Hub contributor Shaun Thorpe shares his brilliant Sky Fantasy Football Gameweek 8 tips and analysis.

He delves into the data from Gameweek 8 to see who performed, who hit those essential bonus tiers and the players who are creeping under the radar.

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Sky Fantasy Football Gameweek 8 Review

In this weekly article, I’ll be analysing all the key stats from the weekend’s fixtures. I’ll also identify trends both from fixture runs as well as the teams to target as the season progresses.

It’s all about identifying those Sky Fantasy players, and sides, who are going to perform on a consistent basis. Form or fixtures can help us achieve this.

I’ll start by showing which teams earned the most points in Gameweek 8 overall.

A base points per team will be 22 points (two points per starting XI player). From a total league perspective, the base score is 470 points (440 points from starting XI players and 10 Man of the Match performances).

In the last Gameweek we had a first with two players getting a joint man of the match.

Total Points Gameweek 8

Team Bonus Points – Sky Fantasy Football Gameweek 8

A total of 900 points were scored over the weekend. This is the second lowest number of points in a Gameweek so far.

This was mainly due to only five teams keeping a clean sheet.

There was no real standout teams this week. Chelsea scored the most but it was only 68 points which, for a top scoring team, is low.

I don’t think we will see Norwich tied for third in the most points scored, likewise with Man City sitting 15th.

Points Conceded

Team Points Conceded – Sky Fantasy Football Gameweek 8

Norwich have given up the most points by quite some distance. The Canaries are still followed by Arsenal and Newcastle with Southampton now closely behind them.

Over the previous four Gameweeks, there are three teams who have given up significantly more points than the rest of the division.

Tottenham (268), Norwich (259) and Southampton (253) look to be teams to potentially target in the coming weeks.

Unsurprisingly, it is the perceived “top four” who concede the fewest points.

It’s worth keeping an eye on Brentford and Brighton who are having great starts to the season.

Both teams don’t seem to allow the opposition to score points easily against them from either a traditional sense (goals, cleansheets etc) or from bonus points.

Another team who have performed well over the last four weeks is Wolves. This correlates with their recent favourable fixture run.

The graph shows us which teams scored the most bonus points over the weekend and where they came from.

Gameweek 8 Bonus Points by Club

Gameweek 8 Bonus Points by Player

The data above provides us a quick view of who hit the bonus tiers in the Gameweek.

We will also keep running totals so we can identify which players are those bonus magnets we want in our team.

Meanwhile, the table below will show us (specifically for passes and tackles) which players are just short of the level required.

Bonus Tiers GW8

Player Bonus Points – Sky Fantasy Football Gameweek 8

No players hit two different tiers over the weekend.

Trevoh Chalobah and Ashley Westwood both returned Tier 1 bonus in tackles and passes respectively.

They were also close to hitting Tier 1 in the other department (Chalobah was three passes short while Westwood needed one more tackle).

Season Bonus Points by Player

This chart is beginning to show us who are the dependable picks throughout the season.

As the campaign evolves, we will probably cut the data sample down to the 6-8 previous Gameweeks to see who is in form when it comes to bonuses.

The £7-8m midfielder bracket is absolutely littered with those towards the top of the bonus point chart.

Tying that in with some attacking output could make them great holds, and enablers, for the majority of the season.

I’m primarily looking at Ismaila Sarr (£7.8m) and Declan Rice (£7.4m).

Bonus Tiers vs Opponents

Tackle and Passing Bonus Points – Sky Fantasy Football Gameweek 8

The table above shows the top 20 players for the season in terms of tackles and passes.

In terms of tackles, Juraj Kucka (£6.5m) tops the charts. In his six appearances, he has hit at least Tier 1 in four of those games.

Marcal (£6.4m) continues to continually hit Tier 1 bonus but with it being tackles bonus, how sustainable is it?

Another one to pick out is Cucarella (£7.2m) who has started four games for Brighton.

The Spaniard reached Tier 2 once, Tier 1 once and missed out by one tackle in another. Cucarella is currently averaging 6.25 points per game.

The former Barcelona player could be a good route into the Seagulls defence if Lewis Dunk is too much of a budget stretch.

Yet it’s worth bearing in mind their fixtures turn soon.

Under the Radar Players – Sky Fantasy Football Gameweek 8

From a passing bonus perspective, a player who is being massively overlooked is Aymeric Laporte (£9.1m).

The Spanish international has started five games, accrued four clean sheets and earned Tier 2 passing in all matches except the Liverpool game where he got Tier 1 instead.

With all the talk of Chelsea double and triple ups, I am slowly convincing myself about the same but with a Manchester City stack of Laporte, Dias and Cancelo.

I think they are fixture proof and have a decent run of fixtures as the chart below indicates.

Man City Chelsea Comparison

Liam Cooper (four tiers) and Marc Guehi (three tiers, two just short) are ticking along nicely.

Another interesting option is Pierre Emile Hojberg (£8.1m) who has been in and around the 60 passes mark for the last 3 games. He also loves a tackle and he scored in the previous game against Aston Villa.

