Captains Picks Gameweek 4

Fantasy Football Captains Picks Gameweek 4

When asked by the FF247 beaks if I would like to help out with the captains article, without a moments hesitation I said ‘yes’. Then a few minutes later I thought… I HATE the captain rule. Absolutely essential to the game I admit and I would never want to see it taken away but are you like me? Do you see the ‘Team of the Week’ being boosted by a relegation-haunted reserve centre back with a captain’s armband on, who has just scored the first two goals in his career and kept a clean sheet against the strongest team in the league and some guy down in 3 quillionth place rises a zillion places because of it? And you think? How? How can you possibly have captained him? Just me? OK let’s go…

ARSENAL v MANCHESTER CITY
Starting with the game of the week – there will be lots of choices in this one. For Arsenal we have Ramsey, Alexis and Welbeck (two goals this past week for England and confidence given a huge boost). For the visitors, Toure, Silva (Monday night scorer for Spain), Aguero, ‘Dzovetic’. (I combine these two as your guess is as good as mine as to who will play). (editor – probably the Dz bit if the ovetic bit is as injured as it may first appear!).

The thing is though, very rarely will most managers back even their best players for the armband when they are playing a fellow big 4/5/6 club.

Therefore, there is probably greater point-haul potential to be found in our next three matches…

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CHELSEA v SWANSEA CITY
Week four and we have a ‘top-of-the-table’ clash with both teams putting their 100% records on the line. Swansea have professionally, and with clean sheets, dispatched both West Brom and Burnley at home after their opening day win at Old Trafford and will never arrive at The Bridge in better shape. Chelsea have started nervously, managing to run in only 11 (E L E V E N) goals in their first three matches! Irresistible force meeting the immovable object was coined for this one.

Diego Costa
Now at the time of writing he is an injury doubt (déjà vu here eh?). He played 60 minutes in Spain’s 1-0 defeat to France in Paris last week and it then emerged he had a hamstring strain and was excused Spain’s qualifier against FYR Macedonia on Monday night. A few of his Spanish teammates (Sliva was one) tweeted late last week that Costa was ‘fine’. I would say wait for Mourinho on Friday for further details but would that be any use to you after last week’s presser? Seriously though, there will surely be some update come Friday.

Statistically the man has four goals in three league games including two in his latest league outing at Everton (in which he also created two ‘big chances’). The only slight concern is the red-mist which seems to never be far away. He was involved in an altercation with Tim Howard in the Everton game having allegedly goaded Seamus Coleman about his own goal.

The sensible move if you do plan to captain him would be to have the ‘next best’ in your squads with the Vice Captain title.

Eden Hazard/Cesc Fabregas
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[/three_fourth]Many teams will have either Haz or Cesc and many will see this as a safer bet than the doubtful Costa which is fair enough. The thing is, Eden Hazard too, has a yellow flag currently but he has a goal and assist this season so information about him on Friday will be key because he will be a sure-fire starter.

As Costa has four goals, Cesc Fabregas has four assists and Chelsea’s tempo seems to be set by the classy Spaniard. He will be central again for the Blues and comes off the back of ninety minutes for Spain on Monday, a game in which he took all Spain’s corners and received a yellow card for a poor second half challenge. Both have solid captaincy claims.

Gylfi Sigurdsson
A huge favourite in fantasy football, the Icelander has a goal already this season at Old Trafford no less, but this one should be a notch or two tougher than that trip. But then he also has four assists in three games – one for the adventurous manager to captain, just to have him in your team may be enough for most.

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LIVERPOOL v ASTON VILLA
In recent seasons Villa have managed to give Liverpool quite a few scares at Anfield and that is something Liverpool will be looking to avoid this time out. The Villains come in to this one without previous tormentor, Christian Benteke though and Brendan Rodgers sadly will not be able to unleash the SSS (Sterling, Sturridge and SuperMario) in front of the Kop for the first time as Sturridge collected an injury on international duty and will miss a few weeks of action.

