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            <p>Who is the best FPL Gameweek 1 captain? Our resident FPL captaincy expert <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisTanFPL">Chris Tan</a> takes a close look at the fixtures, poll and stats breakdown before deciding on his best pick for the FPL captain's armband.</p>
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<h2>Welcome back and pre-season recap</h2>
<p>Welcome back! It was a much-needed break after what turned into a bit of a grind last season.</p>
<p>I'm recharged and really excited for the new start. My articles are usually quite stats heavy, however I’m not a fan of using too much data from the previous season as I like to start with a blank canvas, so the first few articles won’t contain much of a stats analysis until we have a bigger sample size.</p>
<p>Check out our <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fpl-pre-season-guide-2022-23">FPL Pre-season Guide</a> 2022/23 to get up to speed.</p>
<h2><strong>Changes to FPL be aware of </strong></h2>
<p>We have a World Cup over the winter, which will add some different factors into play for the start of the season:</p>
<ol>
<li>You have until Gameweek 16 to use your first wildcard.</li>
<li>We have unlimited transfers after then until the season restarts after the World Cup.</li>
<li>Players will be desperate to make it into the World Cup squads, which could lead to some surprise performances.</li>
</ol>
<p>These factors could promote a more aggressive start than usual, as the season can effectively be split into four quarters with regards to chip and unlimited transfer usage.</p>
<p>Such sprints could suit the more agile manager.</p>
<h2>Captaincy matrix</h2>
<p>To aid those drafting away, I've had a look at the opening six fixtures to earmark who I feel the best captaincy candidates are at this stage:</p>
<div id="attachment_47807" style="width: 965px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47807" class="size-full wp-image-47807" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/FPL-Gameweek-1-Best-Captain-Captaincy-Matrix.png" alt="" width="955" height="229" /></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-47807" class="wp-caption-text">FPL Gameweek 1 best captain - captaincy matrix</p>
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Best FPL captain Gameweek 1: The fixtures</strong></h2>
<p>Watch out, it’s a Friday 18:30 deadline this week.</p>
<div id="attachment_47791" style="width: 812px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47791" class="size-full wp-image-47791" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/FPL-Gameweek-1-Best-Captain-Fixtures.png" alt="" width="802" height="1155" /></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-47791" class="wp-caption-text">FPL Gameweek 1 best captain - fixtures. Source: FPL website</p>
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<h2></h2>
<h2><strong>Twitter FPL Gameweek 1 captain poll</strong></h2>
<p>This was the result of the captaincy poll on my Twitter account <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisTanFPL" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@ChrisTanFPL</a> </strong></p>
<div id="attachment_47823" style="width: 612px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47823" class="size-full wp-image-47823" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/FPL-Gameweek-1-Best-Captain-Twitter-Poll.png" alt="" width="602" height="265" /></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-47823" class="wp-caption-text">FPL Gameweek 1 best captain - Twitter poll</p>
</div>
<h3></h3>
<h2><strong>Do any of the FPL captaincy options have a good record vs their opposition?</strong></h2>
<div id="attachment_47802" style="width: 1213px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47802" class="size-full wp-image-47802" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/FPL-Gameweek-1-Best-Captain-Past-Performance.png" alt="" width="1203" height="244" /></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-47802" class="wp-caption-text">FPL Gameweek 1 best captain - past performance</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Son Heung-min (£12.0m): </strong>Although he's scored five at home and away against Southampton, Son tends to score more regularly at home, with the away stats skewed by the game where he scored four. He has also recorded three of his four assists at home, demonstrating that is where he’s more likely to haul.</p>
<p><strong>Harry Kane (£11.5m): </strong>Kane has scored five goals at home against Southampton, however that’s skewed by a hat-trick. In the past two seasons, all his returns against Southampton have been away (although he was injured for one of the home games, which means he only blanked in one home game).</p>
<p><strong>James Maddison (£8.0m): </strong>Maddison is a dark horse for that coveted £8.0m midfield slot. He’s returned in every league game against Brentford so far.</p>
<p><strong>Kevin De Bruyne (£12.0m): </strong>The Belgian has only picked up one goal and assist away to West Ham. He tends to pick up the majority of his points at the Etihad.</p>
<p><strong>Mohamed Salah</strong> (£13.0m): Salah doesn’t have the best record against Fulham, however these games were against different managers with a different squad.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Best FPL captain Gameweek 1:</strong> <strong>Stats breakdown: </strong></h2>
<p>As mentioned above, I won’t be looking at the OPTA stats for the first few Gameweeks.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Best FPL captain Gameweek 1: </strong><strong>Fantasy Football Hub Points Prediction Tool</strong></h2>
<p>Please note that the <strong><a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/predictions/">Points Prediction Tool</a> </strong>figures can change during the week. I would advise you to check it again closer to deadline.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p>
<p><em><strong>Join the Hub to find out who the best captain is for FPL Gameweek 1. In this article alone, you'll get Chris's detailed analysis of all the fixtures, goal and clean sheet stats and the best pick for captain based on all the data. </strong></em></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p>
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