Fantasy Premier League has a new leading man.
Double-figure scores in four of his last five games, with four goals and five assists in that time, have made Leroy Sane the top-scoring player in the league – and at a relatively reasonable £8.7million as well.
The Manchester City winger is eight points clear of Tottenham’s £12.6m striker Harry Kane – and the pair now book-end Press Association Sport’s heat index…
WHO’S HOT, WHO’S NOT?
Heat scores range from 100 to -100, based on a player’s overall selection percentage and the change in his popularity over time.
Sane’s scoring run has seen him soar to 57.6, just beating out City team-mate Sergio Aguero (53.7) for top spot.
Nicolas Otamendi is the third City player in the top 10 while there are places for bargain options Tammy Abraham (£5.9m, 46 points, 26.6), Stephen Ward (£4.7m, 50 points, 20.6) and Abdoulaye Doucoure (£5.4m, 49 points, 18.6).
Kane is coldest at -63.9 – a legacy of missing gameweek 10 against Manchester United due to injury, though he returned for the Champions League clash with Real Madrid in midweek and the public have yet to respond.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan is in an isolated second place on -45.7 with Manchester United team-mate Romelu Lukaku proving far from “untouchable” in third – six per cent of all managers have transferred out the Belgium striker over the last two weeks, giving him a heat score of -23.92 despite still being the most-selected player in the game.
Meanwhile, spare a thought for Ahmed Hegazi – the early-season heat score darling has now slid into the 10 coldest players. Ahmed, we’ll always have Bournemouth.
Romelu Lukaku
POUND-FOR-POUND CHAMPIONS
Goalkeepers can be had cheaply in FPL but there is a reason Manchester United’s David De Gea is the second most-selected player overall – even at £5.7m, you would need to spend £3m to find a higher-scoring player in any position (that man Sane).
Ward continues to produce, with even free-scoring City doing minimal damage to Burnley’s over-achieving defenders, and should continue to do so with Arsenal the only leading club on the Clarets’ upcoming agenda.
Brighton’s Pascal Gross rivals Doucoure and his Watford team-mate Richarlison for midfield value, scoring 55 points so far at £5.8m, while Abraham, his new England colleagues Marcus Rashford and Jamie Vardy and Stoke’s Mame Biram Diouf have over-performed their price tags in attack.
David de Gea
CHECK THE FIXTURES
Manchester City’s projected points haul over their next three games has dipped below seven for the first time in a couple of weeks… but only as far as 6.98.
The tally is calculated using an aggregation of betting markets and even the upcoming visit of Arsenal is not expected to slow City down unduly – the bookmakers give the Gunners only a 13.5 per cent chance of winning at the Etihad Stadium.
United and Spurs are also tipped for over six points, with Chelsea down at 4.78 and Arsenal, influenced of course by that meeting with City, at 4.18. West Brom’s league-low 2.29 perhaps helps to explain Hegazi’s fall from grace.
Provided by Press Association Sport