GW18 FPL stats: Managers regret U-turn on Mitrovic

More than 810,000 Fantasy Premier League managers saw their move for Aleksandar Mitrovic (£7.0m) fail to pay off for Gameweek 18 as the forward missed a late penalty in Fulham's 2-1 home win over Southampton.

The second most-sold player over the season break, Mitrovic overcame a foot injury to score 15 points on Boxing Day, his biggest haul of the season. But the Serb saw his stoppage-time penalty saved by Gavin Bazunu (£4.5m) and lost two points to return zero overall.

GW18 most transferred-in players

Among the top three recruits for the second successive Gameweek, Ivan Toney (£7.5m) scored his 12th goal of the campaign to equal his tally from last season.

Having also supplied an assist in Brentford's 2-0 win at West Ham United, he has become the fifth player to reach the 100-point mark in FPL this term.

Marcus Rashford (£6.8m) gained over 525,000 new owners after his third double-figure return of the campaign in Gameweek 17. These managers would have been stunned to see the player benched for the trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers for internal disciplinary reasons, but Rashford came on to score the only goal and return five points. 

GW18 most-captained active players

Erling Haaland (£12.2m) set a captaincy record with nearly 7.3million managers giving him the armband for Man City's home match against Everton. That surpasses his previous high of 7.1m set in Gameweek 10. Haaland rewarded those managers with a goal but a booking also limited the striker's return to five points. 

Mohamed Salah (£12.9m) took second spot but was unable to continue his good run of form, blanking in Liverpool's 2-1 victory over Leicester City. He had recorded 36 points across his previous four matches.

There was further frustration on Sunday as Harry Kane (£11.6m), backed by 402,000+ for the captaincy, blanked for the first time in eight home matches as Spurs suffered a surprise 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa.

GW18 most transferred-out players

An injury to Reece James (£5.7m) led to more than 695,000 sales. The Chelsea defender is expected to miss up to a month of action.

Injury also prompted large numbers to continue selling Gabriel Jesus (£8.0m), with Mitrovic and Toney the beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, a disappointing blank at Southampton meant Leandro Trossard (£7.0m) was shipped out by over 381,000 managers and they did not regret that decision as the Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder returned only one point and was substituted off in the 4-2 defeat by Arsenal on Saturday.

Early Wildcard use

Finally, even though FPL managers had unlimited transfers between Gameweeks 16 and 17, more than 140,000 of them ripped up their plans for Gameweek 18 and opted to play their second and last Wildcard at the first opportunity in search of better returns. 

See: Fantasy Premier League stats

Also in this series 

Part 1: GW18 bonus points