It’s time once again for our weekly Sky Sports Focus article this Thursday dinnertime. As always, we bring you the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, bonus point beneficiaries, the transfer trends and the watchlist before taking a look at the Scout team and our future plans.
Gameweek 24 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 |
| Tottenham vs Sunderland | Mousa Dembele |
| Bournemouth vs Norwich | Charlie Daniels |
| Newcastle vs West Ham | Jonjo Shelvey |
| Chelsea vs Everton | Leighton Baines |
| Man City vs Crystal Palace | Sergio Aguero |
| Southampton vs West Brom | James Ward-Prowse |
| Stoke vs Arsenal | Petr Cech |
| Swansea vs Watford | Ashley Williams |
| Liverpool vs Man United | David de Gea |
| Aston Villa vs Leicester | Daniel Drinkwater |
Two goalkeepers, two defenders, five midfielders and one forward picked up the awards this week. Bournemouth’s marauding full-back Charlie Daniels comes in at just 3.7m in the Sky game and has racked up more points (71) than any of his team-mates so far. The downside, however, is that Daniels is listed as a midfielder and therefore ineligible for clean sheet points, though as he won’t be docked points for goals shipped, still presents a valid option at such a cheap price – indeed, he is currently the fourth best value midfielder in the game with 19.2 points per million. Former Fantasy favourite Leighton Baines comes onto our radars and the timing could barely be better, with the Toffees set to embark on a kind run of matches (SWA, NEW, sto, WBA, liv, avl, WHM, sun) over the next eight.
Gameweek 24 Bonus Points
Only three goalkeepers picked up bonus this week. Adrian, Jordan Pickford and Petr Cech were the men in question, with the later also picking up the MoTM gong and extending his lead in the overall bonus ranking. The Czech shot stopper is on 16 for the season, two ahead of Jack Butland.
In defence, seven players grabbed bonus, six for tackles and one for passes completed. A pretty low figure compared to the average Gameweek and indeed no player came close to grabbing both. Cesar Azpilicueta, Erik Pieters and Simon Francis are top bonus magnets with 16 each.
In midfield, there were 13 beneficiaries in total: 12 for tackling and three for passes. Everton’s Mo Besic again picked up both, as did the current bonus leader Cesc Fabregas – he’s on 36 points so far, eight clear of the second-placed Lucas Leiva.
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 | 5.1% |
| Ozil | Arsenal | 8.4 | 4.9% |
| Lukaku | Everton | 8.8 | 4.6% |
| Kolarov | Man City | 7.2 | 4.1% |
| Kane | Tottenham | 9.3 | 3% |
Three of the top five are forwards, here with some surgery clearly taking place up top. Jamie Vardy, Romelu Lukaku and Harry Kane all look set to feature this week and still have decent form so it’s a risky strategy. Mesut Ozil and Aleksandar Kolarov have been out injured, though the Gunners playmaker has already been passed fit to face Chelsea on Sunday.
Top Transfers In
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Giroud | Arsenal | 9.2 | 5.9% |
| Aguero | Man City | 10 | 5.7% |
| Ighalo | Watford | 6.5 | 5.5% |
| Payet | West Ham | 6.2 | 4.6% |
| Ozil | Arsenal | 8.4 | 4.1% |
Again three forwards feature, with in-form Sergio Aguero and Olivier Giroud the top targets. Odion Ighalo is a result of the Monday night fixtures and his owners will be hoping he returns to his earlier season form for the visit of Newcastle. Dimitri Payet’s ownership continues to rise, whilst Mesut Ozil features in both ins and outs this week rather bizarrely.
The average amount of transfers remaining amongst the top 100 Sky managers currently is 7.66, whilst the top 1,000 average is 9.51 and the top 5,000 is 10.12.
Top Five Captains Picked
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Aguero | Man City | 10 | 11.5% |
| Lukaku | Everton | 8.8 | 6.1% |
| Kane | Tottenham | 9.3 | 5.8% |
| Hazard | Chelsea | 9 | 5.5% |
| Sanchez | Arsenal | 9.7 | 5.4% |
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 | Papa Souare, 4.6m, 1.9% | Aaron Cresswell, 6.2m, 6.2% | Leighton Baines, 7.3m, 1.8% |
| Midfielder | Charlie Daniels, 3.7m, 1.3% | Kevin Mirallas, 6.9m, 0.5% | Roberto Firmino, 8m, 2.3% |
| Forward | Benik Afobe, 6.3m, 0.1% | Enner Valencia, 7.7m, 0.2% | Wayne Rooney, 9.6m, 8.2% |
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: 63
Overall points: 1259
Rank: 2,735
Notes
Sergio Aguero’s 40-pointer as skipper and Harry Kane’s 10 points were the only hauls of note in a slightly above average week. My triple Watford defence continues to toil but with Newcastle at home up next I’m prepared to give them one last hurrah before possibly replacing a couple.
Heurelho Gomes to Jack Butland is an option I’m weighing up, given the Stoke stopper’s heroics this season. I don’t like spending transfers on keepers but they are, on average, much cheaper than defenders. Furthermore, the signing of Costel Pantilimon is also a slight concern.
As for the defender replacement, I’m looking at either Eric Dier or Danny Simpson to come in for Craig Dawson or Craig Cathcart or maybe even both options. This would, of course, be a massive commitment, given the three transfers required and could backfire – I’ll hold fire for now, though, given West Brom’s decent fixtures.
Captain Plan
Just the one captain for me again this week due to the way the fixtures have fallen and I’m likely to pin my hopes on Sergio Aguero once again – not only did he look back to his best last week but locking the armband on him means I’ll go into Gameweek 26 with the City striker as skipper away to Sunderland.
I’m ignoring Sunday’s fixtures personally but Romelu Lukaku is clearly the stand out option in this matchday – the only drawback is that Everton don’t feature until matchday two in Gameweek 26.
If you want to keep up the two captain per Gameweek plan without using a transfer, then a Swansea or Arsenal player is your best bet, with Olivier Giroud my tip.
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 18:00 SkySports 1 HD where they will be discussing the upcoming week’s Fantasy Football, chatting to Paul Dickov and asking West Brom front man Salomon Rondon for his #One2Eleven
