This article is part of our The Armband series.
Sergio Aguero is a mystery and there's no point in trying to figure him out. There was a time when he was a no-brainer captain, but that lasted all but two matches back in the first two weeks. Surprisingly, Aguero has the most variance of any player in the Premier League. He's scored at least nine fantasy points five times, but also just two points or fewer in six others. Going further, he's had a negative total twice, most recently his red card against Chelsea, which gives him a four-game ban.
On the other end of that, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal have become the most reliable of teams to back.
Once again Eden Hazard and Diego Costa found their way on the score sheet for the league leaders. Harry Kane lived up to his billing and scored a brace, and he has at least one goal in five of his last six starts. And then there's Alexis Sanchez, who felt betrayed after I dropped him to No. 2 in my rankings, so he decided to go for a hat-trick and throw in an assist for fun.
With all of those favorites scoring, it led to the highest scoring Gameweek total of the season at 149 points. A bench boost was used, but this person still could've gotten 10 more points had they captained Alexis. Of course, this team also made 18 transfers and was given a 68-point deduction. Anyway…
There will be three sought-after sides this weekend, two being the aforementioned Arsenal and Chelsea, who are host to Stoke and West Brom, respectively, while Liverpool welcome West Ham. These matches all look good in theory, but Stoke are actually playing well, having not allowed more than one goal in their last nine. West Brom have won three of their last four and are the only side to have beaten Leicester at King Power Stadium.
That said, there's little reason not to captain a guy like Alexis, Hazard or Costa. As for the rest of the Gunners, it's merely a toss up with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Mesut Ozil the ones coming through last match.
But that's where Liverpool step in as they host a West Ham team that has once again fallen apart, allowing nine goals in their last two matches. This is a perfect spot for Sadio Mane, as long as he can feature. Mane picked up a knock last weekend, but he returned to training early in the week, so that's a good sign. Elsewhere for the Reds, Roberto Firmino still deserves some consideration for the armband, or for the contrarians, Divock Origi has tallied in the last two.
I thought going against Crystal Palace would be a good idea last gameweek, but that backfired as they toppled Southampton. And yet, I'm still not sold on the Eagles just yet, especially on the road where they have allowed at least three goals in their last three matches. Unfortunately, they travel to Hull City, where only one person can be thought of as captain and that's Robert Snodgrass. Hull aren't good, but they have four points from their last two at home. Michael Dawson surprisingly has goals in both of those matches, but you'd be crazy to put faith into a Hull defender.
Gylfi Sigurdsson, who remains a constant on the bottom-feeding Swans, is once again on my radar. Sigurdsson has a goal or assist in five of the last seven matches, and while Sunderland have won three of their last four, they're still fairly bad.
Manchester City have an interesting matchup at Leicester, only because the Foxes have only allowed six goals in seven home matches this season. Kelechi Iheanacho and Kevin De Bruyne will be looked at by plenty, but I'd be wary of this situation even with Leicester's recent struggles.
For Sunday, it'd be wise to stay away from the Manchester United-Spurs match. Go ahead and back Zlatan Ibrahimovic because he's scored in his last two, but it's hard to see Hugo Lloris making the same mistake that led to Ibra's goal against Everton.
Southampton are in a good spot home against Middlesbrough, but they are not playing well and the same can be said for Burnley against Bournemouth. I guess that leaves all of the contrarian captains to Snodgrass and Snodgrass only.
Last, but not least (or maybe least?), Romelu Lukaku travels to Vicarage Road. Again, this seems like another good matchup, but Watford have allowed five goals in their last five home matches, and that includes a 3-1 win against Man Utd.
