Super-Sub Olivier Giroud gets the call as we look to arrest alarming slide

You might recall that in our attempts to make up some lost ground as we reach the climax of  the current Fantasy Premier League season we discussed the need to go slightly against the grain when it comes to captaincy choices. Well, this plan didn’t get off to the best of starts when Alexandre Lacazette blanked in GW25, although Romelu Lukaku did fare slightly better in GW26. Lacazette has since paid the ultimate price for his failings, being dropped by Arsene Wenger for the visit of Everton.

Now many Fantasy Premier League managers will be sitting on their free transfer this weekend as they look to plan for the first blank gameweek of this season and there is nothing wrong with this policy. However, we’re not too happy with the prospect of seeing over £10m’s worth of talent sitting on the bench, so we’re actually going to make a real differential call by replacing him with the ultimate super-sub Olivier Giroud, one of the top scoring substitutes in Premier League history.

This is the proverbial one-week punt and we’re not expecting Giroud to remain a long-term fixture in our squad. However, a home fixture with West Bromwich Albion in the Monday Night Football looks about as good as it gets, so we’re going to give ‘Gorgeous’ the GW27 armband.

This could easily blow up in our face should Antonio Conte choose not to start with him but there are question marks over the other leading contenders, all of whom boast a lower xG90 figure this season than Giroud.

Defensively, we have been struggling in recent weeks as a lack of clean sheets bites and it doesn’t get any easier this week with our 3 starting defenders all playing away from home in GW27. On top of this, neither of our goalkeepers have delivered as anticipated since drafting them in at the turn of the year.

Social media is almost certain to go into a frenzy on Monday evening, with Chelsea’s London rivals looking to accumulate more ammunition to fire as the heat rises around Stamford Bridge. I think it’s fair to assume that a fair bit will be aimed at Giroud but will it be for all the right reasons?