Captain Salah, Saka or Palmer? FPL tips & team of week

The key Fantasy Premier League question this week is which premium midfielder to captain - especially if you are lucky enough to own 'the big three'.

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah, the FPL top scorer, at home to Fulham?

Cole Palmer, fresh from two goals and an assist, home to leaky Bournemouth?

Arsenal talisman Bukayo Saka at Emirates Stadium against lowly Everton?

Who is your pick?

The team of the week is selected based on current FPL prices to fit within a £100m budget, as if you were playing a Free Hit.

Well, almost everything went wrong!

Liverpool's game getting called off, Noussair Mazraoui benched for Manchester United and leaving out the wrong premium midfielder - Palmer - led to a mediocre 39 points.

At least Jarrod Bowen, Yoane Wissa and Amad Diallo all returned though...

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Nick Pope, Newcastle, keeper, £5m - home to Leicester City

Newcastle have let in seven in their past two games - but hear me out!

Pope has made 54 saves this season at a rate of more than three per game, so you are almost guaranteed a save point.

And Newcastle should dominate possession against Leicester - it's not hard to imagine a home win to nil.

Jurrien Timber, Arsenal, £5.7m - home to Everton

It feels like Arsenal have the best chance of any team of grabbing a clean sheet this week but which defensive asset to pick?

Mikel Arteta's squad is riddled with injuries and the obvious choice Gabriel might not play.

William Saliba is more expensive than Timber and, despite two goals in two games, his expected goals (xG) tally was zero before that, in 13 games. ZERO! Not even one shot in 13 games.

So go with Timber who is more involved offensively and also a threat from Arsenal's famous corners.

Pervis Estupinan, Brighton, £5.1m - home to Crystal Palace

The Ecuadorian got his first assist of the season last week and his data is encouraging - three shots and two key passes from a left-back.

Estupinan has always possessed a decent attacking threat and you've got to hope that Brighton can keep a clean sheet too.

Milos Kerkez, Bournemouth, £4.6m - home to West Ham

The Hungarian passes the stats test and the eye test.

If you've watched any Bournemouth games recently, you'll have seen him flying down that left wing and getting into all sorts of attacking positions.

He leads Bournemouth defenders in every statistic - key passes (15), big chances created (four), assists (two), touches in the box (26)... we could go on.

In the past five weeks, only Ipswich's Leif Davis has a higher expected assists (xA) total.

Justin Kluivert, Bournemouth, £5.5m - home to West Ham

I'm chasing points a little here, given a third of the Dutchman's tally this season came in his three-penalty game against Wolves and he never plays 90 minutes.

But... at the price and on penalties, Kluivert is a decent option.

Antoine Semenyo is Bournemouth's underlying data king with the amount of shots he is having but he has one return in nine games so I'm going with Kluivert.

Cole Palmer (captain), Chelsea, £11.1m - home to Bournemouth

Mohamed Salah (vice captain), Liverpool, £13.3m - home to Fulham

Bukayo Saka, Arsenal, £10.6m - home to Everton

These three FPL studs are grouped together here as the captaincy debate is all about the trio.

You need to be thinking about your FPL choices if you don't have at least two in your team.

Despite it backfiring last time, I'm going with Palmer over Salah this week.

Bournemouth's defence is too leaky to ignore and my gut says Salah must be due a blank (or at least a game where he doesn't score double digits) at some point.

But there might not even be a 'wrong' choice this week - all three could haul.

Alexander Isak, Newcastle, £8.6m - home to Leicester City

If you just set and forget Isak in one of your forward spots for the season, you'd probably be pretty happy by the end of it.

But his points can be hard to predict. He has scored against Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal but blanked in much easier games.

Still, Leicester at home is a prime fixture and I'd be confident of a couple of returns.

Jorgen Strand Larsen, Wolves, £5.6m - home to Ipswich

Matheus Cunha is still the Wolves striker to target if you can stretch to £7.1m but Strand Larsen is a very decent second option.

Six goals and two assists for a budget forward is excellent and he takes on an Ipswich side with only one clean sheet this season.

Nicolas Jackson, Chelsea, £8.2m - home to Bournemouth

There are few potential choices in this price range this gameweek. Kai Havertz was very tempting at home to Everton but Jackson - for the same reasons as Palmer above - has a huge potential ceiling this week.

If Chelsea click, they are going to put three or four past Brentford.

Killian Cahill, Brighton, keeper, £3.9m - home to Crystal Palace

Jacob Murphy, Newcastle, midfielder, £4.9m - home to Leicester

Jarell Quansah, Liverpool, defender, £3.9m - home to Fulham

Cameron Burgess, Ipswich, defender, £4.0m - away at Wolves

There's a theme here - super cheap options as budget is an issue.

Let's hope the bench isn't needed this week.

Total team cost: £99.9m

Enzo Fernandez, Chelsea, midfielder, £5m

With six returns in his past five games, the £107m man is starting to prove his worth.

At £5m and with Chelsea having a dreamy run of games for the next six, he could be a great budget enabler.

Crystal Palace - Brighton (a), Arsenal (h), Bournemouth (a)

As ever, we're looking a little further ahead. After that Bournemouth game, Palace have Southampton at home and Leicester away a couple of weeks later.

With Eberechi Eze back as a midfield option and Jean-Philippe Mateta looking sharp up front, Palace assets may be back on the menu.