It’s time for our weekly Sky Sports Focus article once again this evening. As always, we bring you the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, bonus point beneficiaries, the transfer trends, the watchlist and a look at the Scout team and our future plans.
Gameweek 22 Man of the Match Awards
Listed below are the players that 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 |
| West Ham vs Liverpool | Michail Antonio |
| Arsenal vs Newcastle | Petr Cech |
| Leicester vs Bournemouth | Artur Boruc |
| Man United vs Swansea | Ashley Young |
| Norwich vs Southampton | Vadis Odijidja-Ofoe |
| Crystal Palace vs Chelsea | Diego Costa |
| Sunderland vs Aston Villa | Jermain Defoe |
| West Brom vs Stoke | Darren Fletcher |
| Watford vs Man City | Jose Holebas |
| Everton vs Tottenham | Dele Alli |
The Sky reporters chose some rather left-field choices here, with only Petr Cech (22%) and Dele Alli (9%) having any significant ownership to trouble mini league positions greatly. Diego Costa comes back onto the radar with a new manager in tow. The Chelsea striker is showing signs of recapturing last season’s form – with just 6% ownership, he could be a canny differential in the coming months, providing he recovers from the injury that forced him off against Scunthorpe at the weekend.
Gameweek 22 Bonus Points
Just two goalkeepers picked up bonus last week – Simon Mignolet and Petr Cech were the two in question. The Arsenal shot stopper now sits level on bonus alongside Jack Butland (14).
In defence, seven players grabbed bonus, six for tackles and one for passes completed. Chelsea full-back Cesar Azpilicueta was the closet to earning both, narrowly missing out by just five completed passes – he now joins Erik Pieters and Simon Francis on 16 overall
In midfield, there were 14 beneficiaries in total: seven for tackling and eight for passes. Villa’s Idrissa Gueye was the man to grab both by the skin of his teeth, making exactly four tackles and 61 passes. Cesc Fabregas is the game’s highest bonus earner overall with 30 points so far.
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 |
| Vardy | Leicester | 7.3 | 11.4% |
| Cabaye | Crystal Palace | 7.2 | 3.3% |
| Ayew | Swansea | 6.5 | 3.1% |
| Coutinho | Liverpool | 8.4 | 2.9% |
| Pelle | Southampton | 8.1 | 2.5% |
A massive 11% have shipped Jamie Vardy this week after a slight dip in form and a groin injury, although the tireless forward still has a chance of featuring in midweek. Yohan Cabaye suffers from a one-match suspension last week and continues to see sales. Andre Ayew’s faltering form sees the popular out of position midfielder shipped ahead of what looks like a good run of fixtures, whilst injuries to Philippe Coutinho and Graziano Pelle mean they also are the target of around 3% of sales.
Top Transfers In
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Ozil | Arsenal | 8.4 | 6.8% |
| Ighalo | Watford | 6.5 | 6.5% |
| Lukaku | Everton | 8.8 | 5.7% |
| Kane | Tottenham | 9.3 | 5.4% |
| Alli | Tottenham | 4 | 5.2% |
All five of our names are fairly heavily owned as it is but continue to attract suitors off the back of great form. The template team is clearly in force with managers finally catching on to Odion Ighalo, with Jamie Vardy the likely makeweight.
The average amount of transfers remaining amongst the top 100 Sky managers currently is 8.9, whilst the top 1,000 average is 10.8 and the top 5,000 is 11.4.
Top Five Captains Picked
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Aguero | Man City | 10 | 10.4% |
| Lukaku | Everton | 8.8 | 9.3% |
| Kane | Tottenham | 9.3 | 6.6% |
| Vardy | Leicester | 7.3 | 5.9% |
| Hazard | Chelsea | 9 | 5.9% |
Watchlist
Here I aim to highlight a few differential players with low ownership that I think could be good options for the next six fixtures. These will be looking at three specific price brackets to cater for our available budget. These names evolve with fixtures and form and offer fantasy managers a nudge in hopefully the right direction.
| Budget | Mid-Price | Premium | |
| Defender | Angel Rangel, 4.8, 1.1% | Aaron Cresswell 6.2m, 6.2% |
Cesar Azpilicueta, 7.5m, 2.9% |
| Midfielder | Michail Antonio, 5.5m, 0.1% | Gylfi Sigurdsson, 7.1m, 3.2% | Aaron Ramsey, 8.2m, 3.4% |
| Forward | Jordan Ayew, 7.2m, 0.4% | Andy Carroll 7.9m, 0.3% |
Diego Costa, 9.8m, 6.2% |
My Team
Gomes
Cathcart Dawson Nyom
Ramsey Mahrez Payet De Bruyne
Aguero Lukaku Kane©
ITB: 1.1m
Transfers remaining: 16/40
Last week’s points: 31
Overall points: 1157
Rank: 4,652
Notes
It was a stinker of a week for me but I’m sure it was a similar story for many, as the majority of the popular picks failed to pick up points. One positive for my team is that I have Sergio Aguero and Dimitri Payet already in place and I expect quite a few will be tempted to burn up transfers to acquire the pair. Speaking of which, I have 16 swaps remaining and am confident my team can push for a top 1000 finish, given the average numbers of remaining transfers mentioned above.
Looking forward, I’m fairly happy with my team, with perhaps the acquisition of a Spurs defender my only real desire – Eric Dier is an option at just 5.7 but I’ll likely just sit tight for now, given the diminished returns from defenders in general.
Captain Plan
Short and sweet this week with just one skipper for me on the Wednesday. Currently I’m sat on Harry Kane for his home tie against Leicester but I may be tempted to hand Sergio Aguero the armband for City’s home match against Everton. The only drawback of this would mean I was locked into the Argentine for next week’s home encounter against Crystal Palace – the prospect of pinning your flag to one of the most injury-prone players around presents a slight risk, though at this stage, I feel its surely one worth taking.
The Fantasy Football Scout League
Once again, we’re running our own Fantasy Football Scout League this season and are sitting in first place in the rankings at present. 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 new host Max Rushden and Paul Merson at 18:30 SkySports 1 HD where they will be discussing the upcoming week’s Fantasy Football.
