it’s time for the fantasy premier league captain gameweek 24 decision on who to pick?
RVP (Southampton H)
Do we really need to read any further?
Rested at Home to Fulham in the FA Cup it seems inevitable that he will start. Its just a shame its not a Tuesday game so you could check the team. With Rooney back in order to provide the creativity it seems the obvious option.
For the sake of going through the motions lets see his returns away from home against qualifying opposition
South 15 points
New 4 points
Aston V 5 points
Norwich 2 points
Reading 6 points
Swansea 4 points
Newcastle 9 points
WBA H 6 points
Consistent and has returned in every game except 1. Only 1 big score though. Overall he’s returned in 19/21 times he’s started and incredibly in his last 10. Southamptons away defence is one of the worst in underlying stats and only villa have conceded more goals on their travels.
Hard to look further however lets do so anyway.
Mata (Reading A)
Integral to Chelseas play and the most influential player. Will definitely start after coming off the bench at Brentford and with no Hazard as the only other source of midfield creativity.
Returned in his but 1 of his last 8 starts. Incredibly if you ignore his first 3 starts when he was obviously jaded from the Euros and the Olympics then he’s returned in every game he’s started except 2. That’s RVP type consistency.
Lets look at away games against qualifying opposition
Wigan 3 points
West Ham 7 points
Sunderland 8 points
Norwich 11 points
Only the opening game of the season has not returned. The Reading defence is just about the worst in the league at home and the recent supposed improvment is illusory in statistical terms and they concede roughly 2 goals per game. I expect Chelsea to score and for Mata to be involved.
Benteke (Newcastle H)
This is about the Newcastle defence as much as anything. Newcastle have conceded 25 goals in 11 games and have only had 1 clean sheet away.
Benteke’s analysis is not that great though and too much of a risk for me. Here’s his qualifying games analysis for home games
Swansea 5 points
WBA 2 points
Norwich 7 points
Reading 9 points
Wigan 2 points
Southampton 2 points
3/6 returns is not worth the risk for me. In addition he’s only returned in 7/18 games
It’s a no for me.
Summary
It’s RVP all the way for me as the fantasy premier league captain gameweek 24 choice. Mata as vice