A quick turnaround for Gameweek 28 means we have an immediate opportunity to put the disappointments of Gameweek 27 behind us. It was a topsy-turvy weekend with Aubameyang benched following his exertions in the Europa League and Gerard Deulofeu scoring a hat-trick after a run of six successive blanks. However perhaps the most dramatic action took place at Wembley.
At the time of writing 10,631 FPL managers have succeeded in the seemingly impossible feat of transferring Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga out of their squads. How Maurizio Sarri must envy them. The Spaniard refused to leave the
That said, Gabriel Jesus’ injury might mean we see Aguero tearing it up in Gameweek 28 anyway and the Argentinian has now earned a place in the Scout Picks.
An injury to Aymeric Laporte brought more unwelcome news. The only players who arguably benefited from the final are Leroy Sané and Gonzalo Higuaín as both played reduced minutes. If anyone still owns Sané they certainly deserve some good fortune.
A lot of debate this week has centered around what to do with Marcus Rashford, who is a doubt for United’s encounter with Crystal Palace. United are without a fixture in Gameweeks 31 and 33, so depending on how you plan to use your Free Hit or Wildcard chips, if you still have them available, now could be a good time to sell. Many veteran managers already have.
A hot topic was started by Reckoner. to discuss Rashford and who to replace him with. The popular choices are Rondón, Barnes, and budget permitting, the £8.8m Vardy. An ankle injury to Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino means owners of the Brazilian could be looking at the same replacements.
Rondón benefited from the debut of new signing Miguel Almiron with a goal, an assist, and all three bonus points as Newcastle beat bottom of the table Huddersfield. An encounter with Burnley will provide a stiffer examination of Almiron’s impact on Newcastle’s attack, however a decent fixture run and a match in Gameweek 31, and possibly Gameweek 33 too (depending on the result of Watford v Crystal Palace in the FA Cup), has induced managers including career Hall of Fame number three Matthew Jones (aka Numb) and Geoff to follow Mark in adding the Venezuelan to their squads.
After scoring in each of his last four matches, Ashley Barnes is attracting a lot of attention. Favourably priced at £5.7m with matches against Leicester and Bournemouth in Gameweeks 31 and 33, Barnes scored the winner against Spurs on Saturday. From ‘The Great and The Good’, Torres Magic has made the move for the former Brighton man.
There’s now a degree of uncertainty surrounding Leicester’s Jamie Vardy following the sacking of manager Claude Puel, although Leicester have traditionally experienced a new manager bounce. Leicester have a favourable fixture run and matches in both Gameweek 31 and 33, and tonight face a Brighton side with a poor away record this season. Research by Ruth_NZ suggests it could be wise to strike while the iron is hot.
Featured recently on J0E’s Meet the Manager series, Aleksander Våge Nilsen has taken the plunge – selling Rashford and buying Vardy last night. Although the Norwegian, currently 484th overall, already owns Rondón.
The third forward slot in Aleksander’s team is filled by Raúl Jiménez, and if you aren’t one of the 34.9% of FPL manager to own the Wolves striker he is one to consider, especially if you are planning to use a Free Hit chip in Gameweek 31. Wolves face Huddersfield and Cardiff in their next two fixtures, and over the last four Gameweeks no player has registered more shots in the penalty box than the Mexican. Positive signs. Although be warned that it could be the turn of Rúben Neves to take the next penalty kick.
Reduced minutes for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang should mean he starts for Arsenal against Bournemouth tomorrow evening. He’s one of a number of players to feature prominently in the captaincy debate this week. David provides his usual look at the armband contenders in his Captain Sensible article: Salah and Agüero are currently the top two in our captaincy poll.
G-Whizz delivers his regular DS stats, fixtures and clean sheet odds, as expected Manchester City, Liverpool, and Arsenal are tipped for good Gameweeks.
Neale (aka Skonto Rigga) rounds up all the latest team news. A video with Neale and J0E discussing this week’s team news is due out at 14:30 GMT.
To view all our discussions please visit our Hot Topics page, and if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article.
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.
COMMUNITY TOURNAMENTS
Deadline for entry to the next FFS cup competitions is today at 18:45 GMT. For details on how to enter please follow this link.
In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing competition the safety score in Gameweek 27 was 33, this saw 78 managers eliminated. 456 teams are through to Gameweek 28, when the threshold for elimination moves up to 16%, a minimum of 73 managers will depart. The final will take place in Gameweek 37.
Adam Levy now leads both our main FFS League and our FFS Members League. He’s up to second in the world, only 8 points behind new world number one Hassam CheLSawy. Adam and Hassam were both very grateful to Deulofeu for his 23 point contribution to their scores in Gameweek 27.
Mark has increased his lead over David to 46 points in the FFS Mods & Cons. He’s edging closer to the top 1,000 and his current rank of 1,322 overall is his highest of the season.
James Wells held onto top spot in RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league despite slipping to 40th overall. He has now been in the overall top 100 for ten Gameweeks.
Elior Carsenti is the new leader in RedLightning’s January to May League 3 points ahead of previous leader Jonathan Horrocks. This is Elior’s third FPL season, and six green arrows in the past seven Gameweeks have taken him from 52,995 to 6,257 overall. He played an excellent Second Wildcard in Gameweek 23.
Finally, RedLightning‘s Last Ten Gameweeks mini-league will start scoring in Gameweek 29: 189 teams are already waiting for its first points update.
The last ten Gameweeks of the season include the big Double and Blank Gameweeks when many chips will be played, however the January to May League, which started scoring in Gameweek 21, is fairer to those who have already used their Second Wildcard or Triple Captain chip. RedLightning notes that we should remember that success in the second half of the season does not only depend on having the best chip strategy – good captain choices, having the right players at the right times, and having a reasonably high TV are also very useful.
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 geoff@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk
