FPL Heisenberg's Captain Series
Welcome to the second article in a new series from @FPL_Heisenberg for FPL Bet. In this weekly series, Heisenberg will be looking into the best captaincy options, as well as ‘outside of the box' captaincy choices for each Gameweek. Heisenberg has a proven track record in FPL, having finished inside the top 32k in each of the last 6 seasons, including a best finish of 836th. Let's get stuck into it!
Gameweek 1 Captains:
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Fixture: West Ham, Home)
Aubameyang is my top-pick yet again, facing a club in disarray at The Emirates. Something's not right at West Ham, highlighted by Mark Noble's Twitter outburst, exclaiming his disappointment at the sale of Grady Diangana to West Bromwich Albion. Regardless of this, I'd still have chosen Aubameyang as my number one pick in Gameweek 2, he is very good at home against the lesser teams and I see Gameweek 2 being no different.
With 22 league goals in each of the last two Premier League campaigns, Aubameyang has proven Premier League pedigree and with a new contract confirmed this week he'll be looking to celebrate with a big performance. A huge benefit of the Gabonese international is that he's been reclassified from a Forward to a Midfielder this season, which of course means an extra point for a goal, and, an extra point for a clean sheet should Arsenal keep West Ham from bagging.
It's reasonable to assume that Aubameyang will be looking to build on his performance at Craven Cottage against Fulham in Gameweek 1, where he scored a lovely goal, cutting in from the left and finessing one into the top corner. I've put my neck on the line and predicted a hattrick for Aubameyang in Gameweek 2.
Bruno Fernandes (Fixture: Crystal Palace, Home)
Man United kick-off their campaign at home to a Crystal Palace side which are ravaged with injuries, particularly in their back four. The Portuguese midfielder was the catalyst for an upturn in Man United's collective form last season and had a higher points per game than Aubameyang and Salah. Penalty taker, free-kick taker and all-round quality player Bruno Fernandes, playing at Old Trafford against a team with defensive injury problems, what more could you want?
Well, it'll be interesting to see how he - and United collectively - perform in their first Premier League game of the season. They could be a bit rusty, and, although Crystal Palace have a lot of defensive issues currently, they still managed to shut out Danny Ings and the rest of the Southampton boys in Gameweek 1. Hodgson is a fantastic organiser, so although I believe Fernandes will be amongst the points, I do believe that Palace will not be a walkover.
Kevin de Bruyne (Fixture: Wolves, Away)
Last season's top points scorer is back. Kevin de Bruyne starts his season away at Wolves off the back of 13 goals and 23 assists, amassing 251 FPL points last season. Although De Bruyne can score well against any team in the Premier League, this is hardly an ideal fixture for Guardiola's men. Wolves were solid defensively last season, registering 13 clean sheets, only conceding 40 goals - which on average is just 1.02 goals per game.
However, there's an argument to go for the Belgian's City teammate, English international Raheem Sterling who is also capable of big hauls and has a greater goal threat to De Bruyne. Goals (of course) score more FPL points than assists, which is the area in which De Bruyne excels. How well City kick off their Premier League campaign against tough opposition remains to be seen. If they do score goals, it's likely these two will be heavily involved for City.
‘Outside of the Box' captains:
Richarlison (Fixture: West Brom, Home)
One of my differential captain picks in Gameweek 2 is the £8.0m Everton forward Richarlison. Currently sitting at 10.7% ownership at the time of writing � he will still be a huge captain differential, with your mini-league rivals likely to captain one of the premium assets like Aubameyang, Fernandes, De Bruyne etc.
If he can pick up where he left off from last season and improve on his record of scoring 13 times and assisting a further 5 goals, then Richarlison could be in for another productive season. A home fixture for Ancelotti's Everton against newly-promoted West Brom is a perfect fixture for the Brazilian to score well in.
Jack Harrison (Fixture: Fulham, Home)
The Man City player on Loan at Leeds is currently only selected by 2.9% of FPL players at the time of writing. I think it's fairly safe to say that of that 2.9% of FPL managers, very few of them will be throwing the armband on him! Harrison will be full of confidence following a fantastic goal at Anfield after an impressive display by Leeds. If they can keep that attacking momentum going, then Fulham could receive a good old-fashioned pounding, with Harrison likely to be involved in the goals.
Making a player from a newly-promoted team your captain is not something that a boring player like myself would ever do, but if you like taking risks then Jack Harrison could be your man.
Thanks for reading the first in this captaincy series from FPL Heisenberg, be sure to follow @FPLBet and @FPL_Heisenberg on Twitter so that you don't miss the weekly article. Agree or disagree with these captaincy picks? Let us know in the comments below and on Twitter!
