Enzo Maresca confirmed on Tuesday night that Erling Haaland (£13.7m) is fit to start against Aston Villa on Saturday, having been an unused substitute in Manchester City's 5-1 Champions League win against AEK Athens.

That immediately puts him at the top of the captaincy contenders this weekend. He has eight goals from seven league games this season, but has not scored in his past four Premier League appearance against Aston Villa.

Chelsea attackers headline the list of alternative options, with Joao Pedro (£7.9m) their best fantasy asset to date, with five goals and three assists. Cole Palmer (£9.7m) has the higher ceiling, though, given that he takes penalties.

Best midfield replacements for Saka, Semenyo and Szoboszlai?

Arsenal's Bukayo Saka (£9.6m) picked up a quadricps injury in the Champions League on Wednesday night, to add to the injury woes of our template fantasy midfielders, with Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.8m) and City's Antoine Semenyo (£8.3m) already ruled out long term.

There is plenty of interest in City's midfield, with a hope that rotation will be eased with Semenyo ruled out.

Rayan Cherki (£8m) is seeing the most transfer traffic, but it was Phil Foden (£6.8m) who shone with a hat-trick in midweek. Jeremy Doku (£7.5m) has three goal involvements in three games.

Is it still worth investing in Brighton?

Absolutely. Three of the top five players in the game are Brighton assets. Out-of-position defender Maxim de Cuyper (£5.3m) leads the way, with Pascal Gross (£6.2m) one point behind him - level with Haaland - and centre-back Luka Vuskovic (£5.1m) in fourth.

Add into the mix Bart Verbruggen (£4.6m) among the top three goalkeepers and Charalampos Kostoulas (£5.7m) in the top three strikers.

They are showing all the hallmarks of being season keepers, with the Seagulls scoring a league-leading 23 goals and conceding a league-lowest of five.

Should you start Gross and De Cuyper at Anfield?

Yes. I know it is deceiving seeing De Cuyper listed as a defender, but he is effectively a £5.1m attacking winger who is also eligible for clean sheet points. He is the highest-scoring asset in the game, with five goal involvements in seven games, the most of any defender. Consider him fixture-proof.

Gross is another player difficult to bench, especially when you consider he is on penalties. No other player can match his nine goal involvements, and he ranks second for key passes (19) and big chances created (six).

Liverpool have yet to win at home in the league this season, scoring two goals and conceding five.

Who are the best DefCon defenders to target?

Vuskovic has to be at the top of the list for defensive contribution points - or 'DefCons', with Brighton keeping a leading five clean sheets in seven games this season.

He has secured the two-point defensive contribution bonus in four of those games, while also notching two goal involvements, with a leading four big chances among defenders.

Leeds United's Tarik Muharemovic (£5m) is also on the list, hitting DefCons on four occasions. He got his second assist of the season last time out, having had six shots in the box.

Coventry City's Bobby Thomas (£4m) leads the way with 84 defensive contributions and has had 10 shots in the penalty area.

Should you replace Gvardiol?

City's Josko Gvardiol produced one goal, two clean sheets and three assists in his opening five games, but has frustrated his owners by being benched against Liverpool and Ipswich Town in gameweek six and seven.

However, with reports that Nico O'Reilly is struggling with a back problem, Gvardiol could be set for a run of games. With this in mind, I would keep hold of him unless you are sitting on a stack of transfers and have no other issues in your team.