Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 8 2017/18
Welcome to Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 8. The boring Premier League returns after another exhilarating feast of international football. We now have to wait until early-November for our next international break fix and instalment of thrilling matches; it’s a real shame to see world-class players being taken from their countries, purely for the sake of serving their mandatory club duties, ugh. Let’s distract ourselves from the impending mundane month by guessing which players will perform best for their irrelevant and depressing clubs.
Harry Kane vs Bournemouth (H)
This is the one name whose omission would cause major disapproval. Reflecting on the mesmerising international break above, it was Kane who shone for England, at least on the scoresheet. I didn’t actually watch these must-see matches due to, erm, severe illness. The penalty duties for his country have permeated into his part-time club antics and this only bolsters his appeal for the captaincy this weekend.
Bournemouth are currently second-bottom and have conceded 8 goals in their last 4 matches. That, for those of lesser intellectual acuity, results in a mean average of 2 goals per match. How fitting: the 6 goals that Kane has bagged so far have come in 3 braces, all away from their temporary home. This fixture reeks of another one. Even though Spurs are playing at Wembley…
Now’s the moment where I usually take a customary swing at Kane’s inability to speak. I’ll just emphasise instead that he’s the man you’d probably captain if your English translator had a gun pressed to their head. Eriksen, who also scored twice over the delightful international break, wouldn’t be a bad alternative!
Form: 8
Fixture: 8
Explosiveness: 8
Jamie Vardy vs West Brom (H)
Ok, so Kane doesn’t cut it for you, so how about a similar forward, on penalties, with a strong home fixture? I give you all Vardy: the Fox who’s nicked a goal in 3 of his last 4 matches. It was Bournemouth, ironically, that managed to stop him from scoring in his 4th consecutive match; a missed penalty against Liverpool subtly masks his potency.
West Brom’s last pair of away matches, against Arsenal and Brighton, have seen them lose 2–0 and 3–1 respectively. I rate Vardy’s individual Monday Night Football chances, but Leicester themselves haven’t won any of their last 5 matches, so this carries a high element of risk.
Form: 6
Fixture: 7
Explosiveness: 6
Alexis Sanchez vs Watford (A)
Throwback to August last year, late on in the month, when Arsenal visited Vicarage Road last. I was out at Leeds Fest on the night after the match. Arsenal won 3–1 and I was ecstatic, until checking my FPL team, when I saw Sanchez had racked up a goal and a pair of assists. I didn’t have him and, in a moment of drunken panic, played my WC to accommodate him. That was over another fun international break, incidentally, and he was benched the following gameweek due to jet lag. That’s one to look out for! Sanchez has already scored a crucial winner for Chile, against Ecuador, and still has to play Brazil as I write this. His game-time is far from secure.
Watford have only ever felt defeat against Arsenal at Vicarage Road in Premier League affairs. Arsenal have strung 3 wins and a draw together, as well as Europa League victories in between, and look primed to score another couple here. Sanchez has only played a full 90 minutes once so far — in his last match — but he’s gathering momentum now, providing an assist in each of his last pair of appearances, showing hunger in the second half against Brighton that I once feared we’d never see again.
If you happen to have him instead of Kane, or just feel reckless, this may well be a great differential captaincy. Watch this guy burst onto the scene and likely cause mayhem on the forum this weekend. Lacazette, to cover my arse, is a potential alternative. I’d steer clear though, on the basis that he hasn’t yet scored away from home.
Form: 6
Fixture: 6
Explosiveness: 6
Eden Hazard vs Crystal Palace (A)
This is the one name that I’ll truly fear this weekend. He’s another seasoned but expensive midget midfielder with an away fixture that primes him for an explosive return into the FPL picture. Hazard was instrumental when Chelsea beat Atletico 2—1 during their Champions League away fixture and his pedigree is almost unrivalled. Alonso, when playing away, is a shout. He’s already scored two braces in away matches, last season against Leicester and Spurs this time, so this could be a car crash for his opposition.
Crystal Palace don’t need much of an introduction. I think even San Marino would be slightly embarrassed for Woy and his boys. Benteke, Zaha, Townsend and co. must feel somewhat like Reek in a brothel; the Eagles can’t finish anything. It’s hard to see anything but a comfortable Chelsea win to nil here.
Form: 4
Fixture: 8
Explosiveness: 7
David Silva vs Stoke (H)
Agüero’s ghost lives on! Jesus, KDB or Sane could’ve all filled his void — and they may well do — but Silva feels like the best combination of game-time and points output, the former being rather unexpected when the season started. He’s played 602 minutes out of a possible 630 so far and has provided 6 assists, occurring in 4 matches, which all resulted in him receiving 2 bonus points. How’s that for consistency?
Stoke have had some very mixed results. They’ve conceded 0 to Arsenal but 4 to Chelsea so far; one thing that’s been consistent is City’s annihilation of their opposition. They’ve won their last 4 matches by an aggregated scoreline of 17-0 and that makes them even better than the opposite of Crystal Palace right now. Disclaimer: this fixture last season fell in a DGW and City disappointed us all with a 0-0 draw. I’d be amazed if the same occurs on Saturday afternoon.
