CAPTAINCY HYPE 2016/17: FPL Gameweek 10
Picking a Captain in the Fantasy Premier League is among the most important 38 decisions any person will make throughout the course of the season. There's a lot of self-help out there for FPL enthusiasts, with our Hype Team providing three major considerations for the armband Gameweek. We'll be detailing the Essential choice for captain, a popular alternative that's pushing the consensus, and a Wildcard pick to add to the chaos. Strap in tightly, it's time to lose your marbles. All aboard.
Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 10 Deadline
For the 2016/17 Premier League season, the FPL deadline will be one hour before the commencement of the week's first game. The Premier League website lists each FPL deadline, you can always ask on social media, and you can also view a real time countdown on our Weekly Hype page.
In a change from last season, the early Saturday kick off time has now been moved back to 12:30am, meaning the weekly FPL deadline will also be moving 15 minutes back.
The transfer deadline for GW10 is Saturday October 29th at 11:30am.
CORE CAPTAINS: SEASON PERFORMANCE
To help track our progress throughout the 2016/17 season, below you can check how our Core Captaincy selections have done by week to week in the Fantasy Premier League.
GW1
Essential: Sergio Aguero (Man City vs. Sunderland) - 9pts
Alternative: Jamie Vardy (Hull vs. Leicester) - 2pts
Wildcard: Nathan Redmond (Southampton vs. Watford) - 10pts
GW2
Essential: Harry Kane (Spurs vs. Crystal Palace) - 5pts
Alternative: Roberto Firmino (Burnley vs. Liverpool) - 2pts
Wildcard: Fernando Llorente (Swansea vs. Hull) - 2pts
GW3
Essential: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Hull vs. Man United) - 2pts
Alternative: Eden Hazard (Chelsea vs. Burnley) - 11pts
Wildcard: Romelu Lukaku (Everton vs. Stoke) - 2pts
GW4
Essential: Eden Hazard (Swansea vs. Chelsea) - 1pt
Alternative: Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal vs. Southampton) - 1pt
Wildcard: Tom Heaton (Burnley vs. Hull) - 2pts
GW5
Essential: Harry Kane (Spurs vs. Sunderland) - 9pts
Alternative: Romelu Lukaku (Everton vs. Middlesbrough) - 12pts
Wildcard: Christian Benteke (Crystal Palace vs. Stoke) - 2pts
GW6
Essential: Sergio Aguero (Swansea vs. Man City) - 13pts
Alternative: Sadio Mane (Liverpool vs. Hull) - 7pts
Wildcard: Troy Deeney (Burnley vs. Watford) - 2pts
GW7
Essential: Alexis Sanchez (Burnley vs. Arsenal) - 3pts
Alternative: Philippe Coutinho (Swansea vs. Liverpool) - 2pts
Wildcard: Marcus Rashford (Man United vs. Stoke) - 2pts
GW8
Essential: Sergio Aguero (Man City vs. Everton) - -1pt
Alternative: Diego Costa (Chelsea vs. Leicester) - 9pts
Wildcard: Christian Benteke (Crystal Palace vs. West Ham) - -1pt
GW9
Essential: Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal vs. Middlesbrough) - 3pts
Alternative: Theo Walcott (Arsenal vs. Middlesbrough) - 3pts
Wildcard: Gylfi Sigurdsson (Swansea vs. Watford) - 2pts
Totals
Essential Total: 9 (1), 5 (2), 2 (3), 1 (4), 9 (5), 13 (6), 3 (7), -1 (8), 3 (9) = 44pts Alternative Total: 2 (1), 2 (2), 11 (3), 1 (4), 12 (5), 7 (6), 2 (7), 9 (8), 3 (9) = 49pts
Wildcard Total: 10 (1), 2 (2), 2 (3), 2 (4), 2 (5), 2 (6), 2 (7), -1 (8), 2 (9) = 23pts
CAPTAINCY HYPE: THE ESSENTIAL PICK
Player: Alexis Sanchez
Position: Midfielder
Player Price: £11.3 million
Player Selection %: 23.8%
The way this Premier League season is going, we can’t believe that we are saying that it’s three strikes and your way for Alexis Sanchez. The Arsenal midfielder has rotated with Sergio Aguero as our essential Captaincy pick for the past 4 Gameweek’s, with Sanchez not performing in GW9 and GW7, with Aguero featuring during GW6 and his so called infamous GW8, which now has a major blemish after starting as a substitute and then missing a penalty against Everton. Sanchez becomes the first player to take the ‘Essential’ tag two weeks on the spin due to our polling on Twitter. As you can see below, the Chile international has a rather popular advantage over the rest of the field, even though Theo Walcott is the flavour of the month (and hopefully longer) for Arsenal.
