Welcome to the Fantasy Football Scout Guide to Gameweek 8, we have a super early deadline of 16:00 GMT today.

A concise review of the goings-on over the last few days:

When discussing the captaincy contenders Jan Sienkiewicz was leaning towards a Chelsea player over the safe bets of Harry Kane (£11.0m) of Son Heung-min (£9.6m). The Blues enjoy a favourable match-up against Sheffield United, who have been susceptible down their right-hand side.

No other Premier League team has allowed more chances from that area of the pitch in 2020/21, the 37 opportunities conceded there by the Blades is eight more than Crystal Palace, who rank second-worst. This bodes well for Timo Werner (£9.4m).

Whether the German is deployed as a left-winger to Tammy Abraham (£7.2m) or occupies the centre-forward role himself, he will drift to that side of the pitch as he so often does, giving him the chance to make the most of a favourable match-up.

To add to his appeal, Chelsea manager Frank Lampard confirmed Werner is the team’s new penalty taker:

(It was) not an easy decision (handing penalties to Werner) because Jorginho has been pretty faultless for us. He missed two recently, Timo came in and scored one in our last game. Timo took them tonight, Timo’s the taker at the moment and he took them very emphatically, so I’m happy.

– Frank Lampard

Jan joined Pro Pundits Zophar and Lateriser on The FPL Wire this week, in which he talked about his process for selecting a captain. 

Aside from Werner, Kurt Zouma (£5.3m) and Thiago Silva (£5.5m) could do well given that Sheffield Untied have conceded more headed attempts than other side this season.

Fixture Swings

Tottenham Hotspur’s fixtures take a turn for the worst following their enticing encounter with West Brom. On the Scoutcast this week former FPL winner Ben Crabtree outlined his plans to switch to Manchester City players, as they enjoy an excellent run from Gameweek 10:

My priority is to get Kevin De Bruyne alongside Sterling, and Kane is just the money for that really. Looking at the fixtures, although I think the form that Kane’s in he still could do very well over those games, I’m never going to captain him.

– Ben Crabtree

Pro Pundit Andy agreed, writing in his latest Pro Pundit column:

Until Gameweek 16 I don’t see a single fixture where I’d look to captain a Spurs player.

– Andy

Andy then went onto outline his armband contenders from Gameweek 10 onwards, although he did note a slight concern that City haven’t been performing as well in attack compared to previous seasons – averaging 1.31xG per match so far.

João Cancelo (£5.4m) – who impressed in the win over Sheffield United – and Rúben Dias (£5.5m) both look good options in defence, with the latter more assured of a regular starting role.

Career Hall of Fame No 3 Darren Wiles was another Pro Pundit planning ahead. He examined different options for those with both Kane and Son in their sides, and suggested a move to De Bruyne or Raheem Sterling (£11.6m) via a Gameweek 9 captaincy of Marcus Rashford (£9.6m) or Bruno Fernandes (£10.5m).

When it comes to letting go of players, Pro Pundit Simon March explained how the Endowment Effect can hinder our decision making in FPL. A sentimental attachment to players will inevitably become problematic as it may well cause us to miss out on better opportunities.

Simon advised creating some simple rules when judging a player – such as missing one or two Gameweeks maximum through injury – to help us become more objective.

Big Opportunities

Neale’s latest Big Numbers article highlighted a few players with the potential to do well. 

Embarking on a nice fixture run, West Ham’s Tomas Soucek (£4.9m) is one to consider. No FPL midfielder is ‘underachieving’ more in 2020/21 with a -1.38 expected goals (xG) delta. Among the Hammers squad, the Czech is second behind only Michail Antonio (£6.2m) for goal attempts and shots in the box.

Owners of Liverpool’s defenders can consider themselves unlucky: the Reds’ defence has been breached on 15 occasions this season but their expected goals conceded (xGC) tally is just 8.27, making them the worst-performing team in the division for xGC delta (+6.73).

Meanwhile, Pro Pundit Tom Freeman still doesn’t own Jack Grealish (£7.4m) despite some impressive underlying stats: 

Grealish continues to impress with nine goal involvements in just six games. Last term, he managed 15 in total, so he’s well on his way to beating that, and attacking returns look likely to continue. Despite playing a game less than most, he now ranks joint-fourth for attempts on goal, joint-second for shots in the box, second for penalty area touches and joint-fourth for chances created amongst FPL midfielders.

– Tom

Community latest

The Best of the Community feature included a look at Chelsea players and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.7m), a player described as “the ultimate Fantasy Forgotten”.

For those interested in the Head-to-Head Leagues, the main page can be linked to here. The fixtures for Gameweek 8 can be found below:

Use the drop-down menus to show your league and division. To find out which league and division you are in, follow the instructions on the main Head-to-Head page.

Once the Gameweek starts, if you click on your opponent’s name you will be linked to their team on the FPL website.

May your arrows be green!