Captain’s Picks Fantasy Football Gameweek 18

Captains Picks Fantasy Football Gameweek 18 – Fantasy Premier League 2014/15

‘Twas the night before GW18, when all through the land
Not a creature was sleeping, for they had not planned;
Their transfers were done, and in good time too,
But whom should they captain? They need to know, who?!

That’s right folks, ’tis that time of year again, when – what? “Christmas?” Bah humbug! Merely incidental! ‘Tis the time of year when we approach the halfway point of our FPL marathon. Those of you who have done well up to this point will be hoping to consolidate and push on further, and for the rest of you there is still plenty of time to heed the Ghost of FPL Past, turn the ship around and overhaul your rivals. What better way to start than nailing your captain choices for the immediate pre- and post-Christmas GWs? Oh yes, and if you’re after a festive pun-fest then I’m afraid there’s no man better at that than Bryan Munich, so you’re barking up the wrong tree..

Alexis Sanchez (Olivier Giroud) – QPR at home
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[/three_fourth]Whether or not you agree with the significant number of Gooners that feel entitled to en-choir exactly why Wenger is still at the helm, you can’t fault him for his marquee summer signing. Now, while Sanchez hasn’t found the net in the last three, you can’t expect a man of his ability to be able to just quit scoring cold turkey, and as such a few goals are surely just around the corner. It’s also worth mentioning that since his last goal he has been stocking up on assists, with three to his name during said period. Although opponents QPR have had some improved results of late, they still have not been able to sort out their travelling woes and boast a 100% (!!) loss record on the road so far this season; you can all but put your mortgage on the current FPL top scorer getting some decent attacking returns in this fixture.
If Sanchez is too mainstream for you then allow me to present you with Giroud as a fine alternative option. The finely-follicled Frenchman has three goals in his last two outings, which is as many as Welbeck has in the league all season! (holding my hand up to that one)

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Eden Hazard – West Ham at home
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[/three_fourth]Your next helping sprouts from Brussels (there or thereabouts…) and is a veritable bonus point magnet. Due to his creativity and work-rate, combined with the way the BPS points are allocated this season, he has accrued the maximum three bonus points on four of the six occasions he’s scored. Compare this with Costa if you will, who has twice as many goals but EIGHT LESS bonus points. Costa’s recent relative FPL demise can in large part be summed up by his lack of bonus points and tendency for yellow cards, whereas Hazard is a man of fire at The Bridge, where his last five games have yielded returns of 11, 10, 11, 9 & 14! The flip side to that coin is that he seems incapable of doing anything at all in away games, although he bucked this trend on Monday night at Stoke with an assist & a bonus point, and whether that is down to his own mental issues or some clever tactics from Jose, it is largely irrelevant to his owners this GW. Up against a pretty stable West Ham defence that has only conceded five goals in the last seven games, do not expect the floodgates to open here. However, as alluded to earlier, Hazard only needs one goal for double-figure returns, and that could well be enough to stop the Hammers from forever blowing baubles. I should add that Hazard did limp off at the very end of the game against Stoke and at the time of writing there had not been an up update on his situation.

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Yaya Toure – West Brom away
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[/three_fourth]City won both of last season’s meetings between these two clubs, and will be expected to produce maximum points at the Hawthorns again. Home games are usually the battlegrounds of choice for our prospective captain picks, but with Pellegrini’s men scoring eight in their last three away games combined with Yaya finally showing signs of what made him such a huge prospect last time around with four goals in his last six (with a generous sprinkling of bonus points too) then I feel comfortable including him here. Being on spot kick duty while Aguero is out doesn’t hurt either with the likes of Jesus Navas in the side, who is always capable of winning a dodgy pen with a mazy run in the box. West Brom have conceded two or more goals in seven of their last eleven Premier League matches, and in all honesty this should be a piece of cake for the mercenaries’ boys in blue.

