{"id":491315,"date":"2026-02-20T01:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491315\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T01:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:01:07","slug":"who-is-the-best-fpl-captain-for-gameweek-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491315\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is the best FPL captain for Gameweek 27?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ongoing concerns over Erling Haaland’s (\u00a314.9m) fitness gives a number of form players the chance to outscore the Manchester City<\/a> forward in Gameweek 27, with Chelsea<\/a> pair Joao Pedro (\u00a37.7m) and Cole Palmer (\u00a310.6m) and Haaland’s new team-mate Antoine Semenyo (\u00a38.0m) among them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Due to a knee issue, Haaland has played more than 45 minutes in just two of the last four Gameweeks: he featured as a substitute against Wolverhampton Wanderers<\/a> in Gameweek 23 and was then withdrawn at half-time against Fulham<\/a> in Gameweek 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chelsea’s Joao Pedro and Palmer, meanwhile, are the top-scoring players in Fantasy over those last four Gameweeks, amassing 40 and 34 points respectively.<\/p>\n

Joao Pedro has scored three goals and collected five assists, while Palmer has scored four goals – including three converted penalties – and supplied an assist.<\/p>\n

They host a Burnley<\/a> side who have conceded a league-high 32 goals in away matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Semenyo, meanwhile, has outscored Haaland by 33 points to 24 over the last five Gameweeks since joining from AFC Bournemouth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He hosts a Newcastle United<\/a> side who have managed just one clean sheet in their last 10 away matches in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Manchester United<\/a>‘s Bruno Fernandes (\u00a39.8m) has scored once and supplied three assists across the previous four Gameweeks.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese has blanked just once in his last six appearances ahead of his visit to Everton<\/a> on Monday evening, delivering three sets of 10 points in that spell.<\/p>\n

Top-scoring players, last four Gameweeks<\/p>\n

Player
\nGoals
\nAssists
\nPts<\/p>\n

Joao Pedro
\n3
\n5
\n40<\/p>\n

Palmer
\n4
\n1
\n34<\/p>\n

Semenyo
\n3
\n1
\n31<\/p>\n

Summerville
\n3
\n0
\n29<\/p>\n

Madueke
\n2
\n1
\n29<\/p>\n

Bowen
\n2
\n2
\n27<\/p>\n

Fernandes
\n1
\n3
\n27<\/p>\n

Adli
\n2
\n1
\n27<\/p>\n

Scroll across on mobile to see the full table<\/p>\n

Who’s had the most attacking threat?<\/p>\n

A delve into the data from the last four Gameweeks shows the players who were involved in the most big chances, which are situations where a player is expected to score.<\/p>\n

Palmer has had six big chances (including three penalties) and has also created two more for his team-mates. This means he has been involved in eight big chances in the last four Gameweeks, more than any other player in Fantasy.<\/p>\n

Liverpool’s Hugo Ekitike (\u00a38.9m), meanwhile, had a league-high seven big chances, showing why he can profit from a visit to Nottingham Forest<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joao Pedro takes joint-third in the analysis, with the Brazilian matching the six big chances of Palmer.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Mohamed Salah (\u00a314.0m) has also stepped up his goal threat and leads the way here with 13 shots in the box. His two big chances and three big chances created are identical to Man Utd’s Fernandes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Attacking stats, last four Gameweeks<\/p>\n

Player
\nShots in box
\nBig chances
\nBCC
\nBig-chance inv.<\/p>\n

Palmer
\n8
\n6
\n2
\n8<\/p>\n

Ekitike
\n10
\n7
\n0
\n7<\/p>\n

Joao Pedro
\n12
\n6
\n0
\n6<\/p>\n

Barry
\n9
\n4
\n2
\n6<\/p>\n

Ouattara
\n6
\n4
\n2
\n6<\/p>\n

Jimenez
\n10
\n5
\n0
\n5<\/p>\n

Sarr
\n8
\n4
\n1
\n5<\/p>\n

Salah
\n13
\n2
\n3
\n5<\/p>\n

Fernandes
\n3
\n2
\n3
\n5<\/p>\n

Simons
\n5
\n1
\n4
\n5<\/p>\n

Jensen
\n2
\n1
\n4
\n5<\/p>\n

*Scroll across on mobile to see the full table. BCC = Big chances created<\/p>\n

Who’s facing the weakest defences?<\/p>\n

By assessing the team data over their last four matches, you can see that a large number are struggling to keep out their opponents.<\/p>\n

Nine clubs have conceded at least 11 big chances in their previous four outings and have managed a combined three clean sheets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newcastle’s frailties show why Semenyo can extend his fine start to life at Man City, with the Magpies conceding 10 goals and 15 big chances.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting, though, that he’s only had two big chances in his five matches for his new club and has boosted his output with a hefty 30 per cent goal conversion rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joao Pedro and Palmer’s potential is also lifted here, with Burnley conceding nine goals in this spell.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Liverpool’s Ekitike and Salah, along with Man Utd’s Fernandes and\u00a0Crystal Palace<\/a>‘s Ismaila Sarr (\u00a36.4m) – who is at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers<\/a> – are among the players in the table above who face weak defences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leeds United<\/a>‘s problems at the back look encouraging for Aston Villa<\/a>‘s Morgan Rogers (\u00a37.6m), who scored twice in the reverse fixture in Gameweek 12.<\/p>\n

Team defensive stats, last four Gameweeks<\/p>\n

Club
\nGoals conc.
\nClean sheets
\nBig chances conc.<\/p>\n

Newcastle
\n10
\n0
\n15<\/p>\n

Wolves
\n7
\n1
\n15<\/p>\n

Leeds
\n8
\n0
\n14<\/p>\n

Fulham
\n9
\n0
\n12<\/p>\n

Burnley
\n9
\n0
\n11<\/p>\n

Spurs
\n8
\n0
\n11<\/p>\n

Chelsea
\n6
\n0
\n11<\/p>\n

Everton
\n5
\n0
\n11<\/p>\n

Nott’m Forest
\n4
\n2
\n11<\/p>\n

Scroll across on mobile to see the full table<\/p>\n

So, who is the best captain for Gameweek 27?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to look past the Chelsea pair here, with both the player and team data backing up their recent output in Fantasy<\/p>\n

While we can\u2019t expect Palmer’s run of penalties to continue, his all-round display against Leeds in Gameweek 26 was his best of the season and suggests he is starting to rediscover his best form under Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior.<\/p>\n

Combined with the fact that Palmer earns five points per goal as a midfielder in Fantasy compared with the four of Joao Pedro, the England star gets the armband over his team-mate.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, while Fernandes\u2019 multiple routes to returns and form under Carrick should merit consideration, a change of manager for Nott\u2019m Forest is enough deterrent for Ekitike\u2019s armband appeal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ongoing concerns over Erling Haaland’s (\u00a314.9m) fitness gives a number of form players the chance to outscore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85,83],"class_list":["post-491315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}