With Gameweek 18 in our wake, we warm up for the festive period with our weekly look at the Sky Sports Fantasy Football game. As always, we cast an eye over 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 19.
Gameweek 18 Man of the Match Awards
Listed below are the players who 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 |
| Burnley vs Southampton | Tom Heaton |
| Chelsea vs Hull | Eden Hazard |
| Crystal Palace vs Stoke | Yannick Bolasie |
| Leicester vs Man City | Samir Nasri |
| Sunderland vs West Ham | Stewart Downing |
| West Brom vs Aston Villa | Craig Gardner |
| Arsenal vs Newcastle | Olivier Giroud |
| Man United vs Liverpool | David de Gea |
| Swansea vs Tottenham | Harry Kane |
| Everton vs QPR | Ross Barkley |
Eden Hazard and Yannick Bolasie were at it again and are now first and second in the MoTM table with a total of six and five awards respectively. Stewart Downing picked up his fourth award, taking him to the fourth highest scoring midfielder overall – a real bargain at just 6.2m. Samir Nasri and Ross Barkley both hit form this week and were good options last season, keep an eye out for these two in the coming weeks.
Gameweek 18 Bonus Points
Only two goalkeepers achieved bonus points from collecting five or more saves. Costel Pantilimon and David de Gea were the men in question, with De Gea also keeping a clean sheet and picking up the MoTM award for a total of 14 points. Robert Green still leads the way for keepers with 14 bonus points.
In defence, it was slim pickings with only seven players grabbing bonus, all seven for tackles completed. Dejan Lovren and Martin Skrtel are the top performing defenders in terms of bonus with 14 additional points so far.
In midfield there were 11 beneficiaries in total: eight for tackling and four for passes, with the rejuvenated Marouane Fellaini the only man to earn both. Overall, Cesc Fabregas and Yaya Toure are now hot on Morgan Schneiderlin’s heels and are just two points behind the Frenchman’s trend-setting 28 points.
Up front, Harry Kane and Robin Van Persie both earned two points for tackles after winning the ball back four times, a welcome addition to their owners.
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 |
| Aguero | Man City | 9.8 | 17.1% |
| Fabregas | Chelsea | 8.6 | 5.7% |
| Di Maria | Man United | 8.6 | 3.7% |
Once again, it’s the same three players most transferred out from last week. Fabregas, though, is set to return after serving a one-match suspension, whilst Di Maria could be set to return to the bench for United after recovering from a hamstring problem.
Top Transfers In
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Sanchez | Arsenal | 9.5 | 5.9% |
| Costa | Chelsea | 9.5 | 5.8% |
| Hazard | Chelsea | 8.9 | 5.4% |
This trio are already amongst the highest owned players in the Sky game and their popularity continues to rise. Sanchez and Costa featured in last week’s most popular trades in and brought home the points, whilst Hazard ousts Wayne Rooney to make the top three after racking up the Fantasy returns in recent weeks.
My Team
Fabianski
Bertrand Hutton Robertson
Hazard Silva Downing Sigurdsson
Rooney© Giroud Costa
ITB: 0.3m
Transfers remaining: 22/40
Last week’s points: 83
Overall points: 943
Rank: 950
Notes
Up into the top 1,000 for the second time this season with a bumper 83-point week – hopefully I can stay there and continue to climb. Hazard’s 30-point captain score, combined with Downing’s 11 and the inspired transfer of Olivier Giroud bagged me another 17 points. I was all set for Aaron Ramsey and Yaya Toure but the former’s hamstring injury put paid to his acquisition, whilst I opted for David Silva in the City midfield due to Yaya’s upcoming trip to the African Cup of Nations.
At the moment I’m quite happy with my team and have a couple of decent differentials, the only players I worry about not owning are Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez and Raheem Sterling due to their high ownership and subsequent potential to hurt me. Andrew Robertson’s lack of pitch time is a concern but the options in that bracket are hardly inspiring, I’ll stick by him and hope his quality earns him a first-team spot in the near future.
Captain plan
With a total of four match days (the 10 Boxing Day fixtures are included as part of Gameweek 19), Fantasy managers have the chance for four captains this week if you utilise your transfers to bring in a new skipper each week. Personally I’m going to stick with the zero transfer approach and get three captains as detailed below.
For Saturday, I’ll stick with Wayne Rooney, who plays away at Villa Park and hope Di Marias return pushes his captain further up the pitch after last week’s central midfield role.
On Sunday, I’ll leave the armband on Rooney and instead give it to either Costa or Hazard for Chelsea’s trip to Stoke on Monday night football.
This means that I’ll be backing Jose Mourinho’s men for the Boxing Day home encounter with West Ham and I think provides the most efficient route around the double Gameweek.
This also sets us up for Gameweek 20, when Chelsea play on the first matchday on Sunday.
The Fantasy Football Scout League
Once again, we’re running our own Fantasy Football Scout League this season and we’re currently topping the Private League rankings. 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 current Huddersfield manager Chris Powell, and asking him for his #One2Eleven.
