Bukayo Saka (captain), Arsenal, £10.5m – Ipswich (a), Palace (h)
For the reasons stated above, I’d be confident about Saka’s minutes this week. Yes he is coming back from injury but he also needs game time to get his fitness up.
From past experience, he could easily get double digits in both of these games so he gets the armband.
Mohamed Salah (vice-captain), Liverpool, £13.8m – Leicester (a)
Last gameweek was the first since week eight in which Salah’s net transfers were negative. People are selling him but don’t be one of them.
And if you are risk averse, or worried about game time for your doublers, Salah would make a very safe captain choice.
Morgan Rogers, Aston Villa, £5.6m – Newcastle (h), Man City (a)
Turns out it was daft to think Rogers might get a rest last week. He’s become a player who starts every game for Villa. This double is not exciting for them but Rogers is the only Villa forward asset you can truly expect to start both matches and you do fancy them to score in both games.
Jarrod Bowen, West Ham, £7.5m – Southampton (h)
This match-up is too juicy to pass up for West Ham’s talisman. Bowen’s having a 7/10 season so far, but he still has four double-digit hauls.
In his past six games he has had 17 shots, 12 in the box. Bowen usually overperforms his expected goals (xG) yet he has just one goal in that time from 1.4 xG, suggesting he might be due.
Eberechi Eze, Crystal Palace, £6.9m – Bournemouth (h), Arsenal (a)
As the week draws closer, I’m becoming more and more convinced Palace boss Oliver Glasner rests some key players in the Arsenal match, with little to play for in the league and an FA Cup semi-final four days later.
But Eze is still worth a punt. As mentioned above, he could have hauled in week 32 and we’d then be looking at him very differently.
He’s Palace’s key player and could very well start both matches and get brought off with 20 minutes to go.