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Robin van Persie – Newcastle at home
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[/three_fourth]RvP has had a strange time of it at United, becoming an instant hit and automatic captain choice for FPL players in his first season, but then struggled and became frustrated with life under Moyes. While electing to stay instead of exercising an apparent get-out clause in his contract after failing to make the top four last season, he has clearly not been at his best yet after a somewhat sluggish offering as a whole under compatriot van Gaal. Things are looking up though, and with three double-figure hauls in his last five games, the 180-odd thousand who brought him in with spare Aguero cash will be hoping he has finally sleighed his demons and will start living up to his extortionate price-tag. With Carrick’s calming presence alleviating uncertainty in both defence and midfield, United should be able to press forwards with more confidence, and with Di Maria also fit again and offering great assist potential, van Persie could be set to have one cracker of a game against a Newcastle side that haven’t kept a clean sheet since Krul was injured five GWs ago.

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Wilfried Bony – Aston Villa at home
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[/three_fourth]This last option is a tad risky as Bony was rested for the majority of the last game in anticipation of life without him next month when he leaves for the African Cup of Nations.
Unfortunately you can’t sledge your bets when it comes to risky captain choices; if he comes on for a ten minute cameo you must accept it and can’t revert to your VC, so do you risk it? I’d expect him to play for longer than he did in the last game, as Monk gave Gomis a good run-out already, and it doesn’t make much sense doing the same again, otherwise he may as well just pack Bony’s bags for him now and send him home for Christmas. Which wouldn’t be prudent, given his eight goals in nine games prior to last GW. Villa have just two clean sheets since GW4, and Swansea convincingly wrapped up all three points in the same fixture last season. All signs are pointing towards the fans singing 11 Swans a Winning come the final whistle – the only question is how much of an impact will their talismanic forward have had?

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GAMEWEEK 19

If anyone is still here after the quite frankly shameless efforts so far then let’s take a super-quick look at GW19 too. The three wise men have deemed a lighter schedule appropriate over the Christmas period; something about spending time with families or some other such nonsense, so it’s left up to muggins here to pick up the slack. Honestly eh? It’s like they don’t carrot all. We won’t mention me missing my article last GW or not having been on site in general for about a month or so due to other commitments as I fail to see how that’s relevant at all… *clears throat.

So of course bear in mind the events of GW18 could render the following options obsolete, and conversely others could make themselves known during this period, but for now these are the stand-out choices. Let’s just hope none of the games are called off because of heavy rain; dear me that would make a mockery of this list. Now, many of the usual suspects are not really valid for inclusion here due to relatively tough fixtures, so you can count out Hazard and co. who are at St Mary’s, the rejuvenated Downing, Eriksen and Sanchez among others. Of course this is not to say that any of the aforementioned are bad choices (apart from Hazard – that is a bad choice! 3, 2, 2, 3, 2 in his last five away games) but the three below are my picks of the bunch. And for a GW in advance that’s yer lot!

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Charlie Austin – Crystal Palace at home
It’s fair to say that Harry won’t be winning manger of the month any time soon with that 0% away record following him everywhere he goes, but things have been rosy at Loftus Road at least, where they’ve won four of their last five in the league. Leading the charge has been this man, Austin, and if you’re among the 13.4% that currently own him Yule be hoping for a repeat of his simple but deadly hat-trick against the Baggies. The last thing QPR need is for him to be sent off again though, so rest assured he will have been instructed to play the whistle, toe the line and stay out of trouble.

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Yaya Toure – Burnley at home
With star man Aguero still out, Toure is your best option here again. City have won their last six (probably seven by this point), and will most likely knock the stuffing out of Burnley at the Etihad. It’ll give Noel and his brother something decent to watch from their separate boxes I suppose.

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Christian Benteke – Sunderland at home
Gabriel Agbonlahor and Joseph Coal are both currently unavailable, so all eyes will be on Christian to continue his current mini-run of two goals and an assist in his last four games. This is the puntiest option for either GW, but is only available for a select few of you anyway so if anyone from the astonishingly low 1% that owns him is feeling daring after one too many trips to the punch bowl then slap that armband on him and pray for anything but a silent night from the big Belgian.

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Thanks for reading Captain’s Picks Fantasy Football Gameweek 18. This article was written by Calvin Clyne

Follow @SharpyBoy86

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