The conversation with Alexis continues to drag on, but in terms of output, despite a good start against Chelsea, the opted forward player has seen his goal output plummet against opposition, which in seasons past, Sanchez would have managed double figure returns in every game. The difference with Arsenal against defensively organised promoted sides in Burnley and Boro, and a Swansea team under a mini-resurgence under Bob Bradley, is that a side like Sunderland have a tendency to fold, and fold big, when thrown to the wolves. Arsene Wenger has built a career out of beating the little teams, and that alone is why we’re sticking faith with Sanchez for just one more Gameweek, even though logic is telling us to ignore the polling and take matters into our own hands.
Here’s a slight comparison between Arsenal’s popular midfield trio.
Walcott: £8.1 million, 21.6% selection, 58 points
Sanchez: £11.3 million, 23.8% selection, 57 points
Ozil: £9.6 million, 8.7% selection, 39 points
Arsenal’s Fixtures
GW10: Sunderland (a)
GW11: Spurs (h)
GW12: Man United (a)
GW13: Bournemouth (h)
GW14: West Ham (a)
GW15: Stoke (h)
GW16: Everton (a)
GW17: Man City (a)
GW18: West Brom (h)
GW19: Crystal Palace (h)
Alexis faces a Sunderland side that haven’t won in the Premier League this season, and yes it finally looks like it’s just one season too far in their never ending spiral of flirting with relegation. With Sanchez playing as a forward, sharing set pieces with Ozil, and seemingly still on penalties, Alexis is poised for another big Gameweek… Boy, talk about déjà vu.
Notes on Sanchez
A score of 3 points at home to Boro during Gameweek 9 has put Alexis level on 57 points with Diego Costa, and is joint second in the overall points rankings. Only Walcott (58) has more points in the FPL.
Arsenal (3), Chelsea (2), Man City (2) Livepool, Everton, and Watford players occupy the top 10 players in the FPL. 2 Arsenal midfielders and a defender is the winning formula for success.
You have to go back to Gameweek 4 when Alexis managed less than 3 points in a Gameweek. That week was after the first international break at home to Southampton, in which Sanchez was benched and only played the final 29 minutes.
That said, Alexis has only managed 11 points from his last 3 matches, with just a single assist at home to Swansea during Gameweek 8.
Heading into GW10 away at Sunderland, Alexis has 4 goals and 4 assists to his name, and has acquired 6 bonus points from 2 games.
With 23.8% player selection, only Capoue (41%) and Coutinho (36.6%) are owned more than Sanchez.
CAPTAINCY HYPE: THE ALTERNATIVE PICK
Player: Romelu Lukaku
Position: Forward
Player Price: £9.7 million
Player Selection %: 30%
A massive case of déjà vu (not for the first time this Gameweek) is hitting The Hype Team hard this season. We argued the case last season that Lukaku was more deserving of a place in our Team of the Season than Aguero –mostly because Aguero hit form at the end of the season and was more relevant, whereas Lukaku found most of his form in the early part of the season, and was partially forgotten come the close of the season. We feel like this is a path once walked, and it’s happening all over again. A cheaper Lukaku managing to be on the proverbial Hype Train of form, has notched in 6 goals in the last 6 games, whilst in the same time Aguero’s been injured for 2 games, benched (missing a penalty in the same game), picked up a first yellow card of the season against Southampton, and has failed to score in his last 3 league games.
It’s a different season, but with some familiar themes, and the hot property that is Lukaku is only continuing to rise, even amongst a fixture list might make a few heads turn. A streak of 6 games scoring on the spin against West Ham is turning into another legendary run that’ll soon make The Undertaker’s Wrestlemania streak look secondary.
Everton’s Fixtures
GW10: West Ham (h)
GW11: Chelsea (a)
GW12: Swansea (h)
GW13: Southampton (a)
GW14: Man United (h)
GW15: Watford (a)
GW16: Arsenal (h)
GW17: Liverpool (h)
GW18: Leicester (a)
GW19: Hull (a)
Judging from Lukaku’s run of fixtures for Everton there might not be a more optimum time to bank on the Belgian forward with the armband. With Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Leicester, all in the next 10, Everton might struggle in front of goal more than they have over the course of then games – which saw them face a heavily favourable fixture list. This doesn’t erode Lukaku’s ability one bit, but it’s a questionable (if not rotatable) run of games which will come to test the limits of FPL players should Everton continue to drop off in form. West Ham haven’t conceded a goal in the last 2 matches, with 1-0 victories over Crystal Palace and Sunderland, so it’s not going to be plain sailing for Lukaku, even though pundits are likely to bet their house of Big Rom finding the net against West Ham.
What makes Lukaku a premium captaincy option ahead of the pricier Ibrahimovic and Aguero is down to a superior vain of form. The main captaincy choices just haven’t been working so far this season, so it’s time to take a step back and put trust with what he know – and what we know is that Slavan Bilic is having nightmares of Lukaku.
Notes on Lukaku
At the time of writing on Tuesday 25/10/2016, Lukaku’s FPL ownership is exactly 30% - with his price at a rising £9.7 million.
At 30% ownership, Lukaku is the 8th most selected player in the FPL.
Only Diego Costa (7) has scored more goals than Lukaku (6) this season.
