We now turn our attentions to the Sky Sports Focus article this Thursday afternoon. As always, we assess the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, bonus point beneficiaries, the transfer trends and also cast an eye over the Scout team and our future plans.
Gameweek 33 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).
| Fixture | MoTM |
| Everton vs Arsenal | Alex Iwobi |
| Chelsea vs West Ham | Manuel Lanzini |
| Crystal Palace vs Leicester | Daniel Drinkwater |
| Watford vs Stoke | Ibrahim Afellay |
| West Brom vs Norwich | Robbie Brady |
| Swansea vs Aston Villa | Ashley Williams |
| Newcastle vs Sunderland | Georginio Wijnaldum |
| Southampton vs Liverpool | Sadio Mane |
| Man City vs Man United | Chris Smalling |
| Tottenham vs Bournemouth | Harry Kane |
A couple of defenders, seven midfielders and one forward made up the honor role last week. The budget to mid-price midfielders had a field day here, with Manuel Lanzini and Daniel Drinkwater the pick of the bunch. The latter has now earned back-to-back awards and now has four for the season, which is the same amount as Harry Kane and Sergio Aguero, and is also the fourth best value player in the entire game with 29 points per million.
Gameweek 33 Bonus Points
A pair of goalkeepers picked up bonus last week. Fraser Forster and Vito Mannone were the men in question as both made six saves to grab the points on offer. Leading the way are Petr Cech and Jack Butland, with 16 bonus points.
In defence, eight players grabbed bonus; six for tackles and two for completed passes. Tottenham centre-back Kevin Wimmer failed to complete a single tackle but was far and away the best passer of the ball at the back over the Gameweek, with 88 completed passes. Full-backs Simon Francis and Erik Pieters currently lead the way for defenders with 22 bonus points apiece.
In midfield, there were 15 beneficiaries in total: 13 for tackling and two for passes.Tottenham’s Moussa Dembele was the closest to picking up both after missing out on extra bonus by just three completed passes. Cesc Fabregas is dominating the bonus tables with 54 points overall from passing and tackling.
Jordan Ayew did his best to help the Villains’ cause after completing six challenges to earn himself tackling bonus and fly the flag for forwards.
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
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Butland | Stoke | 4.9 | 20.2% |
| Hart | Man City | 5.8 | 5.5% |
| Alderweireld | Tottenham | 6.5 | 4.9% |
| Sterling | Man City | 8.5 | 4.1% |
| Cech | Arsenal | 5.9 | 4% |
Injuries clearly play a major factor here, with Jack Butland ruled out for the season and Raheem Sterling facing up to six weeks on the sidelines. Joe Hart could be back for City in time for their midweek Champions League clash with PSG, however, whilst Toby Alderweireld has recovered from illness and Petr Cech may well be set to return for the weekend.
Top Transfers In
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Lloris | Tottenham | 5.4 | 8.5% |
| Schmeichel | Leicester | 4.6 | 8.3% |
| Payet | West Ham | 6.2 | 5.2% |
| Kane | Tottenham | 9.3 | 4.5% |
| De Gea | Man United | 5.9 | 4.3% |
The Butland exodus has increased interest in Hugo Lloris, Kasper Schmeichel and David de Gea for the run-in as many freshen up their options in goal. Dimitri Payet and Harry Kane fine form, both domestically and on the international stage, looks too good to ignore, with West Ham and Spurs still having plenty to play for over the final few fixtures.
Top Five Captains Picked
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Aguero | Man City | 10 | 15.25% |
| Kane | Tottenham | 9.3 | 8.97% |
| Vardy | Leicester | 7.3 | 6.31% |
| Sanchez | Arsenal | 9.7 | 5.31% |
| Lukaku | Everton | 8.8 | 5.23% |
The average amount of transfers remaining amongst the top 10 Sky managers currently is 3.9, whilst the top 100 average is 4.33, the top 1,000 is 4.99 and the top 5,000 is 5.27.
Watchlist
Here I aim to highlight a few differential players with low ownership that I think could be good options in the coming weeks to help you climb the rankings. These will be looked at in 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.
| Budget | Mid-Price | Premium | |
| Defender | Patrick van Aanholt, 5.1m, 0.9% | Alberto Moreno, 6.2m, 1.2% | Laurent Koscielny, 7.8m, 5% |
| Midfielder | Manuel Lanzini, 5m, 0.9% | Aaron Lennon, 5.5m, 0.5% | Roberto Firmino, 8m, 5% |
| Forward | Troy Deeney, 7.1m, 4.3% | Danny Welbeck, 8.3m, 0.7% | Daniel Sturridge, 9.4m, 1.7% |
My Team
Hart
Cathcart Dawson Dier
Alli Fabregas Mahrez Payet
Aguero Kane© Vardy
ITB: 2.7m
Transfers remaining: 8/40
Last week’s points: 95
Overall points: 1,830
Rank: 666
Notes
I climb into the top 1,000 thanks in the main to Harry Kane as skipper netting a massive 40 points. The other success stories were Cesc Fabregas with 13 points, Riyad Mahrez with 14 and Eric Dier with nine.
With just seven Gameweeks to go, I’m in a fairly respectable position. Transfer-wise, I’m doing far better than the average and am therefore hopeful of a strong finish. Having said that, working out a plan to maximize the use of my remaining eight transfers is easier said than done, with extra matches, quantity of captain swaps and the inevitable injuries/rotation to worry about. Given the low ceiling for defenders and goalkeepers to return big points, I will be ignoring this area completely for the rest of the season unless I need to free up cash. Alongside this I’m going to employ a “go for broke” strategy in order to break into the top 100 and will be ditching the highly owned Harry Kane, Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy and even Sergio Aguero in the coming weeks in order to make significant moves, one way or another!
Captain Plan
For Saturday’s round of fixtures, I’ll stick by Harry Kane and back his red-hot form to overcome the tricky tie away to Liverpool. I’ll be subbing him out on Sunday for Romelu Lukaku, in order to bank the captain swap for next week.
This means I’ll go into the following week with a free choice of captain, with Sergio Aguero already the stand-out candidate as City host West Brom at the Etihad.
The Fantasy Football Scout League
Once again, we’re running our own Fantasy Football Scout League this season and are sitting in first place 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 and asking former Spurs captain Gary Mabbutt and former Barcelona defender Abelardo for their #One2Eleven.