Raheem Sterling
This lad can do no wrong at the moment. For my money he is the most exciting player in the league at present, the best player in the England national team, the best fantasy prospect from Liverpool and the best fantasy prospect from midfield. He is 19! A home game against Aston Villa will have the appetite whetted for a number of his owners (42.9% currently) and a tremendous man-of-the-match performance against Tottenham last time out coupled with an excellent international showing on Monday, will have attracted plenty of favour for him. Interestingly, of his three shots at goal in the Spurs match, all three were on target and one resulted in his goal. One of the others was his fantastic dribble and attempt which his manager brilliantly described as being “a run like Ricky Villa with a finish like Ricky Gervais”. Don’t let that put you off!

Mario Balotelli
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[/three_fourth]What can we say about Mad Mario that hasn’t already been said, thought or written? He is a nice quiet, down-to-earth chap who is absolutely useless on the football field. There, I think I’ve done it . . .

The Sturridge injury has suddenly catapulted Balo in to the main striker role one would have thought. Although even if Rickie Lambert comes in, Mario will be in the team and looking to break his Reds duck which he almost did at The Lane on his debut. Plenty of Premier League experience and will have a few new owners but who dares captain him? Could be a stroke of madness or genius – much like Balotelli himself really so how appropriate indeed. Twenty goals and three red cards in the league in just over two seasons illustrates the man perfectly.

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MANCHESTER UNITED v QUEENS PARK RANGERS
Manchester United are going to click sooner or later aren’t they? How many weeks can we continue to say that they are due to paste someone? Well their hand-picked opening fixtures continue with the visit of old padre Rio Ferdinand’s QPR. And oh yeah – they’ve thrown di Maria and Falcao in there too now. Now all you bigger boys play nicely and share out there – Louis is watching you.

Wayne Rooney
Captain of club and country, his solitary club goal this season came on the opening day defeat to Swansea but as with all United players, even though they have been nowhere near convincing, many of us will be attracted to the fact they are playing QPR at home. And that strangely will still be many a manager ‘sold’ on the idea. Shrek will hold the trump card as penalty duties would seemingly lie with him and he is a guaranteed starter amongst the United multi-piece jigsaw.

Angel di Maria
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[/three_fourth]He has warmed up for QPR by single-handedly taking apart the World Champions and in their own garden as well. Can’t be bad that. ADM (love it when a player in fantasy becomes known by three initials!), assisted the first three goals and scored the fourth himself for Argentina in their 4-2 drubbing of Germany in Dusseldorf last week. As a direct result, since his debut at Burnley a week past on Saturday, his transfers in stands at 127,192 for the week and equates to a 7.3% ownership. I would guess a great number of his owners will be handing captaincy duties to the Argentine and I would be in no hurry to talk anyone out of such a move.

Radamel Falcao
The Colombian has been brought in on a one-year loan deal from Monaco and so far, the £11.0M striker has just a 3.9% ownership. Now I would imagine a huge number of Wildcard Teams this week will carry him but this can only be based on his past exploits WHEN 100% FIT. He is clearly not at present. Will he be pitched straight in to this new league from minute one or will LVG manage the man properly? It would be no surprise to see him coming off the bench this weekend and in that case makes captaincy of him a tad risky. But sometimes risks work…

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Author’s tips
I suggested in the early discussions of this article for this season, that the author should put his head on the block and pick his top three each week (I hope it catches on – sorry, colleagues).

Well I’ll practice what I preached and give you in traffic signal order:

RED (Take a wild punt if you have him) – Branislav Ivanovic
AMBER (Proceed with caution) – Diego Costa
GREEN (If you have him, armband him) – Raheem Sterling

I hope you enjoyed this article and don’t forget to vote on the Captain’s Poll.

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football 247 League Updates – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by The Gallant Pioneer

Follow @mitchellcraig81

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