The Roker Report Fantasy League: Week 21 - Who's gunna get you some fantasy points this week?

Who Were The Leaders & High Scorers?

No change at the top in Gameweek 21, it’s still Jonathan Glover’s team leading the pack. Shane Warne’s Flipper obviously felt confident that West Brom would overcome Sunderland, with Gareth McAuley, Salomon Rondon & Matt Phillips all in the ranks, but it was McAuley who scored highest after an assist and a clean sheet. There was another clean sheet from Marcos Alonso, while his Chelsea team mate Diego Costa got on the scoresheet and Alexis Sanchez’s late penalty against Burnley earned doubled points, due being Jonathan’s captain.

An inspired gamble on the captaincy was key to Tapi-In Master CR7 becoming this weeks highest scorer. Seamus Coleman was given the armband by Asjad Sohail and it couldn’t have worked out better, after his 87th minute winner and clean sheet. 30 points were scored from Coleman alone, while the likes of Gary Cahill, Roberto Firmino and Gylfi Sigurdsson made big contributions to a total of 93 points.

Who Is Down The Bottom?

Keir Bradwell may think that All You Need Is Love but he’ll need more than that to get off the bottom of the table. A quick look at Keir’s team suggests he threw in the towel a while ago, given out for the season Yannick Bolasie is still in there. Sort it out, mate.

The same goes for our lowest scorer as well - Jon Mason’s Wearside Warriors. As well as Bolasie, the injured Gaston Ramirez was in the team and the exiled Dimitri Payet. 15 points earned Jon the wooden spoon this week and, unless he starts paying attention again, it won’t be the last time we’re seeing his name in this section.

How Are The Roker Report Team Doing?

A canny climb for the RR writers star manager, Jim Holmes. Giroud - Sandstorm moved up to 9th after a real team effort. Gareth McAuley at the back and Fernando Llorente up front were the stand outs but Sanchez, Costa and Azpilicueta all made decent contributions. The only negative was that none of those five players were Jim’s captain, so there was still something of a missed opportunity, as a few more points could have had him back in the top 5.

No progression for 50 Shades Of O’Shea, they fell to 35th after none of Dan Parker’s three strikers found the net. Ben Foster and David Luiz kept the opposition out though and double points were brought in through Sanchez. Falling to 55th, it was a similar story for Micky Lough’s FlyOnTheWingsOfLove as his strike partnership of Zlatan and Lukaku drew blanks. Dele Ali contributed from the midfield though and Gary Cahill came up from the back to nod one in.

It’s not often that a team doesn’t move at all but Tom Atkinson’s Sunlun have stayed put, in 185th. It was a good job Tom used his bench boost this weekend, as he had Ben Foster amongst the subs and he scored 7 - joint highest with anyone in the starting XI. Equalling Foster’s effort was Ashley Williams, due to his clean sheet, so those extra points from the subs were vital or Tom may have plummeted.

A big leap for my lads this gameweek, shooting up 26 places to 201st. Champagne Papy Bodji scored 65 points and I was another to give the captaincy to Alexis Sanchez. Further goals were added by Costa & Son, there were clean sheets from Alonso & Foster, while McAuley did likewise but also got an assist to add to Raheem Sterling’s. That’s more like it.

A little further down, only 30 places separate four of our teams. Leading that mini league at the moment is Steel Panthers, another side whose strikers didn’t score. Also like a few others, Karl Maguire had Sanchez as captain and Gareth McAuley doing the business so the void the strikers left was certainly filled and he moved up to 220th. There were no goals at all for Team Simon though and that was the main factor in him falling to 237th. The only thing Simon Fenton could celebrate was Cedric Soares’ clean sheet/assist, while some respectable points were taken by Harry Kane & Laurent Koscielny making goals.

Strikers not scoring is really becoming a theme here. No goals at all for James Henchard’s Blackended Roar Mass and when your star player is your goalkeeper, you know it’s been a bad week. Get down to 244th please, James. I’m not entirely sure what’s happening with Gav though as that’s now two good weeks in a row for Ice Cream Kone. A massive 74 points (the same total as last week) moved him up 28 places to 250th, with Gary Cahill, Gareth McAuley and Roberto Firmino the star men. Harry Kane’s assist meant he wasn’t a terrible choice as captain either and Mesut Ozil is always good for an assist.

So that means Gav is no longer last! All the more reason that Carl Purvis should be even more a shamed that he’s bottom of the writers table. In 262nd, Crystal Phallus are not having a good time at the moment but they did at least have Firmino & Foster stopping the team from falling too far behind.

Who Should You I Pick This Week?

With it being FA Cup this weekend we’re looking at the upcoming midweek round of games, so make sure you sort your team out by Tuesday.

Don’t throw yourself in straight away with this one but definitely keep an eye on Robert Snodgrass’ activity. At the time of writing, Hull have reportedly accepted a £10M fee from Burnley, who face Leicester City at home on Tuesday night. Sean Dyche’s men are excellent at home and should beat a Leicester side in awful form and Snodgrass generally will score you more points at Burnley, rather than Hull, if he does join The Clarets. Priced at only £5.8M in the game, make sure you’re monitoring him.

It seems obvious to recommend Chelsea players but there’s still some value to be had, ahead of their trip to Liverpool. Despite playing the majority of the season at wing back, Victor Moses is still marked as a midfielder and is very cheap at £5.6M. You won’t get as many points from his clean sheets but there’s still the possibility of many assists and the odd goal. If you have a bit more to spare and want to go for a more of an all out attacking threat, pick up Pedro for £7M. If Liverpool can concede three at home to Swansea, just imagine what Chelsea could do to them.

With Crystal Palace still struggling to get going under Sam Allarydce, they could be in for a tough time when they make the trip to Bournemouth. Callum Wilson should give the Palace defence plenty to think about and is a good shout if you’re on a budget, with a price tag of £6.2M.