The 940,000 Fantasy Premier League managers who captained Kevin De Bruyne (£12.2m) in Gameweek 24 were rewarded as the Manchester City midfielder produced a double-digit return against Brentford.
De Bruyne scored the second goal in Man City’s 2-0 win over the Bees and picked up maximum bonus to earn 11 points.
That makes it 66 points over his last eight appearances as the Belgian extended his best period of form this term.
All eyes now turn to Liverpool’s home meeting with Leicester City on Thursday, with Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) entrusted with the captain’s armband by 1.6million managers.
Both the most-captained and the second most-bought player ahead of the Gameweek 24 deadline, Salah is expected to feature against the Foxes.
His backers will be hoping he has recovered sufficiently to start at Anfield, having reached the final of the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt last weekend.
The second most-captained player, Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.5m), returned a single point after emerging as a second-half substitute in Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Burnley – exactly the scenario Salah’s owners will want to avoid.
Twenty of the top 100 Fantasy managers picked De Bruyne as their captain, with only Joao Cancelo (£7.1m) and Diogo Jota (£8.5m) chosen in greater numbers.
Cancelo earned a 13th clean sheet of the campaign against Brentford and picked up a bonus point to return seven points. At home, he has blanked just twice in 11 appearances.
Facing Leicester will bring back fond memories for Jota, who recorded his biggest return in FPL against the Foxes back in 2018/19.
Playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers at the time, Jota scored a hat-trick for a 19-point return.
Joining Salah among the most-bought players for GW24 were Odsonne Edouard (£6.5m) and Jarrod Bowen (£6.9m).
Bowen produced his fifth double-figure haul this term to delight his 300,000+ new owners.
The midfielder scored the only goal in West Ham United’s 1-0 win over Watford on his way to an 11-point return.
But there was disappointment for Edouard’s backers as he was named on the bench, only coming on for the final 10 minutes to register a single point in Crystal Palace’s 1-1 draw at Norwich City.
Watford’s defeat vindicated the decision of more than 407,000 managers to sell Emmanuel Dennis (£6.2m), who could only muster two points at the London Stadium.
Two Chelsea players, Mason Mount (£7.6m) and Antonio Rudiger (£6.1m), were also shipped out in large numbers. Chelsea don’t play in the Premier League again until GW26 due to their participation in the FIFA Club World Cup.
Aston Villa have lost their last two home league matches against Leeds United, losing 3-2 in the Championship in December 2018 and 3-0 in the Premier League last season. They’ve never lost three in a row at home to the Whites.
Villa have alternated between scoring once and scoring twice in their last seven home Premier League matches (2-3, 1-4, 2-0, 1-2, 2-1, 1-3, 2-2) and have only failed to net in one of their last 16 outings at Villa Park, a 0-0 draw with Everton in May.
Leeds beat West Ham in their last away match. They haven’t won consecutive matches on the road since May (Burnley and Southampton), while Leeds last won their first two away league matches in a year in 2005, beating Coventry City and Stoke City in the Championship.
This will be Leeds’ 4,000th league match since joining the Football League in 1920. The last four teams to hit this figure as a Premier League side have lost their 4000th match – Spurs in November 2017 (1-2 v Leicester), Watford in April 2018 (0-1 v Huddersfield), AFC Bournemouth in December 2019 (0-2 v Brighton) and Crystal Palace in July 2020 (2-3 v Chelsea).
