The Digest – Gameweek 27

The Digest brings our focus on Gameweek 27 to a conclusion now, as we check out the key player, team and talking point for Fantasy managers.

Sergio Aguero shakes up the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) rankings, serving up a season-high 21 points at home to Leicester City.

Yet at a time when the Argentine looks back to his most clinical, will Man City’s schedule, allied with the armband options offered by Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah, force owners into a re-think?

Meanwhile, a win over Crystal Palace brings Everton’s attack onto our radars as we look to navigate the Gameweek 31 schedule and beyond.

The Player

In the six league matches since Gabriel Jesus was sidelined through injury, Sergio Aguero has reminded us just why he remains Fantasy royalty.

With his job-share with the Brazilian temporarily ditched since the turn of the year, Aguero has played from start to finish in all six of Man City’s recent league matches – by comparison, he was afforded 90 minutes in just seven of the opening 21 Gameweeks prior to Jesus’ injury.

Saturday’s four goals at home to Leicester impacted across many a mini-league and richly rewarded the 13.6% of managers who entrusted the Argentine with their Gameweek 27 armband.

Aguero’s 21 points against the Foxes set a season-high mark in FPL, bettering his previous personal best of 20 points for the current campaign back in Gameweek 5.

Now up to 7.4 points per match – second only to Mohamed Salah’s 8.3 and well ahead of Harry Kane’s 6.4 up front – the belated Aguero bandwagon has picked up pace, with over 90,000 new owners since Saturday’s deadline passed.

Delivering nine goals over those six matches, his form could barely be more convincing.

Yet the imminent returnof Jesus, allied with the knockout stages of the Champions League getting underway last night, suggests that Aguero’s pitch-time will be in question very soon as City’s relentless schedule only gets busier.

Those who traded in Kane for the Argentine may now be looking to reverse that transfer, particularly if City draw with Wigan in the FA Cup next Monday to force a Gameweek 28 blank.

Yet last night’s 4-0 hammering of FC Basel offers reason for optimism. The Argentine now seems far more likely to rested for the second leg, with Guardiola perhaps more inclined to allow Jesus to garner minutes against the Swiss and keep Aguero fresh for domestic action.

The Team

As one of only four teams currently guaranteed a Gameweek 31 fixture (away to Stoke City), Everton’s 3-1 win over Crystal Palace was welcomed by Fantasy managers.

Back on the teamsheet after being benched for the 5-1 reverse at Arsenal, Gylfi Sigurdsson picked the perfect time to deliver his first double-digit haul of the season.

The Icelandic international now has a goal and two assists in his last two appearances, while elsewhere in midfield, Theo Walcott has hit the ground running under Sam Allardyce, with two goals and an assist in four appearances since arriving from Arsenal.

While another of their winter signings, Cenk Tosun, continues to struggle to adjust to life in the English top-flight, Oumar Niasse strengthened his claim as a budget frontman by mirroring Sigurdsson’s 12-point tally.

With two goals and an assist since Walcott signed, the Senegal striker – still at a lowly cost of 4.8 – is second only to Aguero for Gameweek 28 acquisitions among forwards and seems an ideal enabler for those looking to either invest big in midfield or find a way of bringing in the Man City striker.

While their recent lack of resilience will persuade many to steer clear of investing in defence, the weekend return to winning ways bodes well ahead of a favourable season run-in.

Encouragingly for Allardyce and Fantasy managers alike, Everton have registered nine big chances in the last four Gameweeks – only four sides can better that record.

The Talking Point

Considering that he’s just bagged 21 points against Leicester, it maybe goes against the grain of commonsense to suggest that Aguero’s captaincy potential could now be in decline.

Bear with us here.

Looking at the league fixtures, if Man City beat Wigan in the FA Cup at the first time of asking – and therefore blank in Gameweek 31 – four of their next six (ars stk eve tot) will be on the road.

Even if Jesus was sidelined for the rest of the season, would we turn to Aguero as a skipper for any of those matches, given that only one of his five double-digit hauls was registered away from the Etihad Stadium?

Furthermore, City’s two home matches in that period would be against Chelsea and Man United.

If Gameweek 31 is taken out of the equation by the FA Cup quarter-finals, here are the fixtures for the next six Gameweeks which pitch the big three captain candidates head-to-head:

Gameweek 28 – Salah (WHU), Kane (cry), Aguero (ars)
Gameweek 29 – Salah (NEW), Kane (HUD), Aguero (CHE)
Gameweek 30 – Salah (mun), Kane (bou), Aguero (stk)
Gameweek 32 – Salah (cry), Kane (che), Aguero (eve)
Gameweek 33 – Salah (eve), Kane (stk), Aguero (MUN)
Gameweek 34 – Salah (BOU), Kane (MCI), Aguero (tot)

In all likelihood, Aguero’s strongest chance of outscoring Kane and Salah would be Gameweeks 30 and 32, away to Stoke and Everton respectively.

However, while Salah could be overlooked as an option away to Man United in Gameweek 30, Kane travels to Bournemouth having produced four of his eight double-digit hauls on the road.

And in Gameweek 32, when Kane visits Chelsea, Salah makes his way to Everton – the Egyptian has bagged five of his 12 sets of 10+ points hauls in away matches.

As we’ve witnessed over these past six rounds of fixtures, going with or without Aguero has been hugely significant, particularly for those who handed him the armband – his total 57 FPL points surpassed both Salah (49 points, albeit in five appearances) and Kane (35 points).

Backing his ability to maintain that pace or choosing to overlook him arguably presents us with an even greater decision and one that may ultimately shape our season run-ins.