We now switch focus to the Sky Sports game as we take a look back at a packed Gameweek of action before preparing you for the reduced set of fixtures that form this weekend’s programme.
As usual, we’ll examine the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, the bonus point beneficiaries, transfer trends and Watchlist, before moving on to the Scout team and our future plans.
Gameweek 36 Man of the Match Awards
These were the players who caught the eye of the Sky Sports reporters and earned an extra five points as a result.
| Fixture | MoTM |
| Southampton vs Chelsea | Olivier Giroud |
| Burnley vs Leicester | Nick Pope |
| Swansea vs Everton | Jordan Ayew |
| Crystal Palace vs Brighton | Wilfried Zaha |
| Huddersfield vs Watford | Tom Ince |
| Liverpool vs Bournemouth | Trent Alexander-Arnold |
| Tottenham vs Man City | Raheem Sterling |
| Newcastle vs Arsenal | Mohamed Diame |
| Man United vs West Brom | Jay Rodriguez |
| West Ham vs Stoke | Bruno Martins Indi |
| Brighton vs Tottenham | Pascal Gross |
| Bournemouth vs Man United | Paul Pogba |
| Burnley vs Chelsea | Victor Moses |
| Leicester vs Southampton | Wilfred Ndidi |
Nine out of the 14 awards on offer went to midfielders this week. However, the top-owned player to benefit was Burnley’s goalkeeper Nick Pope, who currently sits at just over 11% ownership.
Shed by many Fantasy managers in the Overhaul due to Tom Heaton’s pending return, Pope continues to churn out regular points and is the third highest scoring keeper overall, behind only David De Gea and Ederson.
Found in 9% of squads, Paul Pogba was the other player to make a significant impact. Given that he played in a matchday with a single fixture, the United midfielder was also a popular captain choice among those owners. He now has two double-figure hauls in three Gameweeks and is currently overshadowing his more expensive team-mates Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez.
Gameweek 36 Bonus Points
Let’s take a look at any player to earn 50 points or more in bonus for the season
Fantasy Football Scout members can access all information regarding bonus points using player statistics and clicking the Sky Sports tab.
The Transfer Trends
Top Transfers Out
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Firmino | Liverpool | 11.6 | 9.1% |
| Aguero | Man City | 12.8 | 8.2% |
| De Bruyne | Man City | 11.5 | 5.2% |
| Son Heung-min | Spurs | 10.8 | 4.4% |
| Ramsey | Arsenal | 9.1 | 3.3% |
Top Transfers In
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Kane | Spurs | 12.9 | 12.3% |
| Lukaku | Man United | 12.4 | 8.9% |
| Salah | Liverpool | 9.4 | 7% |
| Arnautovic | West Ham | 8.8 | 6.2% |
| Vardy | Leicester | 11.2 | 4.3% |
Average Transfers Remaining
Top 10 – 2.70
Top 100 – 3.93
Top 1,000 – 3.97
Top 5,000 – 3.76
Top Five Captains Picked
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Kane | Spurs | 12.9 | 24.8% |
| Lukaku | Man United | 12.4 | 15.5% |
| Aguero | Man City | 12.8 | 6.2% |
| Salah | Liverpool | 9.4 | 5.6% |
| Hazard | Chelsea | 11.8 | 3.5% |
Watchlist
Here I aim to highlight a few differential players with low ownership who I think could be good options from now until the season ends.
Three specific price brackets will be used to cater for our available budgets.
The players will evolve with fixtures and form, and offer Fantasy managers a nudge in the right direction.
| Budget | Mid-Price | Premium | |
| Defender | James Tarkowski 6.1m 5.2% | Andrew Robertson 7.8mm 3.7% | Chris Smalling 8.3m 1.9% |
| Midfielder | Johann Berg Gudmundsson 6.7m 2.1% | Wilfried Zaha 9.3m 3.6% | Leroy Sane 10.3m 7.3% |
| Forward | Ashley Barnes 8.8m 0.6% | Cenk Tosun 11.1m 0.2% | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 12.2m 4.2% |
My Team
Karius
Ward van der Hoorn Christensen
Zaha de Bruyne Gross Salah
Kane Sanchez Aubameyang
ITB: 0
Transfers remaining: 2/40
Last week’s points: 106
Overall points: 2850
Rank: 199th
Notes
A promising start to the week soon ended with disappointment, mainly due to my failed captain decisions. Mohamed Salah returned points as my skipper on Saturday as per usual, while my differential pick Wilfried Zaha bagged a brace and a MoTM award.
While that was a strong start, Sunday was something of a collapse with Alexis Sanchez failing to return points as my captain, though Aubameyang gained an assist to keep things ticking over.
On Monday I had no players active, but with West Ham and Stoke playing out a drab 1-1 draw, that fixture went as well as I could hope.
Tuesday’s fixture was as a stand out as Harry Kane scored as captain and a further differential Pascal Gross netted and picked up the MoTM award.
But my collapse then started with Alexis Sanchez failing to feature against Bournemouth on Wednesday, before Andreas Christensen followed suit on Thursday at Burnley, leaving me no option but to captain Stephen Ward for a single point.
Despite the poor finish, I moved up overall to 199th but now have just a few weeks remaining to hit the top 100, which was my target at the start of the season. In all likelihood, I’d be in that position already had I elected to op for Lukaku or Pogba over Sanchez for the Double Gameweek.
Perhaps that’s why I’ll be returning to a “safety first” approach this week via some popular captain picks as detailed below.
Captain Plan
Sat 21st April – Mohamed Salah
Sun 22nd April – Kevin de Bruyne
Mon 23rd April – None
Weekly Articles and Podcast
As well as the weekly Focus article, I’ll be talking through the week’s action, and upcoming plans with FFS posters Buffrey and Lewis on our regular podcast – the latest episode can be found here.
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