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Six goals in three matches for in-form Martial after Virtual FPL hat-trick

We’re already approaching the halfway point of the Virtual FPL season, with the Gameweek 17 deadline set to pass this evening at 19:00 BST.

We look ahead to Thursday’s simulated matches and recap Tuesday’s virtual action in our regular round-up below.

READ MOREHow to sign up and play Virtual FPL

SCOUT NOTES

(The full results from Gameweek 16 are available via the Virtual FPL fixtures page or the game’s Twitter account.)

MARTIAL LAW
FPL Gameweek 16 team news and injury updates

The highest-scoring player of Gameweek 16 was Anthony Martial (£8.0m), who hit a hat-trick and registered a 20-point haul in Manchester United’s 3-1 win at Watford.

Martial is second only to Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) for form over the last five Gameweeks (despite blanking in the first two of those matches) and has scored six goals in his last three appearances.

A trip to Aston Villa in Gameweek 17 looks appetising on paper for the Frenchman, who may be among the leading captaincy candidates tonight.

It should be said that Villa have been far from calamitous at the back, however, ranking joint-11th for fewest goals conceded and sixth for fewest attacks allowed.

The forthcoming triple-header against United, Spurs and Chelsea could change all that, of course, but the Villans were only beaten 2-0 in their previous home encounters with free-scoring Liverpool and Manchester City.

INGS COULD BE MARVELLOUS

Danny Ings (£7.1m) won’t be on many managers’ shopping lists ahead of a trip to Arsenal but he is an option to consider for Southampton’s upcoming games, for those who don’t already own the mid-price forward.

Ings scored for the tenth time in this simulated season on Tuesday and is one of only nine players to hit double figures for goals, as well as being the cheapest asset to do so.

He has accomplished this feat despite having missed three matches through suspension, meaning that his points-per-90 minutes average of 6.2 is better than those of Marcus Rashford (£8.8m) and Raul Jimenez (£8.1m).

Ings has yet to blank in a home game and four of the Saints’ fixtures from Gameweeks 18-23 are on their own turf.

Three of those half-dozen matches are against sides in the bottom four for goals conceded, too.

ADAMA NUISANCE

Adama Traore (£5.7m) was benched for the first time this season in Gameweek 16 as Wolverhampton Wanderers defeated Aston Villa 3-0.

The hitherto ever-present Diogo Jota (£6.4m) had also been reduced to a substitute’s role in the two matches before that as Wolves’ frontline was shaken up after a long period of calm.

The form of Pedro Neto (£5.0m) seems to be the issue at present, with the budget midfielder having racked up four attacking returns and 28 points over the last three Gameweeks.

Before that, Neto had effectively taken the place of Ruben Neves (£5.2m) and has now started the last nine of his side’s matches.

Neto is now among the top five best-value players in TopMarx’s ‘Pts/£/90’ metric (see below for links).

SON SHINING

It’s two goals in as many matches for Son Heung-min (£9.8m) after his strike in Tuesday’s draw with Burnley.

That has coincided with Harry Kane‘s (£10.8m) enforced absence, with Son now presumably assuming the striker’s role giving that he has been the last name on the teamsheet in Gameweeks 15 and 16.

Son has doubled his season tally for double-digit hauls in those two fixtures and matched his goalscoring output for the previous eight Gameweeks in doing so.

Auba (c), He Scored One, Life Goes on, Bra
Aubameyang signs off for Gameweek 28 in style as Everton's front two excel

A seven-point return for the most-captained vFPL asset of Gameweek 16 may have felt a little underwhelming but it kept up Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang‘s (£11.1m) sequence of not having blanked in one home match this season.

Around a quarter of Virtual FPL managers handed the armband to the Gabonese forward, who scored Arsenal’s opener in their 2-0 win over Bournemouth.

More encouragingly, Aubameyang also happened to register more attacking involvements (14) than any other player in Gameweek 16.

