Fantasy Football: Time to triple-captain Manchester City hitman

It’s the final round of fixtures before the first dreaded international break of the season. The UEFA Nations League may whet the appetite more than international friendlies have in the past, but it’s a break that many would rather avoid with the season in its infancy. Nevertheless, fans will hope to use the chance to gain maximum points in fantasy football before the domestic hiatus as they head into the break with their heads high. 

One way of doing so is to use the triple captain feature and, if you want an early season boost, this weekend presents the ideal opportunity to do so. Manchester City host Newcastle in their bid to get their season back on track. The champions dropped points at Wolves last weekend and head coach Pep Guardiola will demand a return to winning ways against the Magpies. 

Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle side were outplayed by Chelsea last week, with the 2-1 scoreline flattering the Tyne giants. Newcastle as a team made fewer accurate passes (131) than Blues midfielder Jorginho (158), though having come so close to securing a result, it’s likely that Benitez will set his side up in a similar fashion in order to frustrate City and spring an upset at the Etihad Stadium. 

However, City have the talent to dismantle any team on their day and Newcastle could prove no different. Indeed, it presents fantasy football users with the ideal opportunity to use their triple captain boost on Sergio Aguero. No player has scored more goals in the Premier League this season than Aguero (3). City have had plenty of success when hosting Newcastle in recent years, with the Manchester outfit winning their last five home league meetings with the Magpies, scoring 22 goals in the process at a rate of 4.4 goals per game. 

Aguero too is prolific against Newcastle, netting 10 of those 22 goals and scoring eight of the last nine league goals City have scored against the Magpies at the Etihad Stadium. It’s no surprise, then, that Newcastle are Aguero’s favourite opponents, with the Argentine hitman rattling in 14 league goals in nine outings against them. Of those 14, 11 have come at home, so it’s well worth backing Aguero to add to his fine return ahead of Saturday’s evening match. 

Even allowing for Guardiola’s unpredictability in team selection, we can expect to see Aguero start against Newcastle, with it possible that the City boss may even use a similar setup to the one seen in the 6-1 home win over Huddersfield earlier this month, a victory Aguero bagged a hat-trick in to return a perfect WhoScored 10 rating. While he may have scored all three of his league goals in the win over Huddersfield, it isn’t for want of trying having already struck the woodwork three times, while 16 shots is the joint-highest return in the league so far. 

Newcastle may have only conceded four goals in their three games so far, so they haven’t been torn apart by opponents, despite facing both Tottenham and Chelsea, but City, when they hit top gear, are nigh-on impossible to stop. With Aguero leading the charge, the Magpies are at risk of another dismantling and should the Argentine replicate his previous home outings against Newcastle, then triple-captaining the 30-year-old, even at this early stage of the campaign, could prove to be a solid points booster this weekend.