The already punch-drunk ‘template team’ was delivered a knockout blow this week as the January transfer window offered up a host of fresh faces and new clubs for some former Fantasy greats.

Our Hot Topic posters consider the best new recruits as the community looks to rip apart festive squads that did well over December, but fell out of favour over January.

Elsewhere, attacking defenders to replace the most cursed Fantasy centre-back ever seen is among the issues covered by our Members area statisticians.

We look back at all that and drop in our community articles, where Fantasy rugby earns a rare mention. And, as always, we finish off with a scan of those who emerged from January in style at the top of our community competitions.

The Community Articles

As well as assessing the views of the ‘the crowd’ on Gameweek 26’s matches, Hutch_James has also been busy compiling this handy guide to the Six Nations Fantasy game for the community’s rugby fans.

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’s January transfer window proved to be one of the most exciting for years, with Arsenal provding the headline act.

Their capture of Borussia Dortmund marksman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang prompted a chain of events that saw Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi move to the Bundesliga side and Gunners forward Olivier Giroud across London to replace the Belgian.

This follows the departures earlier last month from the Emirates of Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez to Everton and Manchester United respectively.

Hotdogs for tea canvassed the community’s views on Aubameyang’s prospects at his new club, while Siva Mohan dropped by to consider another potentially lucrative piece of business by Arsene Wenger in January – the extension of playmaker Mesut Ozil’s contract until 2021.

Walcott’s move to the Toffees has piqued Rupert the Horse’s interest, especially after the winger scored a brace against Leicester City in only his second match for the club. His Hot Topic ponders whether this former Gunner is worth getting in as soon as possible, or can be safely snubbed for another Gameweek or two.

Early adopters who made the move for Walcott prior to his Foxes haul were among those to claim deserved ‘hipster’ bragging rights in our “rough with the smooth” round-up of your Gameweek 25 scores.

In sharp contrast to Arsenal, Manchester City failed in their attempts to bolster their attacking riches as they were unable to land Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez.

This left those Fantasy managers who made an early swoop for the Algerian distraught after it became clear he would miss out on Gameweek 25 following City’s flirtations.

Our lessons learned from Gameweek 25 discussion considers the difficulties of trying to assemble a Fantasy team around transfer deadline day.

Later in the week, we canvassed views on the best replacement for the want-away winger as it emerged he would also miss out this weekend.

To view all our discussions please visit our Hot Topics page.

The Members Tables

Stoke me a clipper has been busy constructing a raft of tables covering issues including recent goalkeeping kings, attacking defenders and midfielders and strikers who are coming into form.

Elsewhere, FPL Virgin has been looking at the underlying statistics of some of the best replacements for Chelsea’s unlucky centre-back Andreas Christensen, who through a serious of unfortunate events has only managed to last more than 60 minutes once in the last six Gameweeks.

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

In the FFScout Moderators and Contributors, Jack Wain stays top, while I’ve snatched second spot from Az.

ZoumasBloomers still leads QPR UTD’s Frequent Summer Posters league, which is another competition where I have to settle for second place.

FFScout Cup finalist Elvarus has increased his lead at the summit of Red Lightning’s Top 10K Any Season and has moved up to 30 in the overall standings.

Meanwhile, in Redlightning’s January to May league, JOZ V has leapt into first place after scoring an impressive 289 points over the first four weeks of this second-half-of-the-season competition.

It is business as usual in the FFScout Members league, which Heroes and Villains continues to dominate, while Bowstring the Carp has regained the lead in the main FFScout league and now sits ninth in the overall ranks.

In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing, the safety score was 43, which saw 89 players depart and 616 remain.

Finally, Speedyboyz was on hand to deliver the latest news from the Community Watch tournament.

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