The fallout from Sergio Aguero’s injury continues to be felt as many of his sellers find themselves with considerable funds still to spend. Our hot topics cover some of the poorly and well-priced options, while the community article section includes a fresh set of differentials for those looking to take a weekend punt. Our Members get creative and construct Tables focussing on a number of topics from attacking options and workaholic goalkeepers to those Manchester City players hoping to keep the goals flowing at the Etihad. Elsewhere, it’s all change at the top of some of our most prominent community leagues.
The Community Articles
Buoyed by seeing returns from two of last week’s three punts, The Puntmaster returned to offer up three more differentials.
The Community Champions are also on a high. Dusan Citizen managed to beat all three scouts last Gameweek, a feat this week’s champ JonnyCO7 will be keen to emulate.
Selecting Chelsea defenders is becoming something of a tricky task though as festive rotation begins to bite. The Consensus was on hand to assess the likely rests over December, with John Terry his tip as the most secure Chelsea defender.
Ludo dropped by with this intriguing analysis for those with two goalkeepers from the same team, while Gilles was back with his regular attacking potential article, looking ahead to the festive run in and beyond. Fantasynicks, meanwhile, assessed his key premium and budget options for Gameweek 17.
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.
The Hottest Topics
With a single point for Leighton Baines and just five points for Diego Costa in Gameweek 16, there were plenty of community members starting to question whether their premium players are providing value for money.
Baines’s decline in recent weeks seems to be caused by Kevin Mirallas’ return from injury, according to Athletico Timbo who provided these key statistics showing how the Belgian actively takes away the England defender’s bonus point and assist potential. But with Mirallas picking up an ankle injury during Monday’s clash with QPR, Tinkerman considered whether a Baines renaissance could be on the cards should the Belgian remain on the sidelines over the festive period.
Expected to be on the bench for United tomorrow, Angel Di Maria could potentially provide value for money – he’s now priced at just 9.5m, after peaking at £10.2m in Gameweeks 8. Daniel wondered just how his imminent return will affect a team that has been excelling in terms of results during his absence.
QPR’s Charlie Austin is already proving exceptional value for money. Priced at just 6m, he has scored eight times this season and looks unstoppable at home. However, Shifty is concerned that even Austin may struggle to breach a WBA defence that travels to Loftus Road following back-to-back clean sheets.
At home, Swansea’s Gylfi Sigurdsson is proving to be worth every penny of his 7m price tag. But with six success blanks away, McNulty says his owners ought to be considering improving on their 5th midfielder to ensure he can be benched when Swansea are on the road.
John Obi Mikel may be priced kindly at 4.4m but with just under 300 minutes playing time this season, he is arguably not even worth that budget tag. Berbinho’s Forehead wonders whether despite his meagre Fantasy returns Mikel could be the answer to Liverpool’s current malaise and add some much needed steel to their midfield.
Although the Chelsea man will not be featuring in the African Cup of Nations (ACoN) this January after his Nigeria side failed to qualify, there are plenty of other Premier League players set to pack their suitcases. Spatburgender popped by to give the latest run down of those who are set to participate at the ACoN or at the Asia Cup, which also takes place in the New Year.
One of the busiest discussions this week was sparked by Demel, who asked the community for their season ambitions, whether it be beating a rival, achieving a high rank or just one single great Gameweek.
Finally, D1sable put a call out for the community to post their results from using Gargamel‘s Gargatron tool, which uncovers some telling truths about our real Fantasy Football performance. D1sable’s results can be found here and reveal that he is certainly someone to ask for captaincy advice.
The Members Tables
Shots in the box was Hodgson87’s guide for his Members Table looking at team offensive statistics. This has a global filter with more recent form recommended.
Vougiedipond has taken a look at some weak defences that are making their goalkeepers earn their money. This is sorted by goal attempts conceded in the box.
Meanwhile, with Aguero out of the picture I’ve taken a look at Manchester City’s other potential goal scorers.
If you’re a member and are yet to get to grips with the custom statistics tables, you can view this movie for an explanation of how they work. Also, remember to tag them so that people can find the tables with ease.
The Community Leagues
The Tinkerman continues to top the FFScout Moderators and Contributors league, eight points ahead of myself, after I jumped into second place following Gameweek 16.
But in two other prominent community leagues it was all change at the top. Rasping Drive has been toppled from the summit of the Puffinboy Memorial Cup, to be replaced by Ciaran Lamont. While Adam Johnson is the new leader of the FFS Dead Zone league.
Elsewhere, Red Lightning brings us news of a January Wildcard League (352700-723212) in the Fantasy Premier League game. Scoring starts in Gameweek 21 and aims to see how effective our wildcards are.
The safety score was 42 in TorresMagic‘s Last Man Standing competition, which means there are 649 teams left after 40 were eliminated.
In @OFCProdigy‘s Scout Picks Challenge competition, loosely based on our own Scout Picks, Walsh, Mookie and Timtastic03 are among the high flyers.
