Friday lunchtime has us turn to the Sky Sports game and our article that looks back at the midweek action, while preparing you for the forthcoming round of fixtures.
We’ll examine the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, the bonus point beneficiaries, transfer trends and Watchlist, before moving on to our Scout line-up and future plans.
Gameweek 25 Man of the Match Awards
These were the players who caught the eye of the Sky Sports reporters and earned an extra five points as a result.
| Fixture | MoTM |
| Chelsea vs Bournemouth | Callum Wilson |
| Tottenham Hotspur vs Man United | Christian Eriksen |
| West Ham vs Crystal Palace | Joao Mario |
| Newcastle vs Burnley | Kenedy |
| Everton vs Leicester | Theo Walcott |
| Huddersfield vs Liverpool | Emre Can |
| Stoke vs Watford | Gerard Deulofeu |
| Man City vs West Brom | Kevin De Bruyne |
| Southampton vs Brighton | Sofiane Boufal |
| Swansea vs Arsenal | Sam Clucas |
A number of debutants caught the eye of the Sky reporters, which was a recurring theme earlier in the season.
On top of that, midfielders reigned supreme once again, claiming nine out of the possible ten accolades.
Former Fantasy favourite Theo Walcott certainly requires our attention ahead of the overhaul, after a brace along with tackle and shots on target bonus earned him a monster 23-point haul.
A final mention has to go to the consistent force that is Kevin De Bruyne, who bumped his MoTM tally up to nine for the season.
Gameweek 25 Bonus Points
Let’s take a look at any player to earn 37 points or more in bonus for the season
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 |
| Sane | Man City | 10.3 | 12% |
| Arnautovic | West Ham | 8.8 | 6% |
| Eriksen | Spurs | 10.8 | 5.4% |
| Firmino | Liverpool | 11.6 | 4.7% |
| Tarkowski | Burnley | 6.1 | 3.5% |
Top Transfers In
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Sterling | Man City | 9.8 | 6.6% |
| Aguero | Man City | 12.8 | 5.9% |
| Sanchez | Arsenal | 12.7 | 4.7% |
| Hazard | Chelsea | 11.8 | 3.8% |
| De Bruyne | Man City | 11.5 | 3.7% |
Average Transfers Remaining
Top 10 – 9.3
Top 100 – 11.16
Top 1,000 – 10.93
Top 5,000 – 10.63
Top Five Captains Picked
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Kane | Spurs | 12.9 | 27.4% |
| Lukaku | Man United | 12.4 | 15.8% |
| Aguero | Man City | 12.8 | 12.8% |
| De Bruyne | Man City | 11.5 | 5.4% |
| Salah | Liverpool | 9.4 | 4.7% |
Watchlist
Here I aim to highlight a few differential players with low ownership who I believe can prove an effective source of points up to the Overhaul in three weeks time (Gameweek 28)
Three specific price brackets will be used to cater for our available budgets.
The players will evolve with fixtures and form to offer Fantasy managers a nudge in the right direction.
| Budget | Mid-Price | Premium | |
| Defender | Nathan Ake 7.6m 3.3% | Chris Smalling 8.3m 1.6% | Aymeric Laporte 8.5m 0% |
| Midfielder | Jordan Ibe 7.5m 0.7% | Eric Choupo-Moting 8.2m 1.1% | Pedro 9.5m 1.4% |
| Forward | Mame Diouf 8.5m 0.7% | Callum Wilson 10.1m 0.4% | Christian Benteke 11.3m 1.1% |
My Team
Pope
Jones Otamendi Christensen Kenny
Hazard Silva Sterling De Bruyne Salah
Kane
ITB: 1.7
Transfers remaining: 11/40
Last week’s points: 73
Overall points: 2087
Rank: 208th
Notes
Another slight drop in rank for me, but I remain within touching distance of the top 100.
In truth, I invited my own problems as I swapped the armband from Kevin De Bruyne to David Silva in order to seek out a differential.
I’m fully aware the Belgian is the better pick, but with Gameweeks running out I felt compelled to look for an edge.
I thought Silva would get a lot of the ball against a deep-lying West Brom. And, as Man City’s captain for the night, I felt that this would be a strong match for the playmaker.
Sadly, he picked up a booking and was withdrawn injured and, to top it off, De Bruyne hauled in 18 points. No doubt at the end of the season I’ll look back on this as a fairly major error of judgement.
As mentioned last week, I’m counting down the days until overhaul so I can ship the now-redundant Jonjoe Kenny and Fantasy’s most unfortunate player, Andreas Christensen.
I don’t think I can justify using any more swaps on defenders before that point.
David Silva could be a different story, but I’ll wait for the injury news on him. If he’s out for both matches, I may well opt for one final swap. Walcott will doubtless be the target.
Captain Plan
Sat 3rd – De Bruyne (bur)
Sun 4th – Salah (TOT)
Mon 5th – Hazard (wat)
Weekly Articles and Podcast
As well as the weekly Focus article, I’ll be talking through the week’s action and upcoming plans with Fantasy Football Scout posters Buffrey and Lewis on our regular podcast – the latest episode can be found here.
The Fantasy Football Scout League
Our Fantasy Football Scout League is currently topping the League of Leagues as we look to defend our crown in 2017/18.
6 years, 3 months ago@Dingo
Fair comments about Shaqiri but didn’t you buy Morata a while back and bench him for several games?