We explore the best options for the Fantasy Premier League captain for Gameweek 1 and reveal the results of our captain poll and our new captain metric – who will you choose this Gameweek?

BEFORE WE BEGIN: If you haven’t already seen, we released an article last year introducing the new ‘Captain Metric’, which explains the concept fully and it can be viewed here >> https://fplconnect.blog/2018/08/07/the-captain-metric-explained-2/

FPL is back people! There’s nothing quite like the Premier League and with that, comes our beloved Fantasy Premier League.

Weekly drama over the course of 10 months, building and building to a crescendo of won and lost mini-leagues against friends, family and work colleagues.

The agony of losing clean sheets to last minute goals, the euphoria of maverick captain picks smashing in huge double-digit returns – FPL has the power to make us want to punch inanimate objects and blame them for the pain they’ve caused you, or jump around our living rooms shouting wildly like little children do when they’re on a sugar high.

Relationships and friendships will be tested, but ultimately, FPL always wins, at least for sad b******s like myself anyway!

It’s time to get down to business and start finalising those teams ready for the Gameweek deadline this Friday at 19:00.

Along with finalising our teams, we’ve got to pick our captain and although it may be an easy choice for the majority of us, there’s still over half of the total FPL players that don’t own Mohamed Salah, so let’s get to it…

Results of our poll

Mohamed Salah – 80% of the votes

Underlying attacking stats over the last 5 gameweeks (18/19 season):

41 penalty area touches.

26 total goal attempts.

19 goal attempts inside the box.

3 big chances.

4 goals.

1 assist.

Harry Kane – 10% of the votes

Down to Kane’s injury toward the end of last season, I have no previous 5 GW data, so instead, here’s how he got on in pre-season:

Inter Milan: 1-1 lost on penalties

Started the game

64 minutes

0 goals

0 assists

Bayern Munich: 2-2 won on pens

Came on at half time

45 minutes

0 goals

1 assist

Scored his penalty

Real Madrid: won 1-0

Started the game

66 minutes

Scored the goal

Man United: Lost 2-1

Came on at half time

45 minutes

0 goals

0 assists

Juventus: won 3-2

Came on at half time

45 minutes

1 sickening half way line goal

0 assists

Raheem Sterling – 8% of the votes

Underlying attacking stats over the last 5 gameweeks (18/19 season):

49 penalty area touches

15 total goal attempts.

12 goal attempts inside the box.

5 big chances.

2 goals.

1 assist.

Differential captain options

Aubameyang – Without Rafa Benitez at the helm, I fear for Newcastle this year, and I fear for them against Arsenal. With the addition to their frontline of the exciting, direct, skilful and pacey Nicolas Pepe, Arsenal’s front 3 is going to be electric and I’m really struggling to see how the Magpies’ defence is going to keep them at bay. After a strong goalscoring campaign last year, I can see Auba building on that and getting off to a flyer versus toon army. Callum Wilson – Another player with a very strong campaign last time out. The English forward managed 14 goals and 12 assists in 29 games for the Cherries and given the start against newly promoted Sheffield United, Wilson has a good chance to start this season well. Coming in at 21.3% ownership currently, he is well backed, but the majority will likely opt for Salah, so Wilson could prove a strong differential captain should Salah perform poorly versus the Canaries.

My view

I personally can’t see any reason why anyone wouldn’t captain Mohamed Salah if they owned him.

He was superhuman at times in his first campaign and posted very strong numbers again last year with 22 goals and 12 assists.

Sometimes, it’s a case of playing the percentages, especially at the start – as FFScout number 1 hall of famer Jay Egersdorff states himself in our interview with him; “It’s crucial that you’re not cut adrift from the beginning…” (view the rest of the interview with him here >> Interview with Jay Egersdorff).

Because Salah is owned by almost 40% of the game (at the time of writing) and will most likely be captained by almost all that own him, then you’re under huge pressure for your alternative captain to succeed if you don’t captain him, as you’ll face a huge drop if it fails.

For me, at the start, it’s not a risk worth taking, so Mohamed Salah is my recommendation and who I’m going with for Gameweek 1.

Those who don’t own Salah, Harry Kane should 100% be your man against newly promoted Villa, who shipped 61 goals last season in their 46 games.

Captain Metric

Because our metric is based on previous Gameweek data, we don’t have access to all the stats we need to complete it.

We also want to base the stats for it on this season rather than last season to reflect the most relevant statistics, so we’ll be starting this section in GW5.

Stats obtained from fantasyfootballscout.co.uk