Southampton have played the role of party poopers already this season by holding Manchester City to a goalless draw at the Etihad and they will have to be similarly resolute to keep free-scoring Liverpool out at Anfield on Saturday.
Liverpool’s 4-0 win against Arsenal last weekend meant that they extended their lead at the top of the goalscorer charts to five, ahead of Premier League leaders Chelsea.
The Reds have scored 35 times in just a dozen matches so far and look to be the obvious team to target with the Fantasy Premier League captain’s armband ahead of Gameweek 14.
Mo Salah is the overwhelming favourite in i‘s Fantasy Football captaincy poll and considering his lead at the top of the FPL points standings is now a staggering 46, it is easy to see why.
Although there is a dearth of in-form forwards providing any competition to Salah in the captaincy stakes at present, he could be rivalled by a clutch of defenders who have pressed their claims in recent weeks.
Here are the five standout captain options to pick for Gameweek 13:
Mo Salah (Liverpool)
Although Salah has gone three weeks without registering a double-digit score, his consistency of returns and sky-high ownership means that he remains the safest captaincy option. Incredibly, Salah has only blanked once in a dozen appearances this term and not since Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Burnley way back in Gameweek 3. Over the course of the campaign, he ranks top for shots (48) and xG (7.89) and third for chances created (28).
Price: £13.0m Points: 125 Gameweek 13 fixture: Southampton (h)
Reece James (Chelsea)
Entrusting a defender with the armband may not come naturally to most FPL managers but given the advancement of tactics in the Premier League and the technical quality of players such as Reece James, there is no reason not to captain one. Over the past four gameweeks, James has amassed 11 points more than any other player in the game, combining three goals and two assists with three clean sheets. A ruthless finish against Juventus offered further proof that he is performing at the peak of his powers.
Price: £6.1m Points: 75 Gameweek 13 fixture: Man Utd (h)
Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but had you been bold enough to captain Trent Alexander-Arnold instead of his more illustrious teammate Salah over the past two gameweeks, your team would be 14 points better off. Premium defenders have been consistently outscoring expensive midfielders and forwards recently, as evidenced by Alexander-Arnold’s 38 points over the past four gameweeks – a total that has him third only behind James and Salah in that timeframe.
Price: £7.8m Points: 79 Gameweek 13 fixture: Southampton (h)
Alexander-Arnold vs James: Who should start for England?
By Oliver Young-Myles
That pair of assists against Arsenal took Alexander-Arnold to seven-goal involvements – six assists and a solitary goal – for the campaign, one behind James’ total. Since the start of the 2017-18 season, only Kevin De Bruyne (with 50) and Mo Salah (40) have provided more Premier League assists than Alexander-Arnold (39). He is a playmaker masquerading as a right-back and he’s not the only one.
The days of full-backs sticking rigidly to their own halves and rarely, if ever, straying beyond the halfway line are long gone, but even so the attacking quality of right-backs this season has been astounding. With the exception of Salah, the Premier League’s best and most decisive player by a considerable margin, the three most in-form players in the division are all right-backs: Alexander-Arnold, James and Manchester City’s Joao Cancelo, who registered his fifth assist of the campaign with a sumptuous outside-of-the-boot ball for Raheem Sterling in a 3-0 win over Everton on Sunday.
Thankfully for Gareth Southgate, the last of those does not qualify to play for England. It’s hard enough as it is picking between Alexander-Arnold and James. Hopefully for England’s sake, Southgate stumbles upon a solution that gets two excellent players into his starting line-up without either losing the qualities that have made them so good in the first place.
Read the full article here
Joao Cancelo (Man City)
A third defender makes it into this week’s captaincy selections in the form of Manchester City’s Joao Cancelo, following his assist of the season for Raheem Sterling against Everton. Like Thiago Alcantara’s stunning half-volley goal against Porto, Cancelo’s delightful pass was even better when viewed from a point of view camera angle. Cancelo has taken 26 points in his previous two matches and on each of the four occasions in which he has supplied an assist, the full-back has managed a minimum of 12 points.
Price: £6.6m Points: 79 Gameweek 13 fixture: West Ham (h)
Differential: Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
Sadio Mane’s ownership is creeping up towards the five per cent mark but for the time being, he can still be considered a differential pick. Salah, Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota appears to be the Liverpool triple-up of choice at present, but if you can stretch your budget enough to upgrade Jota to Mane, it could pay off handsomely. With all the attention on Salah, Mane has quietly been ticking along, registering attacking returns in eight of his 12 matches, including in all six of his appearances at Anfield.
Price: £12.0m Points: 71 Gameweek 13 fixture: Southampton (h)
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