A return to winning ways for West Ham United in the Premier League at Elland Road saw the Irons back among the Fantasy Premier League points!
Let’s take a look at some of the numbers behind this week’s Hammers headlines…
A yo-yo for Antonio!
Having been suspended for our game against Manchester United, August Premier League Player of the Month Michail Antonio was understandably the most-sold player for Gameweek Five, with some 1.8m managers transferring the forward out of their teams.
Of course, upon his return for the Leeds United fixture, managers decided they simply could not be without ‘Beast Mode’ in their lives, and subsequently made Antonio the most-bought player for Gameweek Six with 361k+ new owners.
It’s safe to say Mich repaid that faith.
Claiming all three bonus points for the third time in six games this season and scoring a last-minute winning goal, Antonio’s eight points saw him return to the position of top-scoring FPL forward this season, with his tally of 47 eclipsing Jamie Vardy’s 40 in second place.
Five goals and four assists in just five appearances - points galore!
Said it again
Said Benrahma’s strong work at Elland Road might not have yielded any goals or assists – instead, just the three points for playing 90 minutes and earning a bonus point.
But it was the quality of that off-the-ball work which saw the Algerian remain the second-highest scoring midfielder in FPL, behind only runaway leader Mohamed Salah of Liverpool.
Three clear chances created for his teammates, plus numerous bonus points system recognition earned for recoveries and net tackles won, demonstrated Benrahma’s strong work ethic and helped him share that final bonus point with captain Declan Rice.
After bagging the second goal in Thursday's 2-0 UEFA Europa League win over Rapid Vienna, you wouldn't bet against the Algerian being among the points again come Sunday.
Brentford FPL report
Of all the benefits of achieving promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their history last summer, joining Fantasy Premier League must surely have ranked highest for Brentford supporters.
All jokes aside, Thomas Frank’s Bees have made an outstanding start in their first top-flight campaign since 1946/47, and that has been reflected in their players’ strong starts to the FPL season.
Intriguingly, however, whereas forward Ivan Toney – the Championship’s most prolific goalscorer ever in a single season – remains understandably the most widely-selected player, he tails in points tallies (29) to defenders Ethan Pinnock (36) and Pontus Jansson (33), after the Bees conceded only two goals in their first five games.
Indeed, prior to a 3-3 draw against Liverpool last weekend – most certainly not a fixture where defenders were on top – the duo were joint-second for points-per-million value among defenders at £4.6m each.
Even following the game, the duo remain in FPL’s top eight defenders (Pinnock fourth and Jansson eighth) so far, thanks to both players already picking up a combination of clean sheets, goals and assists.
Prior to the season commencing, Brentford’s website calculated how many FPL points their players would have scored in the online game mode… and, of course, Toney hit a spectacular 192, with goalkeeper David Raya second on 142 (both without factoring in any potential bonus points).
With talent at both ends of the pitch, Brentford are sure to be as intriguing a side to follow in FPL as they have been in the Premier League this season.
We have a winner!
In case you hadn’t heard, we’ve been inviting Claret and Blue supporters who enjoy a spot of casual FPL to take part in our own mini-league, where the top-scoring players each month could are in with a chance of winning West Ham-themed rewards.
And we’re delighted to announce that, following the conclusion of Gameweek Six last weekend, we have ourselves a winner for September…
Congratulations, Bruce McQuade – manager of Vlad’s Army – on topping the standings for September with a whopping 226 points from just three gameweeks! Oh, and congratulations on the corker of a team name, too!
Bruce is the winner of a first-team shirt – either home, away or third – to be signed by a player of his choice! Bruce – we’ll be in touch!
If you’d like to throw your hat into the ring for October, all you’ll need is our league code (nlz9u2) or you just need to click this link here.
Who knows? There may yet be time to propel yourself up the rankings and compete for the grand end-of-season prize!
You can see the top ten of our leaderboard two months right here – but please note that these are captured at the time of going to print, so do not reflect Gameweek Seven fixtures this weekend!
The highs and lows
This is not going well, to be frank (not Thomas).
Over the course of a week, I’ve dropped from 1,441 to 1,489th place in the Official Programme League. With 2,323 of you in there, that’s just below mid-table.
… it might not have helped that I missed the transfer deadline last time out, so make sure you keep on top of them, particularly when Friday fixtures are afoot!
In the meantime, I’m plotting a late-season surge… good luck everyone!