A home match against Southampton is up next, with the Saints having gone eight games without a clean sheet and ranking third-bottom for attacks conceded this season.

In even better form than Aubameyang is Nicolas Pepe (£9.2m), who has returned a goal and/or an assist in each of the Gunners’ last eight matches.

Misfiring Magpies

On Thursday, Chelsea could potentially go level with Liverpool for clean sheets in this virtual 2019/20 campaign.

The Blues are one behind Jurgen Klopp’s simulated side for shut-outs (seven versus eight) and they stand an excellent chance of increasing their tally when they play Newcastle United in Gameweek 17.

The Magpies have scored only once in the last five Gameweeks and are averaging less than seven attacks per match this season, the worst figure in the division.

Depending on the result in the Merseyside derby, the ever-present Marcos Alonso (£6.1m) could potentially leapfrog Liverpool’s two full-backs on Thursday to become the highest-scoring vFPL defender of the campaign so far.

While one of the better sides from a defensive perspective in the bottom half, Newcastle have nevertheless allowed more team attacks (29) in “red” fixtures (i.e. the tougher ones) than any other club – which should also encourage attack-minded options like Alonso and the in-form Christian Pulisic (£6.9m).


VIRTUAL FPL PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE

UPCOMING FIXTURES

TOP SCORERS/ASSIST-MAKERS

STATS TABLES

TopMarx’s spreadsheet that details team attacks (for and against, home and away) has been updated after Gameweek 16 and can be viewed here.

The fixture difficulty rating colour (according to Ragabolly’s ticker) is reflected in the relevant Gameweek.

The interactive player stats spreadsheet has also been refreshed after Tuesday’s matches, meanwhile.

The stand-alone spreadsheet can be accessed via this link, with Fantasy managers able to make their own copy by selecting “File>Make a copy”.

We will no longer be embedding these tables into our articles as several users have reported that they were causing pages to jump upon loading.

INJURIES AND BANS

Abdoulaye Doucoure (£5.6m) returns from a three-match ban in Gameweek 17, leaving only Kasper Schmeichel (£5.4m) on the suspended list.

There are no returnees from injury on Thursday but there are plenty of new additions to the above table since our last article went out.

Jorginho (£4.9m), Ben Johnson (£3.9m), Neal Maupay (£5.7m), Bukayo Saka (£4.6m), Junior Stanislas (£5.9m), Matt Ritchie (£5.3m) and Will Hughes (£5.3m) have picked up new injuries, with all bar two of them being of the “midweek” variety.

All of them will be out for at least four weeks, with the injuries to Ritchie and Maupay the most severe: they will be sidelined for 11 and nine weeks respectively.

RANKINGS

Basil1977 stays at number one in both the overall Virtual FPL standings and in our Fantasy Football Scout mini-league, with MCR Reds 21 points further back in second in both.

The top four leading managers above indeed are signed up to our mini-league.

Greyhead stays as the top of his very own Great and the Good league, meanwhile.

Legomane remains first in the Mods and Cons mini-league, although elfozzie has reduced the gap to a single point.

You can join the Fantasy Football Scout mini-league by entering the code 9RV4A via the below link.

JOIN THE FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT VIRTUAL FPL LEAGUE HERE

130 Comments Post a Comment
  1. mad_beer ✅
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Everytime I come back on here, there is an article with no comments. Are you guys watching me?

  2. Botman and Robben
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    After Sunday, will OR 1 get his prizes?

    1. alastair
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Tricky as the prizes seem to be mainly tickets to games which will probably be played behind closed doors and 7 days accommodation at hotels that are not open..........

  3. Bad Kompany
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Is Pulisic or Willian a better option in vfpl?

    1. The Polymath
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Pulisic on form, but I'm not keen on either.

  4. Nomar
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Got Martial yesterday, so that will almost certainly be the end of his fantastic scoring run.

    Sorry to Martial owners.

    Be happy if you own Fernandes as I sold him for Martial.

