There was plenty of Christmas cheer this week as our members articles and tables offered some tasty statistical treats for high spenders and Scrooges alike. Speaking of Scrooge, there were more than a few cries of “bah, humbug” in our hot topics as the community braced itself for some unwelcome festive rotation. This week has also seen the Scout Picks team take on their highest ranked Community Champion competitor yet and we find out just why one half of our Scoutcast team, in particular, was full of festive spirit.
The Community Articles
Triggerlips won the right to represent the community for the Boxing Day fixtures in the Scout Picks following a close Gameweek 18 Community Champion vote. As our updated Hall of Fame showed, he is the highest achieving community member the Scouts have yet faced.
Meanwhile, we brought you news of a festive break from the Scout Pick Champions Vote. To help us keep up with the busy schedule we are reverting back to the old single Scout Pick method for Gameweeks 19 and 20. Normal service will resume in Gameweek 21.
Following a rare triple blank for The Puntmaster in Gameweek 17, he’s hoping for a better showing from his trio of options for Boxing Day. He also revealed details of a special Christmas competition for budding punters.
Elsewhere, The 3rd Turd delved deep into captaincy statistics to find out if a premium price tag really does translate into a premium point score.
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
Boxing Day is likely to bring further team sheet surprises and there are more to come over the festive schedule, according to our Christmas rotation horror stories discussion. Among the most unlucky managers in years gone by was Snotgrass, who last Christmas earned zero points for his non-playing captain Yaya Toure and vice captain Wayne Rooney.
Normally Parm is another who fears further rotation. His visit to the ghost of Christmas past turned up these interesting statistics about the pitch time some of our key players have enjoyed in previous years. For JimBobMu, Gameweek 17’s hero Pablo Zabaleta is a shoo-in for a rest at some point. There were plenty more names in the frame for rotation in our round-up of the safest and most at-risk players on Boxing Day.
Doosra dropped by with a Christmas premonition and a sack full of statistics showing that Alexis Sanchez is in dire need of a rest. The downturn in his attacking output has certainly been a worry for the Arsenal midfielder’s owners in recent weeks.
Sticking with the Gunners, Bubz had their defender Per Mertesacker in his sights. The German may be a World Cup winner but his recent performances have been nothing short of shocking, says our community regular. There were also plenty of community members gunning for Diego Costa this week after his disappointing Gameweek 17 blank. StephenL15 was among those to chip in later on and reveal ditching the Chelsea striker in Gameweek 8 catapulted him from 159,000th to 149th in the overall rankings
Fortunes Always Smiling was full of festive nostalgia as he invited the community to look back at the season’s highs and lows so far and Normally Parm revealed just how deep an obsession with Fantasy Football can get, when you start to look forward to Boxing Day matches more than Christmas Day itself.
The Members Tables
Attacking midfielders is the focus of The Hut’s latest Table. If you sort by the last four Gameweeks some surprising stars of yesteryear are revealed near the summit.
Further up the pitch Di-can-i-o Di-can-i-o has been looking at forwards and their goal shooting accuracy, while Vimanas has combined the best of both worlds looking at shot accuracy for both midfielders and attackers.
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 was replaced at the summit of the FFScout moderators and contributors league by myself following Gameweek 17. But the real story of the league was Granville’s ascent. He climbed to ninth, controversially narrowing the gap with his Scoutcast co-host Mark to just two points going into tomorrow’s matches.
In many of our other prominent community leagues it was business as usual going into the Boxing Day fixtures, with Ciaran Lamont continuing to lead the Puffinboy Memorial Cup, Adam Johnson remaining top of the FFS Dead Zone league and Dan Clark sitting pretty at the summit of the FFS Old Farts Club, a league for our more senior community members.
