Aston Villa are teaming up with the No.1 independent fantasy football site in 2020/21.
Fantasy Football Scout will be providing regular reports packed with hints and tips to help you, hopefully, move into the top tier of fantasy football management.
Need some help with your FPL line-up, sit back and take their advice on board…
Fantasy Loyalty Earned
The good news, from a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) perspective, is that there's been no great rush to part ways with Villa assets despite two consecutive defeats.
Captain Fantastic
Some 44,000 have said farewell to Jack Grealish (£7.4m), even though he impressed against Southampton, scoring one goal, setting up two more and bringing in a superb 15-point haul for his 30.8% FPL ownership.
Those sellers are in the minority, however, because the skipper is also the third most popular transfer-in ahead of a Gameweek 8 trip to Arsenal.
Just over 200,000 new owners are hoping Grealish will continue the blistering form that has propelled him to third in FPL's midfielder standings on 54 points – a total only four players in the entire game can beat.
The two midfielders ahead of him on points, Mohamed Salah and Heung-Min Son, are having superb starts to the season.
Then again, so is Grealish, who's second only to Salah for penalty area touches (61 to 79) and shots in the box (15 to 25) and leads the way among midfielders for assists and big chances created (both five).
The Arsenal match will be tough, but Villa's schedule following the international break is set fair until after Boxing Day.
Grealish's value has already risen £0.4m this season. If you haven't already brought him in, now might be the time to strike before his ever-spiralling price has the potential to be an issue.
Terrific Tyrone
One other Villa player is enjoying substantial purchases this week – Tyrone Mings (£5.2m).
Now found in 10.5% of all FPL squads, the England centre-half is, like his captain, high up the scoring charts.
His 36 points so far is only bettered by two other defenders and that's despite conceding seven goals over the last two Gameweeks.
The not-so secret to that success has been his consistent attacking threat.
His goal against Southampton was his second in the league this season – only Chelsea's Kurt Zouma, with three, has more – and he's also produced an assist.
No defender has had more big chances than Mings' two, while his attempts in the box (six) and headers (five) are totals beaten only by Harry Maguire (both eight).
The Arsenal encounter is likely to be tight as each of their last four league games have been settled by a one-goal margin.
That could mean set-pieces have a part to play at The Emirates. Only Everton (six) have more goals from dead-ball situations than Villa's five – and that's from a match more.
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