Sky Sports Focus – Gameweek 17

It’s time for our weekly assessment of the Sky Sports Fantasy game this Thursday evening. As always, we analyse the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, bonus point beneficiaries, the transfer trends, the Watchlist and a look at the Scout team and our future plans.

Gameweek 16 Man of the Match Awards

Listed below are the players that caught the eye of the Sky Sports reporters from last weekend’s fixtures achieving the Man of the Match award (worth an additional five points).

Popular pre-season selections Memphis Depay, Eden Hazard and Harry Kane popped up this week and all three look relatively good options moving forward if they can keep up their form. Kane, in particular, is the stand out player at present with a massive 53 points returned in his last four outings. Marko Arnautovic (5.5m) and Joshua King (5.1M) have both featured on our Watchlist in recent weeks and continue to look solid options in the budget midfield bracket. Jamie Vardy now has five MoTM awards to his name and draws level with team-mate Riyad Mahrez at the top of the pile.

Gameweek 16 Bonus Points

Six goalkeepers picked up bonus this week – Costel Pantilimon was the highest scorer after making seven saves and keeping a clean sheet to bring home nine points. In-form Jack Butland leads the way in the bonus stakes with ten additional points.

In defence, eight players grabbed bonus, four for tackles and four for passes completed. Tottenham’s Eric Dier was the closest to grabbing both, missing out by just eight completed passes. Simon Francis is top of the pile with 14 points split almost equally between passing and tackles.

In midfield, there were 16 beneficiaries in total: nine for tackling and nine for passes. Chelsea midfield duo Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas claimed both and Fabregas is now the game’s highest bonus earner overall, with 24 points so far.

Two forwards also picked up bonus this week, with Arouna Kone and Heung-Min Son both making four challenges to earn tackling bonus.

Fantasy Football Scout members can access all information regarding bonus points using player stats and clicking the Sky Sports tab.

The Transfer Trends

Top Transfers Out

Dimitri Payet and Anthony Martial feature for the second week running as Fantasy managers continue to ship the duo in droves. Graziano Pelle is suspended for the weekend whilst Vincent Kompany looks set to miss out for the next two weeks at least. Alexis Sanchez is a somewhat surprise inclusion here ahead of Norwich away but with a lack of returns in the Premier League, a convenient swap to Harry Kane last Sunday looks the most likely reason as shown below.

Top Transfers In

The top four here is made up entirely of in-form forwards and it’s hard to argue against any of them as an option. Sergio Aguero scored on his return from injury and has some catching up to do in the race for the Golden Boot. As suggested last week, Dele Alli makes the top five transfers in off the back of his recent form, though he’s now suspended for the weekend after collecting his fifth caution of the campaign against West Ham.

Top Five Captains Picked

Watchlist

Here I aim to highlight a few differential players with low ownership that I think could be good options for the next six fixtures. These will be looking at three specific price brackets to cater for our available budget. These names evolve with fixtures and form and offer fantasy managers a nudge in hopefully the right direction.

My Team

Gomes
Monreal Cathcart Nyom
Ayew Mahrez Mane Cabaye(c) De Bruyne
Lukaku Sanchez

ITB: 2.6m
Transfers remaining: 24/40
Last week’s points: 52
Overall points: 736
Rank: 4,497

Notes

A mediocre week with only Andre Ayew (10) and Romelu Lukaku as skipper (24) returning any points of note. The decision to go without Harry Kane really hurt my overall rank and will likely continue to do so, as I’m going to be stubborn and stick with the plan as he doesn’t feature in my current captain strategy. The acquisition of Sergio Aguero is my next priority and the misfiring Sadio Mane is in line for the chop, although it’s with a heavy heart as he is one of my favourite players to own – I’ll likely find an excuse to get him back at some point in the future.

Captain Plan

Yohan Cabaye is my captain for Saturday’s matches as he squares up against his ex-club Newcastle. He was unlucky not to get in the points last week and I feel he’s a fairly solid option on this matchday, although if given the choice, the in-form Lukaku would be my preferred selection.

A switch to Alexis Sanchez, fresh after his midweek brace, looks a good choice as the Gunners travel to Carrow Road. This works out really well as Arsenal play on matchday one in Gameweek 18 at home to Sunderland – i just hope Arsene Wenger doesn’t target this game for the ‘rest’ he says he has penciled in for the Chilean.

The Fantasy Football Scout League

Once again, we’re running our own Fantasy Football Scout League this season and were sitting second in the rankings at present. With a £1000 prize to the winner, you’d be mad not to get involved. To join, visit Sky Sports Fantasy Football and key in League Name: FFScout, League Code: 8009000.

The Fantasy Football Club

This Friday The Fantasy Football Club show, where you can catch new host Max Rushden and Paul Merson at 18:00 SkySports 1 HD where they will be discussing the upcoming week’s Fantasy Football, chatting to former Man City midfielder Steve Lomas and asking him for his #One2Eleven.