Form: 7
Fixture: 8
Explosiveness: 7
Good luck when choosing your favourite! Have a great weekend.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 8
This article was written by James777Simpson.
Follow @James777Simpson
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Gameweek Tracker GW8-11
Many thanks for this James, great read. Only got one there myself and it was always going on him anyway, regardless of what you said 😉 #Kane
May yet own Silva come the weekend. I’d assume the only reason Jesus doesn’t make your cut is game time?
Can someone explain the free hit card?
What do you need to know specifically ziddy? Have you read the free hit part on the FPL site’s rules tab yet? If not, that’s what I recommend for a starter here as they are self explanatory really, at least for the main part of it. Come back to us after that if needed. Cheers
Hi Ziddy,
In short –
– You get a new team for this week only.
– It’s basically a WC which reverts back to whatever squad you ended GW7 with.
– Any hits / transfers taken thus far this week are cancelled.
Just shout if you need more specifics.
FPL site who?
Nice work on the fixtures article too mate. Just read that properly and what an effort that was. Slightly new approach, not even near any fences and well reasoned advice all round. Top stuff!
Thanks mate. Made that one up as I went along in all honesty! Probably hence the lack of fences, just said what I thought.
Cheers mate – that’s a more clear explanation than the official site.
Thanks inittowinit
We set the team as current value is it within overall budget?
Not quite sure what you mean there, sorry. Your ‘stored’ team gets any price rises and falls and restores to this accordingly. I think you only get £100m to pick the new one with but not 100% sure on that as I haven’t played it.
A few have so maybe they could chip in?
Evening all any updates on injuries 😉
Hi Silvers, what do you want to know or are you just being mischievous?! #spoonfedmonkey 😉
Good calls all round James – maybe a bit too soon for Alexis but I can see why you have in in there. All the other could well reach double digits and hopefully Kane does as he’ll be mine! Cheers
The golden era of welsh football
To be fair they were without their golden boy this evening.
What an era, just one player 😉 Rambo is awful.
They’re in tears in the stands. It’s brilliant. COYBIG.
Well congrats to Ireland for reaching the playoffs !
Well done Republic of Ireland and unlucky Wales.
Iceland are the boys though! Qualifying for their first World Cup.
That’s England knackered now. 😉
Scotland were unlucky too. Really should’ve beaten England is Glasgow. It could be a very tough playoff for the Irish. Some top teams looking like finishing second.
That was the goal that cost them. Can only assume GP will now captain Kane this weekend in tribute
No room for sentiment in FPL. Kane will be my man most weeks.
Dick.
Good man.
No need to call him that though 😉
Sorry banjo.
You’re not a dick :big-lol:
I know it’s a cliche but we perform better against the better sides. When we have a lot of the football we don’t know what to do with it!!
That’s known as a team of David Unsworth’s… fantastic footballer without the ball!
Something like that. To be fair we have a handful of players who are comfortable on the ball but O’Neill has them set up to be ultra cautious.
He said before the game ‘we know we have 90 mins to score 1 goal’. It caught my attention as an odd comment but obviously it was the game plan and executed to perfection then in that case.
I’m not a massive fan of his but if he gets us to another major tournament I’ll be happy. We’ll be massive underdogs in the play-offs but at the same time nobody will get an easy game from us.
You’re right, nobody will want that draw.
Grass is always greener mate. For a functional team who need structure and organisation he’s about the perfect fit. And with Mr Motivator / Scary sat just behind him I’m not sure you could wish for much better?
Gutted for you GP but in all honesty you were bloody awful last night mate!
Strachan compounded it with those stupid comments, heck was all that about?! Just come out and say sorry we were bad last night, end of.
They’re genetically inferior!! I’m still laughing at that one
Poor Gordon. Like the bloke but talk about making a monkey for your own back! That one will still get quoted in 20 years now, unfortunately for him. It may well cost him his job too.
I’m actually indifferent about it now.
Was pleasantly surprised we took it to the last game because after Wembley I’d have laughed in your face if you told me we would.
Poor performance last night oddly. Tired a bit I think but if you can’t collectively power through then you can’t feel sorry for yourself for not finishing second.
We never concentrate properly either, particularly on cross balls: first goal last night and Kane at Hampden.
I conveniently left out Strachan’s comments. Because well, it’s embarrassing and ironically stinks of ‘small man’ syndrome
Cookie told me in private that he wondered around that Monaco restaurant for 30 minutes looking for a ginger midget the other week before eventually finding you 😉
A familiar occurrence for him I believe!
Well now that’s a revelation, he’s never disclosed that as a predilection before
(and yes that emoji was very deliberate given what I called it the other night!)
Yeah that particular emoji looks mightily impressed by something downstairs!
Just need a little ginger wig on it then and we’re sorted.
You two finished?
He said that as well!
Ah bollocks, forgot you could see this
Maybe you should ask the shopkeeper to disguise Tom Ince as a footballer? 😉
You know full well this is going to come back and bite you in the arse this weekend when he finally scores! And me too after I’ve finally sold him