We’ve reached the final group in our World Cup of FPL as we continue our search for the greatest Fantasy Premier League asset of all time.
Group H sees Alexis Sanchez, Mohamed Salah, Petr Cech and Sergio Aguero square off, with the top two progressing to the last 16.
It’s up to you to decide who qualifies: you can cast your vote (up to two allowed per person) in the poll at the bottom of this article or in the sidebar on the homepage.
The voting for Group G remains open and you can read more about that foursome via this link.
Six groups have already been completed, with Fantasy Football Scout readers having voted as follows:
Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
1. Frank Lampard | 1. Thierry Henry | 1. Harry Kane | 1. Cristiano Ronaldo |
2. Robin van Persie | 2. Gareth Bale | 2. Didier Drogba | 2. Trent Alexander-Arnold |
3. | 3. | 3. | 3. |
4. | 4. | 4. | 4. |
Group E | Group F | Group G | Group H |
1. Wayne Rooney | 1. Luis Suarez | Cesc Fabregas | Alexis Sánchez |
2. Marcos Alonso | 2. John Terry | Jamie Vardy | Mohamed Salah |
3. | 3. | Kevin De Bruyne | Petr Cech |
4. | 4. | Leighton Baines | Sergio Aguero |
We’ll present the cases of Messrs Sanchez, Salah, Cech and Aguero in the article below.
Alexis Sanchez
Farmed out on loan by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the beginning of this season and reportedly surplus to requirements at Inter Milan, Alexis Sanchez‘s career has taken something of a downward trajectory over the last couple of years.
Sanchez’s previous campaign at Manchester United was an injury-plagued and hugely underwhelming one, with the Chilean managing just 47 FPL points across 20 top-flight appearances (11 of them as a substitute).
As a result of his meagre returns last season, he started 2019/20 as a £7.0m midfielder – a far cry from his days as a premium asset in the not-so-distant past.
It’s important not to overlook the former Arsenal winger’s previous contributions, however, especially during his time in north London.
Sanchez twice made the end-of-season FPL Dream Team, passing the 200-point mark in both 2014/15 and 2016/17.
The first of those campaigns was the Chile international’s debut season in the Premier League and he hit the ground running, registering 24 attacking returns (19 of which came in the first 21 Gameweeks) from a starting price of £10.5m.
Only Eden Hazard scored more points than Sanchez among FPL midfielders in 2014/15, with the Chilean’s 19-point haul against Stoke City in January of that season one stand-out highlight.
Sanchez had failed to scale those heights for much of 2015/16, registering only eight returns (including a hat-trick against Leicester City) in the first 27 Gameweeks of his sophomore season.
Seven goals and three assists arrived in his final 11 appearances of the campaign, however, with a 25-point Double Gameweek 34 his zenith.
That strong end to 2015/16 hinted at what was to follow, with Sanchez plundering 24 goals, 11 assists and 32 bonus points the very next season.
Frequently deployed ‘out of position’ as a central striker by Arsene Wenger, Sanchez finished 2016/17 as FPL’s top scorer on 264 points, with his 27-point haul in Double Gameweek 37 well remembered by those Fantasy managers who handed him the armband that week.
Three goals and an assist in a 5-1 win over West Ham in Gameweek 14 was another defining point of his campaign.
His decline started the following year, with Sanchez making the ill-fated move to Manchester midway through the season, but the Chilean winger still finished 2017/18 with 19 attacking returns to his name before the rot well and truly set in.
Mohamed Salah
Top of the FPL standings in his first two seasons at Anfield and currently on course for the hat-trick, Mohamed Salah‘s place in Fantasy folklore is already assured.
Having failed to get much of a look-in at Chelsea earlier in the decade, Salah joined Liverpool in the summer of 2017 and went on to smash the FPL points record in his first year on Merseyside – all from a starting price of £9.0m.
Salah became (and remains) the only player to exceed 300 points in FPL history, with his 32 goals and 12 assists seeing him finish 74 points ahead of his nearest rival, Raheem Sterling, in 2017/18.
The Egyptian delivered attacking returns in 75% of his 36 appearances, averaging 8.4 points per match across the campaign and never failing to go more than two league games without recording a goal or assist.