Lukaku is second in the overall list of forwards (55pts), only 2 points off Diego Costa (57pts) and 13 points clear of third place Jermain Defoe (42pts).
Against West Ham, Lukaku has scored in his last 6 appearances against West Ham, and 8 goals within those 6 games.
In Lukaku’s last six Gameweek’s (GW4 – GW9), the Belgian forward has scored 6 goals and assisted 2 times.
Lukaku has managed 10 bonus points this season. Only Watford midfielder Etienne Capoue (11) has obtained more.
Yannick Bolasie’s 3 assists this season have been for Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian repaid the favour by setting up Bolasie at Burnley – but it’s not really repaying the favour, Bolasie quite literally robbed the ball from
Lukaku is the number one set piece taker at Everton currently. Lukaku is on free kicks and penalties.
West Ham have kept back to back clean sheets for the first time this season – is Lukaku set to break that spell?
CORE CAPTAINCY: THE WILDCARD PICK
Player: Troy Deeney
Position: Forward
Player Price: £7.1 million
Player Selection %: 8.5%
The curse of the Wildcard Captaincy continues. Our latest entrant into the fiery arena of doubling points was Gylfi Sigurdsson, the Swansea midfielder who went close on 3 occasions to scoring against a Watford side who have now kept 2 consecutive clean sheets on the road. This means that our last 8 differential picks – each pulled from our Weekly Wildcard article, have failed to score or assist. Yet, this goes against our performances in the differentials article, which has seen 5 consecutively good weeks, we’re just picking the wrong player from that list every week.
Troy Deeney has been in this position before, backed by Hype Train members that visibily cheer his success on the field for being overlooked massively over the course of the season and a half Watford have occupied a spot in the top flight - and on perhaps his last outing as a differential (his ownership is now 8.5% and on the margins of being heavily owned), And has one last chance at redemption for the Wildcard pick with a home game against a Hull City side in absolute free fall; a Hull side that has shipped 19 goals in its last 5 games. Watford though have only scored 3 times in their last 4 games, and have seen Jose Holebas become a monthly FPL hero after 15 points at Boro, and 6 at Swansea.
We’re now nearing the tail end of 5 Premier League games in which we believed heavily in Watford’s FPL potential, and perhaps the cream of the crop of said potential is said to hit its maximum during GW10’s home tie with Hull.
Watford’s Fixtures
GW10: Hull (h)
GW11: Liverpool (a)
GW12: Leicester (h)
GW13: Stoke (h)
GW14: West Brom (a)
GW15: Everton (h)
GW16: Man City (a)
GW17: Sunderland (a)
GW18: Crystal Palace (h)
GW19: Spurs (h)
Deeney’s points are reliant on Watford getting play in and around the box, through penalties, and by dominating opposition, like they did with Man United. We’re trying to picture the reality come Saturday when Hull travel to Vicarage Road, which could very well be an organised Hull side that defend deep, soak pressure, and drag out a low scoring game – it’s a reality that’s likely with Deeney now firmly locked in our selection. There’s also the idealist in us all that pictures that Watford will be the next team to slice open a vulnerable Hull side seemingly doomed after a rather deceptively good start to the season. In this ideal future, Deeney is the go to man to be near the top of the Gameweek Dream Team, playing in a Watford side that themselves are organised, and occasionally ruthless in front of goal. Deeney shouldn’t really have to do much defending, and with Success and Ighalo in support, this is the perfect opportunity to the Englishman to add to his tally of 3 Premier League goals so far this season.
Notes on Deeney
The Watford Captain has managed 5 straight Gameweek’s of positive transfers. A net average of 9,789 transferred Deeney in for Gameweek 9’s 0-0 draw at Swansea.
Deeney has managed 3 goals and 1 assist this season, with 4 bonus points.
Deeney has played the full 90 minutes from 8/9 of Watford’s fixtures this season.
By our evaluation of being a differential forward, Troy Deeney is on his last legs with 8.5% ownership. 10,000 more transfers in should put Deeney above the 10% ownership mark. A home fixture against Hull might push the figure over the 10% mark.
Watford have only scored 3 goals in their last 4 games, and have kept 2 clean sheets.
As of Tuesday 25/10/2016, 9889 players have so far transferred Deeney in to their squads for FPL Gameweek 10. Deeney’s been bought in more than the likes of Sanchez, Son, Ozil, De Bruyne, Sterling, and Aguero.
Deeney is 10th on the listed of owned forwards, with Rashford (9%) and Austin (10.5%) ahead of Deeney.
Deeney’s tally of 3 yellow cards is matched only by Man United forwards Roony and Ibrahimovic, and only bettered by Diego Costa on 4 yellows.
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The Hype Train is an entertainment website founded in 2015 specialising in the Fantasy Premier League (#FPL), providing beautiful graphics and weekly insight for hopeful players attempting to climb ranking tables. We are also occasional media reviewers, with a keen interest to review movies, television, live music, festivals, and any relevant topic in the public eye.
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All aboard.
