Fantasy Premier League Captain Picks Gameweek 26

Fantasy Premier League Captain Picks Gameweek 26

Welcome to Fantasy Premier League Captain Picks Gameweek 26. The FA Cup is usually just a rude interruption for FPL players, and this week has been no different, but for once it may have been of some relevance as we decided to look at it from the point of view of choosing a Captain from the fixtures, if you had to, and what the outcome would have been. It’s interesting simply because all of the Premier League teams were up against lesser ranked opposition and indeed some against non-league teams. No brainer then, yeah? Not necessarily. Aguero against Huddersfield… Aguero against Huddersfield when even they play a second stream team… Ah come on, we’d be transferring him in droves just to captain him. He’d have got you 4 points if you had. And that’s as captain. Ok let’s try another. Burnley playing non-league Lincoln. At home. Gray and Vokes up top, take your pick, either could or should get a brace. Either would have got you 4 points. Costa and Hazard may have sat just below these in the priority list but certainly would have been considered against Wolves. Costa got a goal – a 10 point captain, maybe a tad more with bonuses. Hazard would have got you 6 and that included a clean sheet point doubled. Kane with a hat-trick obviously would have been the answer but would you honestly have picked him over the others with him having a potentially more tricky away game? He just keeps on trolling us. The point being that we can give you all the info in the world but there’s no guarantee that anyone will produce the goods on any given day.

Diego Costa / Eden Hazard Swansea (H)
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The juggernaut roles on and is showing little sign of stopping really despite an uncharacteristic hiccup at Burnley in the shape of a draw, shock horror and all that. Swansea at home would have been a banker 3/4 to nil a month or so ago but they have improved a fair bit under their new manager. Back in December they had 3 away games and conceded 11 goals, even Middlesbrough put 3 past them. Since then they have played 3 away and won at Palace and Liverpool and lost narrowly at Man City (2-1). In fact they are ranked 4th for overall form based on the last 6 games. That’s the good news for the Swans. The bad is that Chelsea are 6-0-0 at home in their last 6 having scored 15 in that run. They are ranked number 1 for goals scored at home with 33 and have yet to fail to score at home this season. In fact they’ve only failed to score less than 2 on 2 occasions and they average 2.75 goals per game at home. Swansea average 2.2 against them away from home.

As for the players themselves then Costa is the joint 3rd highest goalscorer with 15 this season but hasn’t actually notched in his last 3 league games. He did grab 2 assists against Arsenal though to take his total to 7 – the most of any forward in the game. 5 of those were at home but only 7 of his goals were. As for Hazard he looks back to his best and nothing screamed this more than his goal against Arsenal. He’d actually looked unplayable in most of that game prior to it and so it proved as he waltzed past most of the Arsenal players in the build up to it. It could only have been bettered if he’d ‘megged Arsene on the way. He’s actually outscoring Costa now in FPL points by 147 to 139 and sits 2nd overall to Sanchez. In that respect then he’s the highest FPL points scorer in action this week. And is at home to Swansea. What’s not to like about this again?! Interestingly Costa has only got 5 of his 19 bonus points at home whereas Hazard gas got 14 of his 20 at home.

Conclusion – This could go either way in terms of the players involved but it’ll most likely be a Chelsea victory but possibly by a narrower margin than their league standings suggest.

Romelu Lukaku Sunderland (H)
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The man is on fire! Or is he? Lukaku has 4 goals in his last 4 games. All 4 were scored in one game… Ok, so he was on fire in 1 game. He’d scored in 3 of his previous 4 games prior to that though, and arguably they were all tougher fixtures than the next 4 were, and definitely tougher than Sunderland at home, who he has already scored a hat-trick against this season. Where does that leave him on the fire scale then?! Sticking on the theme of home vs away points 9 of his 16 goals (he’s the 2nd highest scorer) have been at home, 3 of his 4 assists have been at home and 13 of his 22 bonus points have come at home.

Everton themselves have scored an average of just over 2 per game at home and have only failed to score in 1 game at Goodison. They are ranked 1st overall in the form table for the last 6 games having won 4 and drawn 2. Sunderland are ranked 16th in the same table and also 16th overall for away games having conceded an average of 1.8 goals per game on the road. They did win their last away game 4 nil though, at Palace, which maybe says more about Palace than them as they then went and lost the game after that 4 nil to Southampton! In their previous 3 away games they conceded 9 goals.

Conclusion – Hmmm… If Everton, and Lukaku in particular are on their game then this could be carnage.

Harry Kane / Dele Alli Stoke (H)
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The FPL troll that is ‘Arry Kane is back with yet another great home fixture to get the juices flowing. Unfortunately most of us know from recent and bitter experience what this probably all means. That FA Cup hat-trick only serves to further his case and draw us all into the troll’s lair. Now we know we are supposed to be convincing you to actually captain him, but… Sunderland 2 points, Burnley 2 points, Hull 2 points. Maybe that’s unfair but they are the 3 games which hurt many a good FPL manager the most as they were all very attractive fixtures at the time. We should also point out the following though – West Ham 13 points, Swansea 13 points, Watford 16 points and West Brom 17 points. 3 of those were at home too. Spurs previously did Stoke 4-0 in the away fixture between the two teams as well with Kane somewhat surprisingly getting just one of the goals.

Our other pick here also opened his season’s account in that very same fixture. It was the first of 11 so far. Can he make it to the golden target of 20 for a midfielder? With just 13 games left it’ll take some doing but with the form he is in we wouldn’t bet against it. Like Costa previously though he has somewhat surprisingly blanked in his last 3 games. With players of their calibre though that usually just it makes it all the more likely that they will notch once more. Alli has a decent assist return too with 5 so far, he does however struggle with the bonuses a bit having only got 12 so far and they have occurred in just 5 games despite him making at least a goal or assist contribution in 7 others.

Spurs have scored in every home game this season with an average of 2.2 per game. Stoke have conceded at an average of 1.75 per away game. Spurs are ranked 1st for form in home games with a straight 6-0-0 record, with 17 goals in those. Stoke are 2-0-4 in the same period with 13 goals against away from home.

Conclusion – In theory Spurs should win and Kane or Alli should be a great choice as captain as a result. #trollalert

Sadio Mane Leicester (A)
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What’s that old adage about a player suddenly becoming better or more valuable when their absence is highlighted even more? In Mane’s case it was predicted before he left, enhanced every game he wasn’t there and then he only went and nailed it by returning and destroying Spurs in about 20 minutes flat. The reality is that he only really missed two and a bit games because of the AFCON itself but Liverpool won none of those. He returned against Hull to no effect but you can forgive that one as a softener before unleashing properly against Spurs. He’s Liverpool’s top scorer with 11 goals, their top FPL points scorer with 132 and he has 6 assists which is only 1 behind Lallana. Yes he’s their most expensive midfielder but probably for a reason – sometimes you get what you pay for.

Liverpool have been on the crest of a slump as of late but maybe that Spurs victory and Mane’s return will signal the start of a run of better fortune again. Probably no better place to start than Leicester right now. They are ranked 20th out of 20 in the form table with a record of 0-1-5. They’ve conceded the 3rd most goals this season with 43 in 25 games. Shocking. Liverpool have scored 23 away – over 1.75 per game and the 3rd best in the whole league. Leicester also have the small matter of a Champions League fixture to traverse this week whilst Liverpool once again put their feet up.

Conclusion – Anything other a Liverpool victory would come as a surprise.

Thanks for reading Fantasy Premier League Captain Picks Gameweek 26. This article was written by inittowinit

Follow @AdamalcockFF247

Fixture Tracker – the next 6 games