With some old stagers making a return to form last time around, the past week has seen heightened interest in the likes of Wayne Rooney and Yaya Toure in our articles and hot topics. Our community scribes have also been busy predicting the top performers over the festive period and our latest members tables offer further advice as you prepare for the upcoming Gameweek. We look back on the week’s events and also catch up on the latest leaders in our community leagues and reveal who scooped the top cash prize in our inaugural Fantasy Football Exchange league.
The Community Articles
A number of complex issues were discussed this week as our community writers excelled in number crunching, table constructing and performance predicting across all player categories.
Forwards were the main focus of Gilles’ elaborate bout of table-constructing this week, as he aimed to predict attacking potential over the next six Gameweeks. His stunning research looked back at players and teams expected and actual scores in recent weeks to work out how they might perform from now until Christmas. Many of those players highlighted also cropped up in Sticky Mockwell’s look at the best budget strikers to draft in.
Owd Bid Ed’s focus was on midfield and specifically which areas of the centre of the park where teams are strongest and weakest. This also offers some solid predictions on which teams and players are worth investing in over the next six Gameweeks.
For The 3rdTurd, defenders and goalkeepers came under scrutiny in his outstanding research looking at a decade’s worth of Premier League clean sheet data to assess which backlines will be worth investing in when January’s wildcard comes into play.
The Puntmaster was on hand to focus on more pressing matters this Gameweek and serve up his latest trio of differential punts, one of which proved to be particularly controversial.
Elsewhere, Beavis emerged victorious in this week’s Scout Picks Community Champion vote. He will take on the Scouts this weekend and hope to mirror the success of recent champions and get the better of one or more of myself, Paul and Mark.
Don’t forget, if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article. We also offer £25 to the writer of the most popular article each month.
The Hottest Topics
Last weekend we saw some premium midfield options make a stake for our affections. Yaya Toure’s goal against Swansea was on the cards given an upturn in his goal attempts but, asks Wakey, is he a genuine option for Fantasy managers?
Meanwhile Wayne Rooney’s winner against Arsenal put him in the spotlight again and prompted us to ask whether the Manchester United man is ready to smash the frontline template dominated by Sergio Aguero and Diego Costa? Carrick Doesn’t Deserve Fellaini remains unconvinced and believes Rooney has become boring.
Costa also featured in our hot topic on Chelsea options as the West London side hopes to continue exploiting a fine run of fixtures. With Oscar, Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas also to consider, there was plenty to discuss.
Chelsea stars look key to success in the Ultimate Fantasy Premier League game, which has two transfer windows and a loan system. Ahead of the season’s second transfer window, in January, Greenwindmill has been delving into the UFPL statistics to discover that Costa is not such a hot prospect in this game.
Renewed interest in premium priced players such as Rooney has also led to a heightened focus on budget and mid-priced assets to act as makeweights. Priced at 6.4m Alex Oxlade Chamberlain is among those we should be considering, says JustBetter.
The Members Tables
For those still undecided on Chelsea options, I’ve compiled this table looking at the most attacking options, sorted by shots in the box. There’s an open time frame on this so feel free to tinker with performances for the season and more recently.
Members are urged to use the vote button to flag up any tables they find interesting. The most popular table is currently Doosra’s Deadly Assassins, which provides an excellent run down of the most potent attackers.
More information about our members tables is available via this movie. Also, remember to use the category tags on any tables you create so that people can find the tables they want with ease.
The Community Leagues
In TorresMagic‘s Last Man Standing competition, conorm121 hit the top score in Gameweek 12 with 73. There are now 826 teams left after 52 were eliminated.
Argentina proved unstoppable as they claimed the inaugural FFS UEFA Hockey World Cup crown, seeing off New Zealand in a nail-biting final.
Pablothedog was the winner of the Fantasy Football Scout Gameweek 12 league in the Fantasy Football Exchange game. He scooped £82.96 for his weekend’s work. As mentioned in this week’s ScoutCast, he also ran away with the top two placings in Mondogoal this week, pocketing over £200. The guy’s got a gift.
Elsewhere in our community leagues, there was little change at the top with Tinkerman still leading the FFScout Moderators and Contributors league and Rasping Drive continuing to top the FFS Dead Zone, FFS Old Farts Club and Puffinboy Memorial Cup leagues.