There were a grand total of 15 double-digit hauls in his debut year under Jurgen Klopp, the most memorable of which came in Blank Gameweek 31: Salah racking up 29 points from four goals and an assist against Watford.
While unsurprisingly failing to emulate those achievements in 2018/19, Salah still made the FPL Dream Team, finished as the game’s top scorer and was part of a three-way share of the Golden Boot.
There were a ‘mere’ 34 attacking returns last season, with his purple patch arriving in Gameweeks 16-23.
Just over a third of Salah’s FPL points for 2018/19 were scored in this eight-match period, with the Egyptian kickstarting his season with a 21-point haul against Bournemouth in early December.
Another five double-digit returns arrived in the following seven fixtures as Salah enjoyed a stint ‘out of position’ as a central striker.
Salah also delivered a timely 19 points against Huddersfield Town in Gameweek 36, when many Fantasy managers were deploying their Triple Captain chip.
The Egypt international is well on course to smash the 200-point mark for the third straight season if and when the Premier League finally resumes, having already banked 22 attacking returns in 2019/20.
Petr Cech
The only goalkeeper who made it through to the group stages of our World Cup of FPL, Petr Cech had featured in every Premier League campaign from 2004/05 up until the end of last season.
Longevity isn’t a reason in itself to be in the shake-up but Cech’s contribution was more than mere durability, twice making FPL’s end-of-season Dream Team in his 15-year stay in England.
Cech’s debut season with Chelsea was also Jose Mourinho’s first year in charge at Stamford Bridge, with the Blues going on to lift their first league title in half a century.
Cech racked up 24 clean sheets as he finished 2004/05 as FPL’s highest-scoring goalkeeper on 178 points, a total that only one other goalkeeper (Brad Friedel) has surpassed in the game’s history.
Another 17 clean sheets arrived for the Czech Republic international the following season as Chelsea defended their crown, although injuries (including a fractured skull) limited his involvement in the subsequent two campaigns.
Cech racked up double figures for clean sheets for six successive seasons from 2008/09 onwards, finishing on 171 points in the first of those campaigns and only narrowly edged out of the FPL Dream Team by Mark Schwarzer.
Losing his place in the starting XI in west London and moving across the capital to the Emirates in June 2015, Cech finished as FPL’s highest-scoring goalkeeper in his first season under Arsene Wenger, having started the campaign at a cut-price £5.5m.
Another two seasons as Arsenal’s no. 1 followed before he finally called time on his career in May 2019.
Sergio Aguero
FPL’s leading points-scorer of the 2010s, Sergio Aguero has delivered at least 25 attacking returns in seven of his eight completed seasons in the Premier League.
Aguero has thrice passed the 200-point mark in Fantasy Premier League, making the end-of-season Dream Team on all three occasions.
His best campaign came in 2014/15, with Aguero scoring 26 goals and creating a further ten en route to a total of 216 FPL points.
Four goals against Spurs in Gameweek 8 and a 20-point haul against QPR in Gameweek 36 were high marks but there was a steady flow of points throughout his stand-out campaign, save for a mid-season spell on the sidelines through injury.
Aguero has been a name to reckon with in Fantasy circles from Gameweek 1 of his very first year in the top flight.
The Argentine racked up two goals and an assist in a half-hour cameo on his Manchester City league debut in August 2011, going on to register 32 attacking returns in the Citizens’ title-winning campaign.
Perhaps his best-remembered contribution, Fantasy-wise, was his five-goal salvo against Newcastle United in Gameweek 8 of the 2015/16 season.
All five of those strikes fell within a 20-minute period, with the Argentina international rewarding his owners with a 25-point haul.
Aguero’s four-goal heroics against Leicester in Gameweek 27 of the 2017/18 campaign was another pinnacle, and no other player in Premier League history has as many hat-tricks to their name as the City striker (12).
The premium forward has never started a season under £11.0m but that is with good cause: Aguero has racked up 180 goals, 62 assists and 1,557 FPL points since he first moved to England in 2011.
3 years, 11 months ago
Salah
Aguerooooo
It's unfair to compare GK & Striker's though.