The New Year has brought a fresh perspective to Fantasy football for many of the community, with mutterings of discontent about the current template team prompting heightened interest in differentials. Our community writers take an in-depth look at the trials and tribulations of finding a high-performing punt, while our hot topics rake over the smouldering coals of Gameweek 20 and consider the merits of Tottenham’s young midfield sensation. Our Members tables look at Leicester’s recent form, while we also catch up on those who are starting 2016 in good cheer in our community leagues.

The Community Articles

Just how hard is it to get a good differential that will bring both immediate returns and consistent points for weeks to come? FantasyFootballFrog has been using our Spot the Differential articles to gain some insight into finding these diamonds in the rough. This is being presented as a series, with a look at Gameweeks 1-5 and Gameweeks 6-10 published this week.

Another community scribe to focus on differentials is Rupert the Horse, who has resurrected the popular Puntmaster picks series, which looks at the best low-owned outfield selection each week.

One group that has had success in recent weeks picking a good differential is the Fantasy Premier League veterans, who Kavali has been tracking. His selected group of Hall of Fame leaders and FFScout moderators and contributors did well over the festive fixtures thanks to some out of the box thinking with their captaincy picks and cheap midfielders, according to his latest update.

There is further insight into what players performed the best in December, as well as a look ahead to the likely high scorers this month, in Bowstring the Carp’s regular monthly review and preview.

Meanwhile, The Sarjeant presented his latest colourful look at team form to offer a further insight into who January’s top performing teams will be.

One of our most analytical regular writers, Rakkhi, welcomed the New Year with a look at the Members area’s Influence, Creativity and Threat scores to see how they stack up as a predictor of Fantasy points.

Rakkhi also started 2016 in style as our most recent winner of our community writer of the month vote. He scooped the accolade for December after our community was left impressed by his research into Manchester City attackers, fixture proof players, home form and flat track bullies.

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

Dele Alli was among our successful Spot the Differential picks earlier this season and following his goal in Gameweek 20 is hot property going into the next set of fixtures. Balders has been taking a close look at the Tottenham midfielder’s statistics and how they compare with another form midfielder, Swansea’s Gylfi Sigurdsson. Bowstring the Carp added to the conversation with a warning to Alli’s suitors that he may just be too good to be handed fifth midfielder status and arguably should never be benched.

Drafting in the cut-price Alli could prove vital to freeing up funds for the return to form and fitness of some premium strikers, with Sergio Aguero and Diego Costa amongst the popular picks mentioned in our hot topic on whether to revamp our forward lines.

With goals in Gameweek 20,  Aguero and Costa certainly showed their potential. But it proved a tough week for many of the top 10,000 ranked Fantasy managers, who overlooked these two forwards. They scored lower than the overall average as template picks such as Mesut Ozil and Riyad Mahrez failed to deliver.

Our rough with the smooth round-up of the week also showed how breaking the template with players such as Aguero can pay dividends. The return to form of these Fantasy stalwarts also prompted Bowstring the Carp to start a discussion on whether the first half of the season template may finally be broken.

The New Year has also given the community a chance to consider whether any further rule changes would be welcome to FPL, with in-Gameweek changes and points for defensive midfielders amongst the ideas under discussion. However, one area where there is little appetite for change is its Bonus Point System. Balders was back again later in the week to offer this update on the players who are most likely to attract FPL bonus points.

Meanwhile, with the first leg of the Capital One Cup semi-finals now completed we have a greater insight into the teams that are likely to have a double Gameweek, due to missing Gameweek 27, when the final takes place. Wakey urges caution in putting too much faith in double fixtures to boost our rankings.

The Members Tables

Concern is mounting as to whether Leicester’s players can  maintain their sensational first half of the season form. Jafooli has been taking a look at the latest evidence in terms of their team performance and how their stars compare recently with other, emerging  players.

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 Tournaments

Andy continues to top the FFScout Moderators and Contributors league with Evs taking over from Greenwindmill in second place.

In the FFS £1,000 Heist monthly league in Ultimate Fantasy Premier League John McHugh has taken an early lead.

James Ollerenshaw, who has an impressive overall rank of 374, is the new leader of Red Lightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league Ralf Buckenmaier is second on transfers made but level with James on points. In Red Lightning’s January to May League Yusuf Patel is in the lead.

The safety score of 28 in Gameweek 20 ensured 79 players departed TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing league. Currently 770 remain but that is expected to increase as the league is open to new entries up until Gameweek 21, as long as they hit each Gameweek’s safety score so far this season.

BabyB has delivered this update on the community teams’ progress in the FIFFSA 5-a-side tournament and Jaffalicious has news of the knock out draw in the FFS UEFA Champions League tournament.

Finally, for those playing the ESPN Fantasy game we have now set up a FFScout league.

If you are running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round Ups please email me a brief summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spread sheet or head to head competition, at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.