We turn to the Sky Sports game this Thursday evening and assess the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, bonus point beneficiaries, the transfer trends and also cast an eye over the Scout team and our future plans.
Gameweek 18 Man of the Match Awards
Listed below are the players that caught the eye of the Sky Sports reporters from last weekend’s fixtures achieving the Man of the Match award (worth an additional five points).
| Fixture | MoTM |
| Stoke vs Man City | Marko Arnautovic |
| Arsenal vs Sunderland | Mesut Ozil |
| Man United vs West Ham | Winston Reid |
| Southampton vs Aston Villa | James Ward-Prowse |
| Swansea vs Leicester | Riyad Mahrez |
| Watford vs Norwich | Odion Ighalo |
| Chelsea vs Bournemouth | Simon Francis |
| West Brom vs Tottenham | James McClean |
| Newcastle vs Liverpool | Georginio Wijnaldum |
| Everton vs Crystal Palace | Romelu Lukaku |
Two defenders, six midfielders and a couple of forwards earned the awards last time around. Riyad Mahrez is now neck and neck with Leicester team-mate Jamie Vardy with six MotM gongs apiece – essentially, they have collected a combined 12 awards in the first 15 Gameweeks.
Watford’s Odion Ighalo has now collected the MotM award on five occasions, underlining his budget appeal, whilst Marko Arnautovic and Romelu Lukaku are also a couple of favourites here – the duo move up to four MotMs apiece on the back of their goal-getting displays against Man City and Palace.
Gameweek 18 Bonus Points
Three goalkeepers picked up bonus this week – Artur Boruc was the star of the show with seven saves and a clean sheet earning him nine points away to Chelsea. Petr Cech also picked up bonus and now sits alongside Jack Butland with ten points at the summit for goalkeepers.
In defence, ten players grabbed bonus – seven for tackles and four for passes completed. Nacho Monreal was the man to collect both, somewhat atoning for his lack of a clean sheet at home to Sunderland. Cherries full-back Simon Francis is still top of the pile and sits on 16 overall.
In midfield, there were 17 beneficiaries in total: 10 for tackling and nine for passes. Central midfielders Moussa Dembele and Lucas were the two to achieve both and brought home five points apiece, as they also picked up a yellow card each. Cesc Fabregas is the game’s highest bonus earner overall with 26 points so far.
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 |
| Sanchez | Arsenal | 9.7 | 16.7% |
| Aguero | Man City | 10 | 7.5% |
| Cazorla | Arsenal | 8.2 | 6.1% |
| Toure | Man City | 8.6 | 2.7% |
| Lanzini | West Ham | 5 | 2.3% |
All five of the featured players missed the previous Gameweek due to injury. Santi Cazorla look the only long-term worry from this quintet, though – Yaya Toure returned to action for City in midweek, whilst Alexis Sanchez and Sergio Aguero are expected to be available sooner than later. Despite reports suggesting a six-week absence, Manuel Lanzini could even be back by next week, according to Slaven Bilic earlier today.
Top Transfers In
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Lukaku | Everton | 8.8 | 10.6% |
| Sturridge | Liverpool | 9.4 | 8.7% |
| Ozil | Arsenal | 8.4 | 5.8% |
| Kane | Tottenham | 9.3 | 5.7% |
| Barkley | Everton | 6.7 | 4.4% |
The injuries to Sanchez and Aguero saw Romelu Lukaku, Daniel Sturridge and Harry Kane find their way into many new teams. Whilst Lukaku and Kane have very favourable weekend fixtures, Sturridge is set for yet another stint in the Liverpool treatment room after sustaining a hamstring injury in last week’s surprise loss to Newcastle. Mesut Ozil and Ross Barkley’s form also persuaded many to take the plunge.
Top Five Captains Picked
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Aguero | Man City | 10 | 10.1% |
| Lukaku | Everton | 8.8 | 9.1% |
| Sanchez | Arsenal | 9.7 | 7.1% |
| Vardy | Leicester | 7.3 | 6.7% |
| Hazard | Chelsea | 9 | 6.3% |
Watchlist
Here I aim to highlight a few differential players with low ownership that I think could be good options for the next six fixtures. These will be looking at three specific price brackets to cater for our available budget. These names evolve with fixtures and form and offer fantasy managers a nudge in hopefully the right direction.
| Budget | Mid-Price | Premium | |
| Defender | Pape Souare, 4.6m, 1.9% | Craig Dawson, 5.5m, 3.6% | Martin Skrtel, 7.3m, 5.1% |
| Midfielder | Dele Alli, 4m, 5.2% | Gerard Deulofeu, 6.6m, 2.1% | Roberto Firmino, 8m, 2.4% |
| Forward | Arouna Kone, 6.7m, 4.4% | Bojan Krkic, 7.4m, 0.9% | Olivier Giroud, 9.2m, 5% |
My Team
Gomes
Monreal Cathcart Nyom
Hazard Barkley Mahrez Cabaye De Bruyne
Aguero Lukaku©
ITB: 0.7m
Transfers remaining: 21/40
Last week’s points: 88
Overall points: 871
Rank: 3,794
Notes
A much better week from my team and a boost in ranking by around 2,000 places thanks largely to my triple Watford clean sheet (21 points), Riyad Mahrez’ hat-trick (22) and then my Monday night captain Romelu Lukaku (24).
My Eden Hazard captain punt failed and I now wish I had opted for Aaron Ramsey although I’ll stick by the former whilst the fixtures are good and reassess when Alexis Sanchez is back in the mix. I also made somewhat of an off the cuff transfer. bringing Ross Barkley in for Andre Ayew on Monday – I did this mainly due to the Swans form and the uncertainty around the manager but I still think Ayew could come good again given the right circumstance. Again I’m pretty happy with my team moving forward and although Yohan Cabaye has been very frustrating to own, I think I’ll keep him for a while yet as he features in my captain plans further down the line. Bringing in Sergio Aguero so early after injury was in hindsight a mistake but hopefully he will be fit sooner rather than later as I don’t fancy using a transfer to take him out and then another to bring him back at some point.
Captain Plan
Romelu Lukaku is my captain for the Toffees away fixture at Carrow Road and hopefully he can continue his fine scoring run and recent penchant for MoTM awards.
I’m then going to ignore Sundays matches and opt for either Eden Hazard or Riyad Mahrez on Monday night. Both play matchday one in Gameweek 20, with Chelsea having the better fixtures but clearly the form of Leicester and Mahrez will be tricky to ignore.
The Fantasy Football Scout League
Once again, we’re running our own Fantasy Football Scout League this season and we’re sitting second place in the rankings at present. With a £1000 prize to the winner, you’d be mad not to get involved. To join, visit Sky Sports Fantasy Football and key in League Name: FFScout, League Code: 8009000.
The Fantasy Football Club
This Friday The Fantasy Football Club show, where you can catch new host Max Rushden and Paul Merson at 17:30 SkySports 1 HD where they will be discussing the upcoming week’s Fantasy Football, chatting to former City striker Shaun Goater and asking James Collins for his #One2Eleven.
