Fantasy Premier League Captain Picks Gameweek 25

Fantasy Premier League Captain Picks Gameweek 25

Welcome to Fantasy Premier League Captain Picks Gameweek 25. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Captain Picks for Game-week 25! Fantasy players’ success last GW was mostly determined by whether or not they had Lukaku as captain. If you did, congratulations on getting 42 points; if you didn’t, tough luck! Obviously, some managers had Lukaku but didn’t captain him (including me), meaning that last game-week could go either way depending on your other players. I got a red arrow myself, which I consider to be impressive given my bad rank and the fact that one of my players singlehandedly got 21 points. Anyways, your fortune most weeks will not be determined by the presence or performance of one player. Many of the typical captain choices have good fixtures this GW, along with a punt or two, so let’s take a look at the candidates for the armband for this GW25!

Alexis Sanchez (home vs Hull)
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[/three_fifth]What a golden matchup this would have been a couple of weeks ago! When Hull were doomed for relegation, when Arsenal hadn’t lost their last 2 matches, and when Sanchez was considered bulletproof. Okay, Sanchez is actually bulletproof, despite his team’s recent performances. In his last 12 matches, Sanchez has blanked in two of them, one match being the recent bout against Chelsea. He has 3 goals and 1 assist in his last 5, accumulating 32 points. However, just like against Chelsea, Sanchez’ output might be hindered by his opponents. Since Marcos Silva took over, Hull have 2 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss. Now, that’s impressive in itself for a team by many considered to have had no chance of staying up, but let me tell you the opposition Hull faced in these matches: Bournemouth (win), Chelsea (loss), Manchester United (draw), and Liverpool (win). For a team stuck in the relegation zone essentially the entire season, these results aren’t simply impressive – they’re extraordinary. But honestly, it’s not unusual for teams to start performing better when they get new managers. While I expect Hull to keep performing better than previously, I don’t expect them to keep getting similar results against top teams, simply because there is a considerable difference in the quality of the players between the teams. A team like Arsenal should beat a team like Hull at home irrespective of recent form, making Sanchez a safe captain choice with a high upside.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (home vs Watford)
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[/three_fifth]After blanks against Stoke and Hull, the God of Manchester returned to the scoreboard with a goal against champions-turned-relegation contenders Leicester. He now has 15 goals, and is the oldest player to score this amount of goals in the Premier League. Despite unimpressive performances, Manchester United are on an undefeated streak in the Premier League stretching back to Gameweek 9, when they lost to Chelsea. United have 2 wins and 3 draws in their last 5 with 7 goals scored, which is not overly impressive considering that their opposition consisted of West Ham, Liverpool, Stoke, Hull, and Leicester. Zlatan netted 3 goals against these opponents. His opponent this GW, Watford, may have won their last 2 matches, but the preceding 7 matches saw them left with 4 defeats and 3 draws. Watford may be high on confidence and a bit of a joker, just like Hull, but Manchester United are still the better team and the clear favorites for this matchup. And even if United perform poorly, Zlatan possesses more than enough quality to net fantasy points on his own, making him a solid choice for captain.

Romelu Lukaku (away vs Middlesbrough)
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[/three_fifth]My oh my – 4 goals against Bournemouth and suddenly Lukaku is the league’s top scorer and tied with Zlatan for FPL’s third highest scoring player. Everton are top of the form table with 4 wins and 2 draws in their last 6, with Lukaku scoring 6 goals and getting 1 assist in those games. It may be noteworthy that those goals and assist all came at home, with Everton’s results away being a narrow 1-0 win against Palace and a 1-1 draw against Stoke. This week, Everton play away to Middlesbrough, which can be considered both a tricky and lacklustre opponent. Tricky, because they concede few goals (only Chelsea, Tottenham, and Manchester United have conceded fewer), and lacklustre, because they don’t win matches (their win count of 4 is the lowest in the league). Last round, Middlesbrough only conceded a single goal due to a penalty at White Hart Lane, yet they lost 1-3 to West Ham at home in GW22. Given Everton’s form, I think we are more likely to see a result akin to Middlesbrough’s match against West Ham. While I don’t think Lukaku will score 4 goals again, Everton are favourites to beat Middlesbrough comfortably due to their quality and confidence, making Lukaku a good and safe captain choice.

Diego Costa (away vs Burnley)
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[/three_fifth]I’ll admit, I’m one of the many who sold Costa when rumors of him departing to China appeared, and I’m not happy to see him get 14 points in the 3 matches he’s played since I sold him. The rumours have seemingly not affected him at all as both he and Chelsea keep steamrolling forward towards Premier League glory. However, Chelsea may experience more trouble than you’d think this week as they come up against win-when-at-home and lose-when-away Burnley. I mean this literally: since facing Manchester City in GW13, Burnley have won every home match and lost every away match. 5 wins and 6 losses. Chelsea should expect Burnley to put up a good fight, but as with the other teams mentioned so far, there is simply a distinct difference between the quality of the sides. It’s difficult to imagine Burnley being capable of stopping Chelsea due to the Blues’ immense performances since that loss to Arsenal so many weeks ago. Give Costa the armband if you want, and feel safe that points will flow in.

Gylfi Sigurdsson (home vs Leicester)
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[/three_fifth]While Sigurdsson may be the lowest profile player among the players mentioned in this article, he has the considerably easiest fixture. His opponent, Leicester, are in a state that I’m sure no one neither expected to see nor wanted to see after their incredible accomplishment last season. In fact, Leicester have lost their last 4 matches, and is the only team in the league to do so. Their last win was a 1-0 result against West Ham in GW19. Swansea, on the other hand, have turned their season around after the appointment of Paul Clements. This turnaround includes impressive wins against Liverpool and Southampton and a narrow defeat to Manchester City last round. Siggy has scored a single goal in each of those matches, as well as assisting a goal against Southampton, earning 26 points in the process. It pains me to say this, but Leicester are the league’s current whipping boys. With Swansea and Siggy in good form, Gylfi is both a reliable captain choice and a good differential.

Gabriel Jesus (away vs Bournemouth)
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[/three_fifth]Praise Jesus! That’s at least what I said when Gabriel Jesus scored the overtime winner against Swansea last round. After demolishing West Ham, a narrow win against Swansea was not what people had expected. However, City’s opponents this GW are not currently turning their season around with a rejuvenated form like Swansea – Bournemouth are the league’s other whipping boys, having lost to Everton, Palace, and Hull while drawing against Watford in their last 4. As a matter of fact, they have conceded 16 goals in their last 5 matches. They do know how to score themselves though, as they have scored 3 goals against Arsenal and Everton each. It seems that Bournemouth are more keen on getting points through scoring more goals than their opponents rather than keeping it shut at the back, and that should set up for a highly entertaining match as Manchester City are pretty much the same! City have been a mixed bag this season, but seems to have found some consistency as they have 3 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss in their last 5. Gabriel Jesus has earned 3 goals and 2 assist in the 2 matches he has started, accumulating 24 points in those matches. This kid is high on form and confidence, and will by all means try to keep increasing his impact in England against Bournemouth. If you’re one of the people who have brought him in, why not give him the armband? He’s in form, plays for a good attacking team, and has a good fixture. And he’s a massive punt.

Thanks for reading my Captain Picks. Good luck!

Thanks for reading Fantasy Premier League Captain Picks Gameweek 25. This article was written by Tekno-kun

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Fixture Tracker – the next 6 games