Sky Sports Focus – Gameweek 2

Heading onto Gameweek 2, we asses our options in the Sky Sports game, bringing you the usual info, including Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, bonus point beneficiaries and the current market trends, before taking a look at the Scout team and our devilish plans to rise to the top.

Gameweek 1 Man of the Match Awards

These were 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).

Four defenders, five midfielders and one forward picked up the awards on the opening day. MoTM machine Curtis Davies has started to churn them out already – even though his centre-back partner James Chester grabbed the winner, the reporters favored the Tigers skipper. Budget option Liam Moore (3.5m) grabbed the gong to get off to surprisingly good start and stake his claim for our team sheets. Ramsey, Sterling and Fabregas earned their first awards of the season and I would expect many more to follow.

Gameweek 1 Bonus Points

Only two goalkeepers achieved bonus points for making five or more saves. Alan McGregor and Simon Mignolet were the two in question with five saves apiece, McGregor also added a penalty save and a clean sheet to his haul to earn himself a very tidy 12 points.

In defence, 17 players fetched bonus, eight for tackles and 11 for passes completed – English duo Phil Jones and Callum Chambers were the two to achieve both. Arsenal new boy Chambers actually had completed the highest number of passes of any defender, with 86, and if he can nail down a permanent spot looks a fantastic option at just 4.9m. However, with Per Mertesacker due back this weekend, it remains to be seen if he can keep out the World Cup winner.

In midfield there were 18 beneficiaries in total – eight for tackling and 13 for passes. Central midfield all-rounders Aaron Ramsey, Mark Noble and Mikel Arteta were the three to pick up bonus for both – in fact only David Silva and Santi Cazorla gained bonus whilst playing in an advanced position, highlighting which players are likely to continue to benefit.

The only forward to earn bonus was Crystal Palace front man Marouane Chamakh, who managed five tackles to pick up two additional points for his tireless endeavors up top for the Eagles.

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

Clearly the sales of Ross Barkley and Luke Shaw are to correct the wrongs made before the season even started, with both players going into Gameweek 1 with injuries. Robert Snodgrass lasted just 40 minutes into his debut for the Tigers after picking up a bad knee injury, forcing several Fantasy managers into an early-unwanted midfield trade. Alexis Sanchez and Tim Howard also find themselves on this list somewhat surprisingly; I can only suggest this may be in an effort to raise funds in order to bring in some of the names listed below….

Top Transfers In

All five of the names above started the season in style and it’s hard to argue against bringing any of them in at this stage, with form seemingly often trumping fixtures. Diego Costa and Raheem Sterling are now the two highest owned players in the game, both just with just over 30% ownership and non-owners will be holding their breath at the weekend with Costa’s home tie against newly promoted Leicester looking the most likely to return significant points.

My Team

Fabianski
Moore Hutton Van Aanholt
Mata Hazard Toure Ramsey Mutch
Rooney Costa

ITB: 0.7
Transfers remaining 39/40
Last week’s points: 80
Overall points: 80
Rank: 12,984

Notes

A solid, if unspectacular, start for the team including some pleasant surprises, with all three of my budget defenders chipping in with points – Moore grabbed MoTM, Hutton a clean sheet and Van Aanholt an assist. Over to the midfield, then, which was a big letdown, aside from the essential Aaron Ramsey. Mata, Mutch and Hazard all failed to deliver, with my decision to go with Hazard over Fabregas perhaps haunting me most – I knew he was tailor-made for the Sky game due to his likelihood of passing bonus and MoTMs thanks to his creative influence but chose to pay the extra for Hazard’s proven history and penalties – hopefully this will level out quickly and not force me into a transfer.

Gylfi Sigurdsson and Raheem Sterling, two players I had in multiple drafts leading up to Gameweek 1, also punished me but I’ll keep an eye from afar for now and try to strap my knee down. Yaya Toure, although unimpressive, churned out passing bonus as per usual and will remain in my team for now, though I must admit his lacklustre performances are a concern, and over the coming weeks I will be hoping for a vast improvement.

If you followed my Captain plan of Rooney->Sturridge->Costa you would have netted yourself 42 points, showing just how important captain strategy can be, as it accounts for over half my total points!

Captain plan

Diego Costa is my captain for his match at home to Leicester, and then I will switch the armband to Wayne Rooney, who plays away to Sunderland. I will then use a transfer to swap Rooney for a Man City forward for their heavyweight clash at the Etihad against Liverpool, giving me three captains once again. This also sets me up for Gameweek 3 as Man City play on the Saturday at home to Stoke. Hopefully that City forward will be a fit and raring to go Sergio Aguero. However, if he’s on the bench it will give me a dilemma as I have to take the Stoke game into consideration to ascertain which forward is likely to start that game as well… answers on a post card please.

The Fantasy Football Scout League

Once more, we’re running our own Fantasy Football Scout League this season and were hoping to top the Private League rankings yet again. With a £1,000 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 Fenners and Merse at 18:30 SkySports One HD where they will be discussing the upcoming week’s Fantasy Football, quizzing former West Ham player Trevor Sinclair and asking Fabien Barthez for his #One2Eleven.