Two players who are worth mentioning are Aaron Wan Bissaka and Aaron Cresswell. Both fullbacks hit over 320 passes this season but haven’t hit passing tier bonus thus far.

Best Value Picks (points per game per million)

Best Value Players – Sky Fantasy Football Gameweek 8

The chart above will become more useful over the course of the season. Nevertheless, it provides us a method of comparing players at different price points.

It purely takes points scored divided by the games these assets have played. This calculates the value they offer in the game.

At this early stage, some players have had one good game and it sways their numbers (Christian Pulisic being one example).

I will begin to take out players who have only played a handful of games.

Yet it is already starting to show the more consistent players we can perhaps target going forward. It also flags potential assets for any tricky single day games later in the season.

Defensively, Ethan Pinnock (£6.1m) has proved to be a revelation for his price.

Even though he has Chelsea up next, he then has a run of Leicester, Burnley, Norwich and Newcastle so Pinnock doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon.

As mentioned before, midfielders priced between £7.7m and £7.9m have been ripping it up so far with Connor Gallagher (£7.3m) still topping the value chart.

For those without an Arsenal asset for the single game day, you could do worse than siding with Gallagher for the captaincy.

You could then potentially bring in an Aston Villa asset for the second game (whilst covering another single captaincy game a few weeks from now).

Finally, with the strikers it is all about Mohamed Salah and Michail Antonio.

We can start to notice which teams are the ones to target when it comes to bonus tiers.

Tier Bonus Allowed by Team

Best Value Teams so far – Sky Fantasy Football Gameweek 8

The two tables show how many players have hit at least Tier 1 against each opponent.

Manchester City finally allowed someone to achieve passing bonus against them, with both Liverpool centre backs achieving this feat.

There was a definite increase on bonuses hit in the last set of fixtures with passing bonus being the highest since Gameweek 3.

Meanwhile, tackles were the highest so far this season.

A few interesting stats are emerging. Burnley have only allowed one player in the seven games they have played so far to hit tackles bonus and that was Diogo Jota all the way back in Gameweek 2.

Crystal Palace have allowed at least one player in every game (Gameweek 3 aside) to achieve a tackling tier and overall have allowed just over 2.5 tiers each week on average.

And if we dig into some of the options who have gained tackle tiers against the Eagles, we can notice a clear pattern.

Cesar Azpilicueta, Emerson, Joel Veltman, Timothy Castagne and James Milner have all featured at right back this season up against Wilfried Zaha.

I think Takehiro Tomiyasu (£8m) could be the route into the Arsenal defence over a centre back if you think a clean sheet is likely.

Arsenal top the list of clubs that have allowed the most passing bonus alongside Everton.

However, we should take into account the Gunners allowed 11 of the 13 players against Chelsea and Man City (whilst playing a half with 10 men).

I am more interested in attacking Watford (who have conceded passing bonus in five games), Newcastle and Burnley.

The Clarets have allowed bonus in four games which further supports the Chelsea defence who are playing the Magpies and Burnley back to back in a couple of weeks.

Team Updates – Sky Fantasy Football Tips

Team Review GW8

A very average week for me with only Liam Cooper and Mohamed Salah providing big points.

Most of the midfield chipped in with a bonus of some sort. However, the defence was a no show with the ever reliable Ruben Dias scoring nothing and Andreas Christensen not featuring.

The red card for James Ward Prowse is more of a concern. I am likely to hold him given it is only a two game ban and they have a single game day.

Sergi Canos also chipped in this week. Yet the Chelsea game at the weekend will be his last hurray before the Spaniard likely being moved on for an Arsenal asset.

The front three will likely remain the same for a few games after moving Cristiano Ronaldo on for Michail Antonio.

In total, 51 points for the Gameweek and a current rank of 1654 is a slight drop from last week.

I’m still happy enough at this stage with a healthy transfer count. The B team is also doing reasonably well, sitting in at 9k.

Sky Fantasy Football Transfer Plans

As mentioned above, Sergi Canos has to go. I was originally looking at Emile Smith-Rowe or Bukayo Saka as a replacement after the break.

Nevertheless, I am now being swayed by Tomiyasu purely down to the Zaha stat.

Other than that, I’m likely avoiding any more transfers.

GW10 Fixtures

Sky Fantasy Football Gameweek 10 Fixture Analysis

Captaincy this week looks simple with Mohamed Salah in the early kick off. The Egyptian faces a struggling Watford (albeit it with a new manager at the helm).

The one that tempts me is Ruben Dias at home to Burnley. Tier 2 passing is almost guaranteed with a clean sheet which gives us a base of 11 points. This could be enough to match Salah at the very least.

As for the Sunday, it is likely to be a choice between Michail Antonio or Harry Kane. I am currently on the Hammers forward and I’m very glad to see him not travel over the international break.

On the Monday, I already have Connor Gallagher but as mentioned earlier, I may bring an Arsenal asset for the back to back singles Gameweeks.

Good Luck for Gameweek 10!

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Sky Fantasy Football Gameweek 8 Analysis

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