Best Captain for Gameweek 14

The new round of Fantasy Premier League is approaching with haste. So, here, in this article we take a look at the best captain for Gameweek 14.

Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers face the classic test of form versus fixture as Mohamed Salah (£13.2m) and Cole Palmer (£11.0m) lock horns in the captaincy battle ahead of Gameweek 14.

And we can’t write off a certain Norwegian, despite his barren spell. Then there are alternative and differential options from Arsenal, Aston Villa and Chelsea on the table for the contrarian and unconventional managers amongst us.

As usual, Captain Sensible is here to highlight which assets have the best chance of hauling.

First, we will assess the fallout of the on-site captain poll. We will then analyse the player and team statistics, Rate My Team (RMT) and the Premier Fantasy Tools ratings ahead of Tuesday’s 18:00 GMT deadline.

THE CAPTAIN POLL

Cole Palmer produced a spectacular curling second-half strike to seal Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Aston Villa, to add to his earlier assist for Enzo Fernandez (£4.8m).

The former Man City starlet was in red-hot form, with his five goal attempts and three shots on target both match-leading totals in a busy display.

Ahead of Chelsea’s visit to Southampton, Palmer is backed by just over 40% of our users to put Russell Martin’s struggling Saints side to the sword.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Salah sealed a dominant win over Man City with a late penalty, earning Arne Slot’s high-octane Liverpool a comfortable 2-0 victory.

Salah took his tally of attacking returns for the season to 18 against Guardiola’s side.

Liverpool’s Egyptian is backed by just under one-quarter of our users to add to his tally of nine double-digit hauls ahead of their visit to Tyneside.

Erling Haaland (£15.0m) occupies third place with 13.2% of the vote, with Bukayo Saka (£10.4m) and Liam Delap (£5.6m) further back.

THE PLAYER STATISTICS – LAST SIX MATCHES

Haaland sits at the summit for shots (29), attempts in the box (27) and non-penalty xG (5.60) in this assessment.

The Norwegian, however, shares the spoils with a certain high-flying Egyptian when it comes to big chances (11 apiece) and shots on target (both 11).

In terms of minutes per non-penalty involvement, Salah’s 76.6 dwarves Haaland’s highly respectable rate of 95.1.

Bukayo Saka is the creativity king. Arsenal’s playmaker leads Son-Heung-min (£9.9m) for big chances created, by seven to five.

Meanwhile, we have a three-way tie when it comes to key passes with Martin Odegaard (£8.3m), Saka and Son all level on 16.

Furthermore, Saka tops the charts for expected assists (xA, 2.56) with the Colney graduate ahead of Son’s 1.73.

And the Arsenal youngster has goal threat, with only Haaland firming more than Saka’s 22 shots over the last six matches.

In terms of dual threat, only two players in our assessment have registered double-digits for shots in the box and key passes – Saka and Palmer.

Notably, Saka leads Palmer for key passes (16 to 11) and efforts in the box (18 to 10).

Finally, Nicolas Jackson (£8.1m) sits bottom in this assessment for minutes per non-penalty involvement (228.8). The Senegal striker has negligible creative output, sitting in the bottom three here for big chances created (one) and key passes (seven).

Moreover, despite leading the line for Chelsea, Jackson’s non-penalty xG tally of 1.88 is just the fifth best among present company.

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