recent matches as he has been more involved in the attacking play, venturing out of the box to contribute to the attack as well as going back into the box to finish the attack, in contrast to previous matches when he remained immobile in the box, rarely getting chances and being quite invisible. Still, his finishing is nowhere near his usual, clinical self as we witnessed on several occasions against Everton. However, we all know what he is capable of and with him showing improvement, I think it is merely a matter of time before he proves his worth and starts scoring consistently, and as he faces an attacking minded and very little defensively minded team in Everton at the Etihad, this could very well be the week he starts doing that. If you think he will, then he represents a differential captain as he is owned by 14.3% of teams – many of them inactive.
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Diego Costa (home vs West Brom)
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[/three_fourth]Another player that has failed to live up to expectations this season is Chelsea’s Diego Costa. Or rather, the entire Chelsea team has failed up to live up to expectations, but they have shown improvement in recent matches, being on their longest unbeaten streak in the Premier League this season by not losing in four matches. Costa has gotten double digits in his last 2 matches, scoring 12 points due to 2 goals and 3 bonus points against Watford, and 10 points due to 1 goal, 1 assist, and 1 bonus point against Crystal Palace. West Bromwich have lost the defensive solidity we expect to see from a team managed by Pulis as they have kept just a single clean sheet in 10 matches, and given Chelsea’s and Costa’s form, he surely represents a great differential option for the armband this week as he is only owned by 6.3%, and I assume a lot of the teams owning him are inactive teams.
Thanks for reading Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 21. This article was written by Tekno Kun
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Hello all!
Defensive dilemma atm. My backline is:
Howard / Elliot
Bellerin / Bertrand / Walker / Moreno / Hangeland *
Need to get rid of Hangeland and have 8m to spend, so any defender is within my scope. Looking for someone for the next month and a bit. Evans’ next 4 games aren’t the worst but I feel like I’m missing an obvious replacement?
Hi Rambo, you do a lot worse than doubling up on Spurs given their run ahead plus being the best defence currently but that may depend if you already have 2 in the rest of the squad of course.
+1 to this
And let me just tell you how big of a grin I get every time I hear others say how good the Spurs defense is doing this year! That’s always been their inconsistency and their downfall.
Rambo, I’d get Toby in for Hangeland. He covers Vertonghen well, plays beautiful passes, always a goal threat from set pieces, and he picks up serious bonus points when they do well.
some wise thoughts would be great
Butland Rudd
Kolarov Bellerin Moreno Janmaat Ward
KDB Ozil Mahrez Barkley Alli
Vardy Lukaku ighalo
2 FT and 6.8mn in the bank
help guys
Hi nishant, I think you’ll have to wait this one out until the press conferences and see what the Vardy and Lukaku situations are like nearer the time but from what I’ve seen and read today I’d say Lukaku is fine and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Vardy on Wednesday as well. What were you thinking of doing?
Can you afford Vardy & Lukaku –> Aguero & Costa?
Stop teasing NIN, you’re making my WC tingle again Those would be some great moves if he could. Quick bit of maths based upon current purchase price (not sell for the outgoing) and I think it’s 23.6 cash versus 23.8 to buy those 2 so depending on sell price he’s probably half a mil shy.
Haha 😉
Shame that, i reckon they are the moves to make. Could just get Kane instead of Costa i suppose, still works out a treat.
That’d work. There you go nishant, jobs a goodun. Got there eventually between the 3 of us
Kane in for Vardy
That’s probably the sensible move. Depends if he’s chasing or not though I suppose. Costa may be worth a punt if so although I still expect Kane to outscore him over the next 4 or so. In which case then yeah, Kane! Talked my way out of that one pretty quickly.
cheers gents for all the thoughts
@innit. my plan is to do Vardy to Kane and barkley to payet
@nin. am a bit short. not tempted yet to get any of kun or costa yet
@ebc. thats in my mind. strongly leaning towards it
me not being interested in kun for the reason that I made a promise to myself that I wont get in Kun unless he scores in 2 games consecutively.
lame ……but this season has been such too 😉
Seems like a completely logical way to go about it.
Good thing he announced his 5 goals earlier this season by scoring in back to back games before that. 😉
Oi statto, don’t ruin a good story 😉
Yep, my fault. I just sold Kun to make up for it.
They’re good moves too. Funnily enough I nearly said the Payet / Barkley switch but then got a headache thinking about the headache you’d have every week!
Great stuff Teks, many thanks for this. Costa for me i reckon.
Cheers tekno – Kun for me….
Which defenders should I put my faith in this week?
Butland (myhill) Toby, monreal, kolarov, ward, wollscheid ?
Ward, Wollschied and Toby, for me.
Agree with NIN
Works for me thanks guys!
If I bring in payet for wally, who would you bench?
Team attached now
Mahrez / Lukaku. It doesn’t matter really, it will be a bonkers call no matter what