Team Form Focus is a weekly article analysing the in-form teams in the league and the ones failing to deliver. The statistics are taken from the last six Gameweeks. I’ll also be picking out a player who has the potential to do well for the next Gameweek or several Gameweeks. Potential clean sheets are another area to go under examination, with two or three teams being tipped each week to shut the opposition out.

THE FORM TABLE

KEY: P = Played, GS = Goals Scored, FS = Failed to Score, GC = Goals Conceded, CS = Clean Sheet, PTS = Points.

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT

Jamie Vardy — The Leicester frontman is in prolific form, and he has accomplished a feat that neither Harry Kane, Diego Costa, Eden Hazard nor Sergio Aguero managed last season – scoring in six consecutive league games. What makes Jamie Vardy so special is the fact that he’s a talisman to a fast-paced Leicester side who have scored the third highest number of Premier League goals this season and he hardly makes a dent in your budget.

Now, Jamie Vardy is clearly an obvious choice and is already selected by many, but I’m not tipping the player to do well, I’m actually exploring the idea of making him a front-runner out of our candidates for the captain’s armband. It does seem a strange suggestion to have Jamie Vardy – a man who not long ago played non-league football and only scored five league goals last year but assisted 12 – as a prime candidate for captaincy over the next month or so, whilst Sergio Aguero is ruled out.

But Claudio Ranieri has completely transformed Jamie Vardy and Leicester, which can be seen by looking at his stats. In all of the key areas – shots, shots on target and shots inside the box – Jamie Vardy has excelled this season, closely matching these stats from last year already, although playing 1,500 minutes less. If we look at Vardy’s stats this season in comparison to all the other players in every position, he is top or near enough top for: big chances, shots, shots inside the box, shots on target and penalty area touches – every key area a top striker needs to excel in.

Something which may put off managers captaining the Foxes forward is his price. Many managers sometimes let a player’s price come between them captaining a player – something which came about a lot last year with the emergence of Harry Kane. They feel the ‘heavy-hitters’ are more reliable. But Vardy has already demonstrated his ability to perform very consistently – having returned attacking points in eight out of nine games – so managers shouldn’t be afraid to captain him due to his low price.

THE CLEAN SHEET PICKS

All Out Attack — It’s a bit of a tough week for picking out clean sheets; there are plenty of in-form attacking teams and not enough teams performing well defensively, which means this week may be a good week to play the All Out Attack chip, if you have a decent fifth midfielder.

There are three in-form teams defensively: Arsenal, Tottenham and West Brom. Both Tottenham and West Brom play away from home against two of the promoted sides, and whilst these teams lack quality in attack, they do have form on their side with the two clubs scoring in each of their last six games bar one, which was Norwich who failed to score.

Arsenal play at home to Everton who, even though they have failed to score in three of the last six, I think have a chance to break Arsenal’s three-game run of clean sheets at The Emirates.

Other clubs who haven’t been prolific in front of goal all have favourable fixtures; Sunderland play at home in the Tyne-Wear derby, Aston Villa are at home to Swansea, West Brom travel to Norwich who have let in 15 goals in the last six and Watford travel to Stoke who haven’t been reliable defensively this term. The other fixtures this Gameweek scream goals: Leicester v Crystal Palace, West Ham v Chelsea, the Manchester derby and Liverpool v Southampton.