With the packed festive fixture schedule now at an end, our resident scribes and posters have been offering a helping hand to those keen to reshuffle their squads.

Differentials to draft in, the pitfalls of chasing tails and Africa Cup of Nations competitors to avoid are the subjects of this week’s community articles.

For our hot topic posters, the prospect of an emerging template and tweaks to the transfer market top the agenda, while bargain basement defenders take centre stage among our Members tables.

We finish off with a look at those at the summit of our community leagues, who have no pressing need to replace their top scoring Fantasy assets.

The Community Articles

With the second wildcard now available and the fixtures shifting in favour of teams with cheap assets, I took an opportunity to assess the best differential prospects for Fantasy managers to consider this month.

In addition, I analysed some of this season’s biggest bandwagons to see if chasing points has brought success. This will be particularly interesting to those tempted by Tottenham’s Dele Alli ahead of Gameweek 21.

Meanwhile, Rainy focused on some of the key players that will be missing this month in a refresh of his article on Africa Cup of Nations participants.

Elsewhere,  YMA has been named community writer of December by you following this week’s vote. A £20 Amazon voucher is on its way to him in recognition of his What the Form, Fixtures and Clean Sheets series.

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

This season has been typified by a wealth of choice. But could a template finally be emerging in 2017?

This was a question posed by GK in his look at the most popular players among the community, but according to Top Marx’s regular look at the top five managers in our Hall of Fame, such uniformity may still be some way off.

His research showed that, while some of this elite group have opted to draft in Sergio Aguero immediately following his four-match ban, others prefer the consistency and security of start offered by Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Chelsea striker Diego Costa.

Our hot topic on the Manchester City marksman, who came off the bench to score in Gameweek 20’s home clash with Burnley, shows that opinion is also divided among the wider community on whether he is worth that £12.8m price tag.

Competition from festive fixture stars such as Oliver Giroud, who earned a 15-point Fantasy Premier League haul away to Bournemouth this week, further indicates that a template attack is still unlikely in the early part 2017.

Already more than 30,000 FPL managers have drafted in the Gunners striker this week, however, Rhinos believes the Frenchman could be set to leave his new owners disappointed due to the ongoing threat of rotation.

With a kind January fixture list, which includes a trip to Watford and home ties against West Ham and West Brom, Middlesbrough defenders have a strong case for joining a template in defence, should it emerge.

For those looking to invest, Diva sparked this discussion earlier in the week on which ‘Boro defensive asset to target.

Dele Alli is another to push for inclusion should a uniformed midfield emerge. His remarkable three braces in consecutive matches over Christmas certainly pleased many of those who responded to our Rough with the Smooth round up of your Gameweek 20 performances.

However, with all six of his festive goals coming from the same number of shots on target, Greenwindmill wonders whether Alli’s form is sustainable and if Gameweek 21 is too late to draft him in.

Not a week goes by without Fantasy Premier Leaue transfer market sparking controversy, with Torres Magic dropping by  this week to advocate making hits more costly as a way of potentially curtailing volatility.

Ryan also got involved in the debate by suggesting that free transfers should be dished out to patient managers who swerve hits over a 10-Gameweek period.

Our hot topic on your New Year’s resolutions certainly showed that taking hits remains a popular strategy, with some even looking to step up their visits to the transfer market in 2017.

Those that do will be keeping a close eye on bargains, with Team Cruel saying that Manchester United’s Paul Pogba looks undervalued at 8.5m, considering his attacking midfield role.

As with Sergio Aguero, the jury is still out on the value offered by Eden Hazard’s 10.4m price tag, according to over Midwicket’s discussion on whether the Chelsea schemer has become surplus to requirements in 2017.

Given his poor away form, with the Belgian failing to deliver an attacking return in six of nine road trips, it is perhaps unsurprising that more than 34,000 FPL managers have already shown him the exit this week.

Finally, fresh from his recent success on Channel 4’s Countdown Jarvish has been turning his word play skills to Fantasy Football with a look at how the jargon the community uses can be applied to real life.

The Members Tables

With a trip to Hull City and home encounters with Watford and Crystal Palace in January, Bournemouth players are set to be in big demand. To help pick the best Cherry, I’ve constructed this open filter table, which has a strong focus on accuracy and chance creation.

Following on from Diva’s hot topic on Middlesbrough’s best defenders wainwright has drafted this table looking at their backline’s key statistics.

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

The final festive fixture saw Gilles Wanlin grab the lead in my Millionaires Club, for those managers who had a rank above one million in Gameweek 12. He is now ranked 137,219, a far cry from his starting rank in this league of 1,276,023.

Spencer is the new leader of the FFS Moderators and Contributors league, with only the number of transfers made separating him from second placed TorresMagic.

Raul Seleccion continues to sit at the summit of Red Lightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league and is now into his eighth week within the top 1,000 in the overall rankings.

The first leader of Red Lightning’s January to May league is Ogie, who registered an impressive 98 points in its first week of scoring in Gameweek 20.

Ogie also got the top score, along with Midasboys XI, in TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing Competition. There are now 824 teams, after 88 were eliminated when the safety score was set at 45 in Gameweek 20. Entry is still open for those who match the 20 scores needed here.

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, spreadsheet or head to head competition, at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.