Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers face the harsh reality of the relentless winter schedule as they prepare for the second of seven Gameweeks in December. 

Fantasy’s leading point scorer Mohamed Salah (£13.1m) is undoubtedly the armband favourite, travelling to Bramall Lane to face a ramshackle Sheffield United defence on Wednesday night. 

In this deep dive, we run the rule over the Egyptian to discover any chinks in his armoury, whether Erling Haaland (£14.0m) can legitimately challenge Liverpool’s right-winger, before looking at alternative options from Arsenal, Spurs and Newcastle. 

As usual, the Captain Sensible article is here to highlight which assets have the best chance of hauling.

First, we will assess the fallout of the captain poll, before then analysing the best options, Rate My Team (RMT) and the Premier Fantasy Tools ratings ahead of Tuesday’s 18:00 GMT deadline.

THE CAPTAIN POLL

Mohamed Salah has failed to score in his last two Premier League matches but the Egyptian, once again, provided an assist as Liverpool came from behind to claim victory in a seven-goal bonanza against Fulham – maintaining their 100% home record. 

Despite playing second-fiddle for shots volumes to the other components in Liverpool’s attacking triumvirate, Salah posted a match-leading non-penalty xG tally of 0.77 in Liverpool’s 4-3 win. 

Liverpool’s right-winger also demonstrated elite distribution – supplying five key passes and two big chances – and is backed by well over half of our users at the time of writing to haul at Bramall Lane. 

Meanwhile, Erling Haaland turned provider in Man City’s high-octane 3-3 draw with Spurs at the Etihad Stadium, assisting on two occasions but failing to make the net bulge. 

And it wasn’t through want of trying. The Norwegian’s total of five efforts in the box was the joint-most in Gameweek 14 with Haaland fluffing his lines from point-blank range in the first half of this six-goal thriller. 

Nevertheless, the frustrated Man City marksman has been backed by just under one in seven of our users to bounce back at Villa Park on Wednesday evening.

Bukayo Saka (£8.9m) occupies third place with 8.3% of the vote, followed further back by Hwang Hee-chan (£5.6m) with Son Heung-min (£9.6m) – both of whom have attracted just under 4% of votes cast.

THE PLAYER STATISTICS – LAST SIX MATCHES