Welcome to the Fantasy Football Scout guide to FPL Gameweek 4, the final round of fixtures before the first international break of the season.

And what a blistering start it’s been with clean sheets in short supply – as Neale noted in his Big Numbers article:

[only] three clean sheets have been recorded by the ‘big six’ in total after three Gameweeks, as many as Liverpool managed themselves in the same period last season.

Holly revealed on the Scoutcast that she’s already moved away from her double-up on The Red’s back-line, although Luke still has faith in Manchester City and Liverpool’s defences. For those who feel the dearth of clean sheets is set to continue, Joe took a look at attacking defenders. Chelsea’s Emerson (£5.5m) stood out with 4 of his 6 goal attempts arriving in the box.

The Chelsea left-back was also the subject of a members-only article, examining his credentials ahead of a good run of fixtures for The Blues between Gameweeks 4 to 12.

Raheem Sterling (£12.3m) got involved with FPL last weekend, replying to a tweet from Scoutcast regular Andy. This week, the England international is once again one of the main armband contenders. David noted in the Captaincy Video that Sterling has had seven ‘Big Chances’, two more than fellow premium-midfielder Mohamed Salah (£12.5m).

Both players make the Scout Picks for Gameweek 4, which features a Manchester City triple-up ahead of Brighton’s visit to the Etihad. Kevin de Bruyne (£9.7m) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.5m) join Sterling. TheFantasyFreÆK noted in his hot topic article:

Zinchenko created 5 chances in Man City’s game vs Bournemouth, and that makes him second only to Trent in defenders for chances created since the season began.

Making his first appearance of the season in the Scout Picks is West Ham’s Sébastien Haller (£7.4m), tipped to do well by all four pundits. The French centre-forward will be up against a Norwich defence that has conceded more shots on target than any other side and let in the highest number of goals so far with eight.

With an attractive set of fixtures, West Ham have a number of players who could offer points returns over the coming weeks. David, when taking an in-depth look at their credentials, concluded that: 

While there could be value in waiting for one more match to assess the Hammers’ players, those who are brave enough to select one for Gameweek 4 could well benefit.

Although Mark McGettigan (aka The FPL General) advocates the importance of saving a transfer ahead of the international break:

Injuries often occur during internationals (most of which turn out to be nothing more than a sore toe) but it is comforting having those two frees available if you do get unlucky with a few knocks.

The only exception to that rule, he noted, is the on-fire Teemu Pukki (£7.0m). Fellow Irishman Matt Kearney (aka Bowstring the Carp) concurred:

With [Pukki’s] high ownership he will certainly do a lot of damage if you don’t have him.

Pukki is the outstanding captain pick for those who feel like venturing away from expensive players like Sterling and Salah. David dives into the stats and draws his conclusions in the regular Captain Sensible article. 

Going in the opposite direction to The FPL General, MINUS FOUR (aka “The James Bond of FPL”) suggest that managers shouldn’t be afraid of playing aggressively and taking a -8 if they need to. Employing such an approach last season, MINUS FOUR finished inside the top 300 overall.

The major team news is the absence of Anthony Martial (£7.7m). The Frenchman is the most-sold player ahead of the Gameweek 4 deadline, with nearly half a million managers ruthlessly showing him the door. Rotation’s Alter Ego started a hot topic on potential replacements. 

14 Premier League clubs had midweek matches with the second round of the League Cup getting underway, while Wolves progressed through the Europa League qualifying rounds. For managers worried about fatigue, FP Elephant has collected the minutes for the popular players.

For fans of puns and Star Trek, Greyhead has served up a treat with his review of The Great and The Good. You’ll be tickled to learn that “Mark continues to Klingon to top spot”… 

For those of you still reading this article, G-Whizz brought us the DS stats, fixtures and clean sheet odds for Gameweek 4: Manchester City record a whopping DS of 762. While for Scandinavians and lovers of all things fantasy, Meltens and TallestJohn have once again kindly provided us with their regular articles.

Meltens previews Gameweek 22 in Fantasy Allsvenskan and TallestJohn gives us his guide to Gameweek 19 in Eliteserien Fantasy. Updates on the respective FFS mini-leagues in Eliteserien and Allsvenskan are found later in this article.

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

Gareth Mantle is the new leader of our Fantasy Football Scout mini-league and is up to twentieth overall in only his second season. Gareth Triple Captained Kane in Gameweek 1, Wildcarded in Gameweek 2, and played his Bench Boost in Gameweek 3. Will he play his Free Hit in Gameweek 4?

There are currently 42,801 managers participating in the Fantasy Football Scout mini-league, to join them enter code ooyz44 in your Leagues’ section on the FPL site. 

Tom Foster moves to the top of our FFS Members mini-league and, unlike Gareth, is yet to play a chip. This is Tom’s twelfth FPL season. Currently 76th overall, his best finish is 48th in 2017/18. One to watch!

The code to join the FFS Members League can be found on the Members page. 

In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing the safety score for Gameweek 3 was 36, this saw 217 managers eliminated. Over 3,900 will take part in Gameweek 4 when the threshold for elimination remains at 5%.

It is possible to enter the competition up until Gameweek 22 using the code bcvy39, however you must pass all the previous safety scores to qualify. Aside from bragging rights, the winner will receive a free Fantasy Football Scout Membership for the 2020/21 season.

Steve Horan (aka FPL Fairy) has seen his lead at the top of the FFS Mods & Cons mini-league cut to a point by FFS founder Mark Sutherns. Mark gained attacking returns from six of his front seven on his way to 70 points in Gameweek 3.

Gareth Oakes held onto first place in RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league. Gareth played his Wildcard in Gameweek 3 and is now 447th overall. A good week for Gareths! Managers with a top 10k finish may join the league using the code m0tq9y.

Frenchman Francois Jacquemot has a 13-point lead in Chaballer’s Top 1,000 HoF League and is up to 56th in the overall standings. Shyam Kumar moves into second spot, his faith in Sébastien Haller was repaid as the West Ham forward contributed 13 points to an impressive Gameweek score of 80 points.

2017/18 champion Yusuf Sheikh leapfrogged 2016/17 champion Ben Crabtree to take the lead in the FPL Champions League. Yusuf used one of his free transfers in Gameweek 3 to bring in Mason Mount. He was immediately rewarded with 8 points courtesy of a goal and a bonus point. Run by 2014/15 FPL winner Simon March (aka Dufflinks) to qualify for this mini-league you must have won FPL!

In the FFS Eliteserien mini-league Svein Johansen consolidated his place at the top with an excellent 80 points in Gameweek 19. He climbs one place to sixth overall. Eirik Pedersen deployed his Attack! Attack! chip to good effect gaining 83 points and moving into second spot in the FFS mini-league. The Attack! Attack! chip enables your strikers to score double points. Eirik is 17 points behind Svein heading into Round 20.

Daniel Sebestyen slips to second in the FFS Allsvenskan mini-league as Henrik Mäkitalo takes over at the top. Henrik’s captain Sead Haksabanovic contributed 30 points to his impressive total of 91. This sees Henrik move up to a nosebleeding second overall, just two points off first place. Third in the FFS mini-league is Simon Eriksson. Simon sits at eighth place in the overall standings with Daniel in seventh. 

Finally, Boris Bodega previewed a forthcoming community tournament called “The Pundits Playoff“. To join send an email to punditsplayoff@gmail.com with your FFS Username, FPL ID# and the pundit(s) you wish to name your team after. Entries close on Friday 13 September.

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