Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne (Getty Images)
Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne (Getty Images)

Kevin De Bruyne

One fixture stands out above all others this week: West Bromwich Albion’s trip to Manchester City. Even with Pep Guardiola’s side lacking some of their usual attacking verve, this should be a comfortable win by a healthy margin.

The fact that it is a midweek game brings added risk of rotation but De Bruyne has played one game a week since the most recent international break and should start, making him this week’s obvious captaincy option.

Bruno Fernandes

If De Bruyne is out of your reach, make sure you are able to stretch for Fernandes. Manchester United’s trip to Sheffield United is arguably just as good a fixture given how poor Chris Wilder’s side have been of late.

The problem is predicting which United turn up but even when they struggle, Fernandes tends to have an impact. Remarkably, he has scored and assisted in every away game he has started this season.

Ollie Watkins

For those yet to use their first wildcard, Aston Villa offer a favourable run of fixtures until the deadline for the chip to be used in gameweek 16. Dean Smith’s side start with a visit from Burnley on Thursday night, then travel to West Brom and welcome Crystal Palace.

Those fixtures look promising for Watkins, even if he has not found the net in his last three. The former Brentford striker was quiet in the narrow win over Wolves at the weekend but should find more opportunities against a Burnley side who are giving up chances.

Vladimir Coufal

Another Czech signing from Slavia Prague, Coufal only made his West Ham debut in gameweek 4 but already has two assists and three clean sheets to his name for the modest price of £4.6m.

For those priced out of a move for Aaron Cresswell, Coufal offers a cheaper route into a defence that has quietly impressed. The right-back also likes to get forward and is laying on a decent number of chances for his new team-mates.

Reece James

Another defender catching our eye in terms of creativity is James, who is gradually edging past team-mate Ben Chilwell as the Chelsea player to own, especially as he is currently £0.9m cheaper.

The threat of rotation with Cesar Azpilicueta has not totally gone given the hectic schedule but James’ crossing from the right is such a key component of Chelsea’s attack that he is quickly becoming indispensable.

Honourable mentions: Emiliano Martinez, Ruben Dias, Ivan Cavaleiro, Raheem Sterling, Patrick Bamford.

Captaincy: Kevin De Bruyne

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