This article is part of our The Armband series.
The international break was a bit more taxing on Premier League players, as some would have guessed, and that led to nine clubs failing to find the back of the net. While the talk was about Chelsea's surprising home defeat, Liverpool stuck their nose back in the race for the top four with the help of Manchester City drawing at Arsenal. It was set to be an all-time bad gameweek, but the final match on Sunday provided some lackluster defending to help Sergio Aguero and Theo Walcott find the score sheet, among others.
While Gameweek 30 was quite slow, there still weren't many surprises outside of the match at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool overpowered in the Merseyside derby, Spurs battled for three points at Burnley and Leicester continued their turnaround since Claudio Ranieri was sacked.
The Chelsea situation could get even more interesting on Wednesday as they host Manchester City. Diego Costa played the full 90 minutes against Crystal Palace, but with yellow cards in back-to-back matches, his trust level is waning. In his place steps the one and only… Jamie Vardy? The Leicester striker has been on fire with four goals and two assists in the last four matches and will get another favorable home fixture against Sunderland on Tuesday.
But the club everyone's focus will be on is Liverpool after they handled Everton fairly easily. The Reds host Bournemouth, which is harder than it appears on the surface as the Cherries have taken points in their last four league matches and only allowed one goal in their last two away. Still, that's not a good enough reason not to back Philippe Coutinho coming off a solid match, or even Roberto Firmino or Divock Origi. The hope is that the Sadio Mane injury doesn't hurt too much like when he went away in January for the Africa Cup of Nations.
And with Liverpool still being hard to trust, Alexis Sanchez may be the most popular option for the armband at the Emirates against West Ham. He didn't do much against Man City, but I wouldn't count on him struggling in another. Swansea are at home again but get a tough test with Spurs, and the Gylfi Sigurdsson train looks to be slowing down. He hasn't scored or assisted in the last two matches, which is a bit rare for him.
Maybe the toughest part to Gameweek 31 will be finding a differential play, as home sides Burnley (v. Stoke) and Watford (v. West Brom) find themselves with difficult tests and top goal scorer Troy Deeney missed the weekend match due to illness. One team remains in sight as Southampton host Crystal Palace. It'd be nice if Manolo Gabbiadini returned to the pitch, as no one else can be trusted as a captain for the Saints. Dusan Tadic and Nathan Redmond remain the most active, but Gabbiadini is the guy that converted crosses into goals over the past month. Hull are a similar stretch with a nice match against Middlesbrough. Abel Hernandez and Oumar Niasse both started over the weekend, but it was Andrew Robertson and Andrea Ranocchia who found the back of the net for the Tigers.
Going back to that Swansea match, Spurs are still playing well without Harry Kane and numerous other injuries on the roster. Vincent Janssen can't be trusted, but Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen are still making plays, while Eric Dier will be hoping to bank on his form from last match. The worry for Eriksen is that he hasn't scored or assisted in his last five road matches, so captain him at your own risk.
Also, this guy Zlatan Ibrahimovic is back from suspension if you're interested. Personally, I'll sit this one out as Ibra hasn't scored in his last three home matches (Hull, Watford and Bournemouth).
