CAPTAINCY HYPE 2018/19: FPL Gameweek 27

Picking a Captain to double down on in the Fantasy Premier League is the most important question asked ahead of each of the 38 Gameweek's in the Premier League season. There's a lot of self-help out there for FPL enthusiasts, with our Hype Team providing three major considerations for the armband for each and every 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. Captaincy can make of break a Gameweek so strap in tightly, it's time to lose your marbles. All aboard.

Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 27 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

CAPTAINCY HYPE: THE ESSENTIAL PICK

Our Essential picks for captain are selected each and every week on our main Twitter account, @RealHypeTrain, with four highly selected FPL options battling it out for alpha status amongst fellow FPL players.

Gameweek 27: Essential Captain

Player: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (ARS)

Position: Forward

GW27 Fixture: Southampton (H)

Player Price: £11.1 million

Player Selection %: 26.4%

A reduced round of games this weekend sees Chelsea and Man City omitted from action as they do battle in the League Cup final on Saturday. This slight vacuum, coupled with Liverpool travelling to Man United, has left very few essential options this week - it's not often that Mohamed Salah only gets 9% of the vote in our captaincy polls.

Arsenal's home fixture against lowly Southampton has opened the door for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to break the spell of Mohamed Salah's spell of dominance at the top of the captaincy charts with a slight majority win.

Form isn't in Auba's favour ahead of Sunday's home game against a side that lost 3-2 to their upcoming opponents during Gameweek 17. The Gabon international missed Gameweek 26's away win at Huddersfield with a dodgy stomach, but returned in a comfortable 3-0 win against BATE in the Europa League at The Emirates.

The stage is set for FPL players to back Auba once more with the armband, though the Forward has scored just 1 goal in his last 4 matches - scoring and assisting against Cardiff during a 2-1 home win (GW24).

With little competition elsewhere, Heing-Min Son, featured below, is the only player that has the right fixture, and even better recent returns, to merit consideration, especially as Mohamed Salah has failed to score against the Manchester clubs this season and a move with the armband presents a massive contradiction to his performances in bigger games both in the Premier League and Champions League.

The masses have spoken and we anticipate that most of Auba's owners will likely, by default, bank on the 4th best Fantasy player this season to do the business at home yet again. Not owning him is the real fear, unless you're more likely to go down the route of owning Alexandre Lacazette.

CAPTAINCY HYPE: THE ALTERNATIVE PICK

Our Alternative selection for captain typically commands a smaller FPL ownership percentage, but can be reserved for The Hype Train's own gut instincts on who could be captaincy inspiration.

Gameweek 27: Alternative Captain

Player: Heung-Min Son (TOT)

Position: Midfielder

GW27 Fixture: Burnley (A)

Player Price: £9.0 million +

Player Selection %: 25.8%

Next in the pecking order is also a popular captaincy consideration ahead of a shortened Gameweek 27, but unlike Aubameyang, there is no doubting the form and consistency of Heung-Min Son heading in to an away day at Burnley this Saturday afternoon.

The only downside of potentially considering Son is that Spurs feature in the early Saturday kick-off, a typically taboo fixture to entrust the armband to one of your Fantasy players. Slow starts are the fear and bane of FPL players, so there is a suggestion of a low-scoring affair as in-form Burnley look to continue in good stride this weekend.

Regardless of opposition or form, Son is breaking barriers and is well and truly in the consideration for the Player of the Season award if the South Korean international continues to score goal after goal for his club.

Since returning from 'international duty' with South Korea, missing just one Premier League game, with the usage of those two words used in the most liberal sense, Son has scored in 3 consecutive Premier League matches, and over the course of 10 games has only been outscored on the Fantasy board by Mohamed Salah, though Son took a detour through the United Arab Emirates on his way to 95 points from his last 10 games.

Moreover, Harry Kane's inability to take time off during injuries means that Spurs talisman is back this weekend, potentially in a starting birth, which with any luck should reignite a lethal partnership that was amassing more FPL points than we'll likely get page views for this article.

If Son was an £11.0 million player, chances are you'd probably captain him given his glittering form, and even now was just behind Aubameyang in terms of popularity this week.

If backing form is your game when deciding on captaincy, perhaps only Son, Pogba or Salah are worth considering.

CAPTAINCY HYPE: THE WILDCARD PICK

Our Wildcard selection is one of the ten differential picks that is featured in our Weekly Wildcards article. This captaincy selection has a very small percentage of owners in the FPL, and is our left field option.

Gameweek 27: Wildcard Captain

Player: Miguel Almiron (NEW)

Position: Midfielder

GW27 Fixture: Huddersfield (H)

Player Price: £6.0 million

Player Selection %: 0.4%

We weren’t expecting for Newcastle’s record buy to start on the bench against Wolves, but a cameo performance full of promise surely paints the picture of an attack minded player who has pace to burn. Able to operate as one of two strikers, as the central attacking midfielders, or as a left winger, there will be room for him in Rafa Benitez’s team after the Toon went to Spain for a warm weather training camp. After two weeks, the Paraguayan should surely now have settled into life, and because there are only eleven remaining fixtures, we’d expect that he was now ready. This is the kind of league where you do need to hit the ground running, especially when your team is amid a relegation fight.

Last time out we selected Almirón whose cameo against Wolves was a welcome twenty minutes. He didn’t displace a ball, chased the ball, and nearly setup Ayoze Perez but the Spaniard headed over. It had everything to make you see that he has taken to the Premier League like a duck on water. The next test is against Huddersfield at home, and the Terriers are surely out of the picture long-term Premier League barring a miracle of unseen proportions. This is the perfect match for Almirón to show what he can do in front of a rabid home crowd. We stand by everything we said in the last week about Almirón; he is a winner that was the decisive factor in Atlanta win the MLS Cup final against Portland.

Almirón left the MLS a champion. Without him, Atlanta were nothing. If that doesn’t tell you about his pedigree, then nothing will. He was so good that he was indispensable to the American club, and that is the calibre of players that Newcastle need now…game changers. Almirón has the potential to do that, and without the majority of people seeing him perform it could be an eye opening ninety minutes at St James Park on Saturday.

Want to know more about The Hype Train?

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, live sport, and professional wrestling.

As well as providing FPL articles on our website, we are a founding Contributor to the new Fantasy Football Hub, where you can find more unique articles, including weekly Power Rankings, from The Hype Team. You can support us and read exclusive members only content for just £2 per-month by clicking here.

The Hype Train were nominated and shortlisted for the 'Best Football Blog 2016' by the Football Bloggers Association at their annual Football Blogging Awards (The FBA's), with the final presentation held at Old Trafford in Manchester.

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All aboard.