    1. Hazz
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Cheers mate.

      1. Nomar
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 14 Years
        3 years, 10 months ago

        You’re welcome

        1. Hazz
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 6 Years
          3 years, 10 months ago

          It worked a treat!

    2. Brimble82
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      [captains Fernandes]

      1. Nomar
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 14 Years
        3 years, 10 months ago

        Wise move.

    3. Nomar
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      This was so f’n predictable it’s not even funny.

  5. goriuanx
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    On the topic of Martial..

    he's never scored more than 11 league goals in a season.

    🙄

    1. Bragazeti
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      He'll eclipse his total once the season commences

      1. goriuanx
        • 13 Years
        3 years, 10 months ago

        nUlL aNd vOiD

    2. The Mandalorian
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      He's never played in vfpl

  6. fc_skrald
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Virtual fpl:
    I will probably do nothing but I also wasted a free transfer last week - this is not how I normally use the transfers in real fpl 🙂

    a. waste the transfer and keep Hayden, he might be useful soon
    b. Hayden -> Amartey to save 0.1 million
    c. TAA + Pérez -> Basham + Son

    Henderson
    TAA, Alonso, Aurier, Doherty
    Salah, KDB, Martial, Pérez
    Jimenez, Ings

    Button, Greenwood, Hayden, Simpson
    2 FT, 0.5 million in the bank

    1. dunas_dog
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      I actually like B. Liverpool fixtures not great and Son possible captain in gameweek 18. You also have a lot of money in defence

  7. Gentle_Turks
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    vFPL

    Rashford to Jimenez worth a hit? Other transfer would be Jota to Deeney.

    1. fc_skrald
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      No, but that is mainly because I almost never take a hit. I like my points too much

      1. Gentle_Turks
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 6 Years
        3 years, 10 months ago

        Me too but I'm strongly considering Jota has to go which would leave me with no Wolves against Norwich. Rashford has been frustrating so maybe could go for Jimenez.

  8. bitm2007
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Can anybody make any sense of the virtual Watford D ? It looks like the virtual Nigel Pearson puts 8 players names in a hat and pulls 4 out at random, out of a possible 1440 minutes none of those 8 have played more than 936 minutes or less than 526, with players regularly playing once and getting dropped. Have Watford had injuries and suspension galore or is it as random as it looks ? I'm looking for a member of that D to rotate with Egan, but it may be a non starter.

    1. Nomar
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      I’d leave Watford D well alone.

    2. Skonto Rigga
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Yeah, I'd avoid personally. Two clean sheets for Watford all season and three attacking returns between the eight of those defenders.

      1. bitm2007
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        3 years, 10 months ago

        It's the Egan/Watford rotation that caught the eye (see below) but it's no good if nobody is nailed and their not keeping CS's.

        CRY(H)* BRI(H)* WHU(H) ARS(H)* SHU(H) BUR(H)* SOU(H) AVL(H)* CRY(H) NEW (H)* NOR(H)* AVL(H) WOL(H)* NEW(H)

  9. Ógie
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Thanks for another great vfpl article. 🙂

    1. Skonto Rigga
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      You're very welcome, best of luck tonight!

    2. The Polymath
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      I concur.

  10. BNMC
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Tonight is Rashford's last chance to impress me.

    1. The Mandalorian
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      I hope he knows that 🙂

    2. bitm2007
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Barring injuries tonight I'm switching to Ings. United's upcoming fixtures include most of the best D's in VFPL.

      LIV(H), BUR(H), LEI(H), NEW(A), NOR(H), MCI(A), WOL(H), CHE(A), TOT(H), CRY(A)

      1. Ógie
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        3 years, 10 months ago

        They won't have the best defenses by the time United are finished with em. 😛

  11. Nomar
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Captain Auba to let me down tonight?

    1. The Polymath
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Funny that, he's giving me a mighty haul.

    2. The Mandalorian
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Or he scores a brace, my moneys on the brace

  12. The Polymath
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    vFPL PENS DOWN!

    1. The Mandalorian
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Don't shout ive just put the kids to bed

  13. Jordan.
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    ruddy,traore,kdb to henderson,perez,pepe -8 vfpl rules innit

    1. Jordan.
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      down 41 spots already

  14. SuperMane Returns
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Auba captain FTW 🙂

    1. Nomar
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Hope so.

  15. BNMC
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Lloris out too!

  16. Nomar
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Yay. One pointer from Aurier.

    Start as you mean to go on, eh!

