After the international break, we cast our minds back to Gameweek 8 and bring you the stats that matter. We assess the Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, bonus point beneficiaries and the current market trends before taking a look at the Scout team and our plans for Gameweek ten.

Gameweek 8 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).

Papiss Cisse, Diafra Sakho and Eden Hazard all picked up their second MoTM of the season last week and all look well placed to continue to deliver in the coming weeks. Andrew Robertson is really staking a claim for a position in our XI’s – at just 4.0m, he’s a real enabler for pricier options elsewhere and carries a strong attacking threat from his left wing-back position – Hull’s fixtures don’t look great, though and keeping tabs on him from afar might be the best policy at present.

Gameweek 8 Bonus Points

Two goalkeepers achieved bonus points from collecting five or more saves – Ben Foster and Brad Guzan were the men in question, both just hitting the threshold with five stops apiece. Robert Green leads the way for keepers, with six additional points so far.

In defence, 11 players grabbed bonus, seven for tackles and five for passes completed – premium option Vincent Kompany was the man to earn both in an impressive outing and he now leads the way for defenders with ten additional bonus points.

In midfield there were 17 beneficiaries in total: nine for tackling and eight for passes. Mathieu Flamini was perhaps the closest to getting both, falling short by 12 passes. Morgan Schneiderlin is the overall bonus king earning 14 so far.

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

Poor form and injury doubts have spelled the end for Dejan Lovren’s spell in 6.75% of teams, however the Croatian could yet feature this weekend if he can shake his back injury. Aaron Ramsey is set to miss the weekend’s match but could be back in time for Gameweek 11. Hugo Lloris pulled out of France internationals with a groin complaint and goes into the weekend as a doubt. Callum Chambers is serving a one-match ban against Hull whilst John Stones is set for a spell on the sidelines after going under the knife.

Top Transfers In

Southampton’s defense is again attracting suitors this week with Nathaniel Clyne joining his team mate Ryan Bertrand in the top five transferred in. Angel di Maria, Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa join those two as their phenomenal form continues.

My Team

Fabianski
Moore Hutton Van Aanholt
Hazard Sterling Eriksen Tadic Di Maria
Aguero Costa©

ITB: 0.6m
Transfers remaining: 29/40
Last week’s points: 72
Overall points: 427
Rank: 3,218

Notes

Back to form last Gameweek with a pretty decent 72 points earned. Although my budget backline was a washout, my attacking seven all returned points with the exception of Dusan Tadic. My two captains Sergio Aguero and Diego Costa both picked up 14 points, which went along way to my overall score, but perhaps even more pleasing was my decision to stick by Eden Hazard and Christian Eriksen, who both picked up 12 points.

Having said that, both Hazard and Eriksen may have played their last match for my team with Cesc Fabregas and one of Danny Welbeck/Theo Walcott my choice of replacements. Fabregas is just a force of nature at the moment and even though Hazard outscored him this week (a rarity) he still picked up passing bonus and an assist to keep ticking over and it’s a trade I have been putting off for a while. With Eriksen I’m tempted to stick for now due to their good fixtures after the Etihad trip and bring in Walcott once he’s fully up and running, however I may be tempted into the early Welbeck option as they also have good fixtures, starting this week at home to Hull. One for me to ponder on Saturday morning.

Captain plan

For Saturday I’ll probably keep the armband on Diego Costa and play safe. I could use a free swap to move it to Sergio Aguero but I wonder if that’s me just trying to be too clever.

On Sunday, I’ll captain Raheem Sterling and hope for a reaction from the under-fire Liverpool man – against the sloth-like backline of QPR he couldn’t ask for a better platform to deliver.

I’m not going for the extra captain option on Monday night’s game for two reasons. Firstly, I can’t spare the transfers after already blazing through so many so will probably need to use more in the coming weeks and secondly Liverpool play on Saturday Gameweek 11, whilst Man United feature on the Sunday, meaning I would need to use further transfers if I wanted two captains that week.

The Fantasy Football Scout League

Once again, we’re running our own Fantasy Football Scout League this season and were currently toping the Private League rankings as per usual. 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 Fenners and Merse at 18:30 SkySports One HD where they will be discussing the upcoming week’s Fantasy Football, quizzing former England man Kieron Dyer and asking current Southampton full-back Ryan Bertrand for his #One2Eleven.