This article is part of our The Armband series.
Everyone's favorite forward, Romelu Lukaku, was one of the best options last week, scoring and assisting in the win over Chelsea. If you're still giving him the armband, congrats. It was the first time he surpassed six fantasy points in eight starts, as well as the first time he surpassed eight fantasy points in 21 starts. In comparison, Mohamed Salah has hit double digits in each of his last three matches. This only means not to trust Lukaku just yet.
As for the guys to trust, it's been the same for the last few weeks, if not more. Salah and Harry Kane have been on the list for almost the entire season, while Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne have been the most useful Man City players of late. That's about it outside of Eden Hazard, who suddenly has six goals and one assist in his last seven starts.
Gameweek 29 will be no different. Tottenham (v. Huddersfield), Liverpool (v. Newcastle) and Man City (v. Chelsea) are all at home and we know what that means. All I have to do is decide which guys are going to perform the best. I could just say no one will beat Salah and end the article. But, alas… it's never that easy. Just kidding. It is. Salah is the best captain this gameweek and there's no reason to think otherwise. No one is close to matching what Salah has done this season with 23 goals and eight assists in 27 appearances. In Liverpool's last five home matches he has six goals and four assists. Roberto Firmino has scored in his last three overall, but his upside is much lower. The Reds are in a good spot for a clean sheet, but they were last week and ended up allowing a second-half goal.
Kane is the closest comparison to Salah this season with 24 goals scored. I faded Kane last week, but he managed to grab one in a late win against Crystal Palace. He has now scored in six of his last seven matches in all competitions, and he also hasn't had a matchup as favorable as this one in a few weeks. Of course, it was almost two months ago when he failed to score at home against West Ham. At the least, the opportunities will be there, as he's getting two shots on net in almost every match. Ben Davies is probably the safest for a defensive captain with clean sheets in four of his last six to go with two assists in that period.
There isn't much to separate Liverpool's and Tottenham's opponents. They are next to each other in the table with the only major difference being Huddersfield having a minus-18 away goal differential compared to Newcastle's minus-8. But in recent matches against top competition, Newcastle lost by a combined 6-1 score line on the road to Man City and Chelsea (FA Cup). Huddersfield have been slightly all over the place, but lost by a combined 10-0 to Liverpool, Arsenal and Man United in away matches.
Man City have the toughest home match of the three against Chelsea. Unfortunately, Aguero's reign as the only forward is close to over with Gabriel Jesus healthy again. That will only present problems for captaincy and part of the reason Aguero isn't higher on my list. That said, Aguero has 11 goals in his last five home starts. De Bruyne is slightly behind with one goal and six assists in his last five starts in all competitions.
Outside of those guys, it's a toss up of which player to take a risk on. I stayed away from Kane at Crystal Palace last week and I'll do the same for Man United this week. There's no reason to back the Red Devils on the road right now. I can say the same for Arsenal even against Brighton. And even if the Gunners were to blow up for a few goals, it'd likely be a mix of contributors, though Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is first on the list.
For the big differentials, Jamie Vardy is once again in a position to score at home against Bournemouth. However, he doesn't get many opportunities and that burned him in the home match against Stoke last weekend. I jumped out of the "captain Xherdan Shaqiri conversation" back in January, but he's now scored in his last three matches. I'd be wary of going his way, though, and not just because it's an away match, as he has just four shots on goal and five chances created in those three games.
At this point, we're simply trying to convince ourselves to captain someone other than Salah or Kane, but in the end that's probably not a good idea.
