Injuries to some of the Premier League’s biggest stars have dominated discussion amongst the community, with wildcards and hits falling like confetti. We also catch up on those in far better health in our community leagues.

Hottest Topic

Greenwindmill posed a timely question this week. Given injuries to Christian Benteke and Theo Walcott (and with Robin Van Persie still a doubt for the weekend), our moderator contemplated just how we judge whether a hit is worthwhile or not. Among those to answer was Brutus619, who puts forward a good case for hits and an even better case for inclusion in a forthcoming Scoutcast Full Jonty.

Many Fantasy Football managers almost fainted when they saw Robin Van Persie had been handed a 14m price tag in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) this season. But even though other strikers such as Olivier Giroud have outscored him for a fraction of his price, Jonny believes his price may have been perfect. His reasoning is that despite a volatile market in the last two weeks  in the FPL game, RVP’s ownership has remained relatively steady. Could he remain 14m for the rest of the season? Even though he missed last Sunday’s Manchester derby, RVP has still not dropped in price this week.

For those considering drafting in Romelu Lukaku as a replacement for the likes of Van Persie or Benteke, Blue Lion’s post will prove fruitful reading. With another loan move under his belt the young striker looks prime for points, he argues. This was certainly the case against West Ham.

Wakey’s regular Falling Stars posts offer a welcome antidote to those of us with jerky knees, looking to transfer out poor performers. Each week he profiles a selection of players who have dropped in value to show how sometimes it is worth hanging on to unfashionable players. Stephane Sessegnon, who is 0.3m cheaper than his starting price, is among his pick of the Gameweek 5 Falling Stars.

HeelsOverHead has been delving into the history books to see which of the current crop of Premier League players have the best track record of hattricks and braces. Turns out there are nine current Premier League players who managed a hat-trick last season. Find out who they are here.

The penny has long since dropped that the bonus point system favours defenders. But could this mean we experience the first season where defenders become the highest scorers in FPL? Going into Gameweek 5 Ryan found that nine teams had a defender as their highest scoring player. Will this still be the case at the end of the season?

One of this week’s most popular hot topics, with 30 votes at the time of writing, was Portsmouth Bubblejet’s epic look at the best rotation options over the coming weeks. Certainly plenty to ponder there as we look to prepare our teams for the weeks ahead.

Community Leagues

HeelsOverHeads’ Worst To First – 2 Million+ Club, for teams with an overall rank below 2,000,000 in the first five Gameweeks, now has five out of the 23 teams that entered in the top 1,000,000. Bales of Fury continues to lead the league with an overall rank of 344,013.

In Thomas and Peppie&Felix‘s Friends Life competition the three league leaders are Forca, Daniel and Thomass.

Meanwhile, the five league leaders in In Tommy We Trust’s All Things…. leagues are TheRealAVB, Tommy Tour, LawnDart, Mind over Mata and Binij.

LawnDart topped Torres Magic’s Early Bird league with a score of 64. Just 14 survivors remain, but entry is still open for more to join. In his Last Man Standing league 847 are left.

Those successfully traversing the It’s A Long And Winding Road (LAWR) H2H leagues are TommyTour59, Turbo Dog, IAmSuarez, Beric, Super Hans, ManAmongst and DonTheSpecialOne. TommyTour59 is also the LAWR main league leader.

Elsewhere, the 552-strong UEFA FFS FA Cup kicks off this week with its preliminary round. Team allocations and the Preliminary Round Draw will be posted on the FFS Uefa website by Friday, Sept 27.