The 2022 FIFA World Cup is over, but let’s be honest, we still haven’t recovered from that exhilarating final, which saw Argentina triumph over France on penalties to lift their third World Cup title. Watching Lionel Messi be crowned a world champion for the first time ever was made even more sweeter by us choosing him as our World Cup fantasy captain as he bagged a brace in the final, although the vast majority of players no doubt did exactly the same.
Anyway, we now transition back into FPL mode as the Premier League resumes on Boxing Day, so we’ve picked out three of the most enticing Gameweek 17 premium captaincy options alongside a differential selection, taking into account the potentially unavailability of players who competed deep into the World Cup knockout stage ahead of Monday’s 11:00 deadline.
PREMIUM OPTIONS
Erling Haaland (£12.2m) vs LEE (a)
Since joining the Premier League, Erling Haaland (£12.2m) has set FPL alight in a way that no other player has for a very long time, perhaps ever! Man City’s superstar forward cannot stop scoring and cannot stop racking up FPL points, which makes not captaining him a huge gamble on any given gameweek. The Norwegian has already found the net 18 times in the Premier League, with three assists tacked onto that, giving him a total FPL score so far of 123 points, the most of any fantasy playing asset.
Pep Guardiola’s side get their league campaign back underway away to Leeds in Gameweek 17, Haaland’s city of birth and the club whom he supported as a boy. No doubt he’ll be desperate to get on the scoresheet at Elland Road and will have been chomping at the bit for the season’s resumption having not played at the World Cup. Norway’s failure to qualify for the tournament means that Haaland is well rested, refreshed and surely ready to head the ground running.
Mo Salah (£12.8m) vs AVL (a)
The exploits of Haaland have led to a drop off in ownership for Mo Salah (£12.8m), who has underperformed in regards to attacking returns this season in the Premier League for his extremely lofty standards. Whilst the Egyptian continues to score for fun in the Champions League, Salah has accrued just six goals and four assists in the Premier League. Despite this however, it’s important to remember that Salah’s 82 FPL points is still the third highest fantasy score among midfielders.
A trip to Aston Villa is on the horizon for Liverpool in Gameweek 17, always a tough place to go and more so now with the Villains under the command of Unai Emery. However, if anyone can breach their defence then Salah can and it could well be the case that Villa are without first-choice goalkeeper Emi Martinez, who is coming off the back of winning the World Cup with Argentina. Salah, like Haaland didn’t play at the World Cup, which should lead to him flying out of the traps here and when you take into account his Gameweek 1 record, that could bode well going into this one.
Kevin De Bruyne (£12.6m) vs LEE (a)
Unlike the two other premium captain picks we’ve highlighted, Kevin De Bruyne (£12.6m) did feature at the World Cup. But it was a tournament to forget for Belgium, who failed to qualify for the knockout stage after finishing third-place in Group F behind Morocco and Croatia, with De Bruyne coming in for criticism not only for his performances, but also his comments off the pitch regarding the Belgian squad.
You’d expect that De Bruyne will return to club action with a point to prove and when considering that he’ll be accompanied by teammates of a far higher standard than what he had to put up with at Belgium, the expectation is that he’ll get back to his best in no time. With De Bruyne, both goals and assists from midfield are always on the cards and it would be no surprise to see him increase his tally of three goals, 10 assists and 90 FPL points against Leeds in Gameweek 17.
DIFFERENTIAL OPTION
Eddie Nketiah (£6.5m) vs WHU (H)
Arsenal have enjoyed a dream season so far and sit top of the Premier League as it stands. Football can be a cruel mistress though and injury to key striker Gabriel Jesus at the World Cup represents a huge blow for Mikel Arteta. The Arsenal boss however, has publicly backed forward Eddie Nketiah (£6.5m) to fill the gap left by Jesus’ absence and this opens up a potential differential avenue for FPL points.
Although it cannot be guaranteed that the 23-year-old will definitely start for the Gunners against West Ham in Gameweek 17, the chances must be high. Nketiah will be desperate to repay Arteta’s backing and prove why he deserves to be playing regularly in the Premier League. At an FPL price of just £6.5m playing for a team at the top of the table, he offers a potential lucrative captaincy avenue for those managers searching for a differential pick.
