This was an average week for points scored with a total of 966, with Liverpool becoming the fourth team to score 100 points. Their Merseyside rivals Everton scored the least with 20 points..
Man of the match
The table below are the Sky man of the matches:
This is the first time this season that no strikers have been amongst the MOTM awards.
The bonuses
The distribution of bonuses by team this week is:
The top teams racked up the tier 2 passing awards, with Man City having seven players with this achievement. The dull match (so I heard as I never watched) between Man U v Spurs yielded just one bonus.
The most notable performance came from Watford, who despite a home defeat picked up five awards – four being for passing.
The top six teams continue to dominate bonus awards for the season as shown in:
Despite the poor league form, Liverpool are keeping on the coat-tails of Man City for most bonus awards. This has been achieved through an even mix of passing and tackles.
Not only did strikers pick up no MOTM awards, they didn’t manage a single bonus award, while the defenders had a bumper week.
Bonus by player
The table of top players by different points and awards is:
Player watch
P Gross tops the midfield table of points scored per £m in cost and shows up in my scatter-plot (min of playing 5 games).
Gross has played in every match so far this season and had very good reviews which seem consistent with the two MotM awards. He has only achieved one tackle bonus and a yellow card. His points have come from 2 goals (20% of team’s) and 5 assists (50% of team’s), but has only has 7% of team’s shots on target and 36.5% of key passes. This suggests he is scoring slightly above expectation.
Currently, Brighton have only played Man City and Arsenal out of the top six, so have some difficult games coming up. Though I expect Gross to be a good option, there are too many concerns for him to force his way in either of my teams.
My teams
Like a lot of teams, Kane being injured caused headaches and with Coutinho also doubtful put another spanner in the works. I decided to bring in Sanchez as he was a long term target. Still thinking of best way to bring Kane back in. I kept hold of Coutinho as he plays on Saturday this week so took the risk. I slipped 50 places on the Saturday, but clawed most of these back on the Sunday and the rest last night.
The second team brought in Firmino for Kane, as he plays Saturday and I can get Kane back in on the Sunday. The team moved up around 150 places and was on the same points as my main team. I brought in Pope for Pickford on Monday night. I made a rookie mistake (probably because I am one) and captained Ward instead of Pope, mainly because I didn’t realise keepers scored more for a clean sheet. Though the team is desperately short on transfers, it has broken into the top 100, so my season ambition has been achieved.
How did you get on this week? Leave a comment below.
My Sky fantasy football toolkit
This is a members piece I created that helps Sky managers predict the best players to bring in. Check it out and let me know what you think!
