Best captains of 2025/26

Each gameweek pairs the player who actually top-scored with the crowd's captain, and the two never once met. The armband sat on Haaland or Salah every single week, yet the biggest haul went to someone else all 38 times, often an unheralded defender or differential, from Ballard on opening day to Dorgu twice over. Captaincy is a bet on a dependable ceiling, not on topping the weekly charts. Best of all are the two blanks: in gameweeks 31 and 34 City had no fixture, yet Haaland stayed the most-captained pick both times, the armband left on him by squads set early and never revisited. With him sitting out, it fell instead to the crowd's favourite vice-captains: João Pedro in gameweek 31 (2 pts), Bruno Fernandes in gameweek 34 (5 pts).