Holly Shand from Fantasy Football Community returns with captaincy corner and her three player picks in three positions for Gameweek 13.
Gameweek 12 brought plenty of captaincy success, with most captained Tammy Abraham providing a goal at home to Crystal Palace. Raheem Sterling failed to deliver once more in Manchester City's away trip to Liverpool, but there was good fortune for those who went with our Shield pick, Jamie Vardy. It was a fourth double-digit return for the Foxes forward; providing a goal, assist and three bonus points at the King Power Stadium.
Plenty of our fantasy assets have had a busy International Break and the busy part of the season looms. There's another round of European games for the seven clubs playing in Europe this season and then three gameweeks in quick succession. It's an important time of the season to have strength and depth on the bench, as well as considering the location of your Vice Captain armband.
Captaincy Corner
The shield pick is likely to be the most captained player of the week, allowing you to play safe and keep pace with the pack. The sword pick will be a less popular selection: if they perform it can shoot you up the overall rankings, but the risk from failure is higher.
Shield Pick: Jamie Vardy vs Brighton (A)
Anytime Goalscorer Odds: 10/11
It's no surprise to see Jamie Vardy viewed as the safe armband pick once again. He's leading the Golden Boot race, he's got the most fantasy points of any player and is outscoring our premium players. It's now eleven goals and three assists, he's looking like he's going to have his best ever FPL season. His ownership is creeping up, with only Tammy Abraham having higher ownership among forwards. An away game at Brighton may look tough on paper, they've conceded very few chances at the Amex this season, but they will be missing key personnel at the back in the shape of Lewis Dunk and Adam Webster. Vardy has the second highest shots on target in the last four games with nine, a metric in which Brighton feature in the top four overall for the most shots on target conceded in the same period. The concern here, which may be the reason to prevent me from giving him the armband, is that I can't see Vardy getting a haul here. I'd be surprised to see him takeaway more than a goal so I'm likely to choose a captain with a perceived higher points ceiling. Will you play safe with the Shield Pick?
Sword Pick: Sadio Mane vs Crystal Palace (A)
Anytime Goalscorer Odds: 21/20
Sadio Mane is likely to be my sword captain this week, due to his form and the struggles defensively at Crystal Palace. He ended up getting some rest in the International Break after a fiery first half on International Duty, plus he has two goals and two assists from his last four Premier League games. Mane has a great record against Crystal Palace, with seven goals and two assists from his nine Premier League appearances. In fact, Mane has scored a goal in every game he's faced Palace in the last two seasons. There are a few injury concerns at Liverpool, which could have an impact on Sadio Mane. He generally performs better when Salah is in the team, able to adopt his favoured position on the left of the Liverpool front three, bouncing off Salah and Firmino to deliver the goals and assists. Crystal Palace are conceding a lot of shots right now, and are set third for shots, shots in the box and shots on target conceded over the last four games. Are you going to take a risk in selecting the Sword Pick?
Holly's Hopefuls
I share my top three players for each Gameweek, selecting one defender, one midfielder and one striker. These are players that I'm tipping for the FPL Dream Team and they could also make intriguing differential captain decisions for you to consider too.
DEF: Lucas Digne vs Norwich (H)
Lucas Digne has begun to pick up FPL points in recent weeks, with one assist and one clean sheet over the course of his last four games. He has created 14 chances over his last four games, which is the joint-highest in the league, alongside Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kevin De Bruyne. Everton may have more luck hitting the back of the net with those, against a Norwich side who struggle defensively, particularly from headed goal attempts. Norwich have scored just one goal on the road this season, so there's high hopes of a clean sheet too.
MID: Raheem Sterling vs Chelsea (H)
I'm actually looking at selling Sterling this week, so I feel like it is inevitable that he will get in the goals to punish me for parting company. It's been a quiet spell for Sterling and Manchester City, he has just one goal and one assist in his last four games. However, City are usually pretty secure at home and will be fired up for this big game after the disappointment of defeat to Liverpool. Manchester City beat Chelsea 6-0 in this fixture last season, with Sterling grabbing two goals and an assist.
FOR: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang vs Southampton (H)
Aubameyang has been unusually quiet in recent games, despite an excellent start to the season. He has just one goal in his last four games, but a tempting fixture this weekend has seen him come back into our thinking. Southampton's defence has been atrocious of late, conceding 17 big chances and 15 goals in their last four games. Their defensive frailty will be something that Aubameyang and Arsenal will be looking to exploit.
Until next time…
Good luck!
Holly
Find even more Fantasy Premier League Tips over on Holly's website: Fantasy Football Community
