Scout Notes – Gameweek 37 – Wednesday

Edin Dzeko scores twice as City sweep aside Villa to take a significant step towards the title. Yaya Toure chips in with a goal and assist, whilst the City full-backs are also in the points in an emphatic 4-0 win. Goals from Seb Larsson and Fabio Borini help secure Sunderland’s safety as Gus Poyet’s side win for the fourth match in a row:

Dzeko at the Double Again
The Bosnian continued his recent form to help fire City to the verge of the title. Manuel Pellegrini’s side may have missed Sergio Aguero yet again but Dzeko more than made up for his strike partner’s absence by scoring twice and earning the maximum bonus for the second game in a row – serving up a 25-point haul over the double Gameweek. With eight goals and two assists in his last nine appearances, the 7.3-priced striker has stepped up as a key contributor at a time when many of Pellegrini’s main men have been hampered with injuries – as City look to finish the season against West Ham in style and clinch the title, Dzeko’s bandwagon is set to escalate regardless of Aguero’s availability.

Yaya Serves up the Points Once More
Whilst David Silva failed to deliver and Samir Nasri settled for an assist, the Ivorian produced yet another Fantasy masterclass as his relentless season shows no sign of abating. Toure’s goal and assist, allied with a single bonus point, helped his 40% owners to a 17-point double Gameweek total and took the Ivorian onto 235 points for the season. Now up to 20 goals and eight assists, with 10 sets of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) double figures, he’s likely to be the preferred armband choice of many Fantasy managers next Sunday as Pellegrini’s men go for the jugular against Sam Allardyce’s side and attempt to add to their 100-goal haul.

Kolarov and Zabaleta On the Attack
The City full-backs both produced an assist and clean sheet for their owners last night, with the Argentine also serving up a couple of bonus points. The Serbian has now laid on eight assists over his 29 appearances – all the more impressive given that nine of those games have arrived off the bench – whilst Zabaleta’s first assist since December takes his tally to six for the season. The City full-backs sit first and second for assists amongst defenders, and whilst the likes of Toure, Dzeko and Aguero have been the main beneficiaries of Pellegrini’s attacking policy, it’s clear that creativity from deep is also key to the Chilean’s successful system of play.

Black Cats’ Defensive Resilience Key
After the United teamsheet played havoc with our Fantasy plans on Tuesday evening, it was a relief to see Gus Poyet name an unchanged line-up as Sunderland secured their great escape. The Wearsiders chalked up a third successive clean sheet, as Vito Mannone and co racked up the double Gameweek points, with Marcos Alonso proving the pick of the backline bunch after earning an assist and maximum bonus to go along with his pair of clean sheets. The on-loan left-back has now produced two assists in the last four fixtures, and whilst Phil Bardsley sat on the bench yet again as Poyet continued with Santiago Vergini on the right of the back-four, Alonso has backed up his underlying statistics and richly rewarded the 0.3% of Fantasy managers who have gambled on his acquisition.

Borini and Larsson Deliver
Connor Wickham’s run of consecutive returns came to an end last night after the youngster failed to score or assist for the first time in five appearances. Whilst the 4.9-priced forward ended the double Gameweek with seven points to his name after being subbed off around the hour-mark on both occasions, Fabio Borini’s goal and couple of bonus points helped the Italian to a 10-point return over the pair of fixtures. He has now delivered three goals and an assist in his last four, and with a home game against Swansea set to end his season-long loan spell, he could well be in the points once again as Poyet’s side look to finish the season with a fifth straight victory.

Seb Larsson’s assist for Borini’s strike ensured the Swede ended the double as Sunderland’s top-scoring player. Having served up a goal and maximum bonus at Old Trafford on Saturday, Larsson was the Wearsiders main man from an FPL perspective with 17 points – like Alonso, he also proved an outstanding differential, with his ownership less than 1%.