  17. krishgorwani
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Such a proud aurier alli owner, amazing to choose him over martial before the gameweek 16 hat trick from martial, it amazing to see such high attacking involvement from them without any returns , love it

    1. SuperMane Returns
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Hope the robbery dont affect Alli too much 🙁

    2. Nomar
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      RIP

  18. BNMC
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Marcus, IT'S TIME TO GO! (In Claude from AFTV's voice)

    1. Nomar
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Meh, may as well keep him, the sim will go through a phase where it loves him again and everything he touches hits the back of the net.

  19. Jordan.
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    nothing for (c)rapsford AGAIN

  20. George James
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Is the second VFPL WC available for GW 19 or for GW20?

    1. Ragabolly
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      20

      1. George James
        • 9 Years
        3 years, 10 months ago

        cheers mate

        Would you take a paypal transfer to make it GW19? 🙂

        1. Ragabolly
          • 14 Years
          3 years, 10 months ago

          One more gw isn't that far 😉

        2. Nomar
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 14 Years
          3 years, 10 months ago

          Well my first WC did **** all, so not in any rush to make further transfers of in form players who will turn to crap as soon as I buy them.

  21. Hazz
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Jota back in form.

    1. Ógie
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Pukiki back from injury with a bang too.

      3 goals from his 2 games since return.

    2. BNMC
      • 4 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      He's a streaky one!

  22. Nomar
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Okay, let’s see whose career I can eff up next by bringing them into my team.

    Traore to Neto.

    That looks like the one.

    Let’s revitalise Traore’s flagging vFPL career and put a stop to this Neto scoring nonsense, shall we!

  23. BNMC
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Well then, time to start thinking of how to get Salah back in...
    Rashford the makeweight surely.

  24. Hazz
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    18 pointer for Robertson one week...
    18 pointer for Trent the next...

    1. Hazz
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      T(AAA)

  25. BNMC
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    SNODDY!!!

  26. Ógie
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Lovely gesture from Harry Kane in supporting a less financially fortunate club and send a positive message at the same time.

    https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/14/harry-kane-donates-leyton-orient-shirt-sponsorship-to-good-causes

    Knighthood is in the bag surely.

    1. Epic Fail
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      I'm trying to think of a negative spin on this but there's nothing. Damn you, Harry.

      1. Hazz
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 6 Years
        3 years, 10 months ago

        The negative is the sponsor wasn't just a picture of his face.

  27. Nomar
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    37 with just Henderson and Auba(c) to go.

    Seriously grim.

    1. Ógie
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      29 with Auba(C) myself.

      Just one of those gameweeks for us i guess.

      1. Nomar
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 14 Years
        3 years, 10 months ago

        This week is particularly bad.

  28. TheBabyfacedAssassin
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Real life fpl.
    2ft, 0.0itb.
    Pope/3.9
    Soy, taa, Doherty, Tanganga, Lascelles
    Salah, KDB, Bruno, Adama, Cantwell
    Auba, DCL, Tammy

    Any suggestions what to do here? I'm blank

  29. FPL Virgin
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Is VFPL down for everyone else?

    1. Epic Fail
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      I think Ragabolly may have blocked you.

    2. Ragabolly
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      Just many people checking their Auba points, how did you fair this week virg?

  30. BNMC
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 10 months ago

    Somehow I got through that with a green arrow... just 3 places, but a green is a green no matter how small.

    1. Ragabolly
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 10 months ago

      A green at your high rank is always hard to get, well done 🙂