The 1.3million+ Fantasy Premier League managers who turned to Jamie Vardy (£10.8m) ahead of Gameweek 9 were left rueing their decision after a disappointing Sunday afternoon at Brentford.
An injury to Romelu Lukaku (£11.6m) sparked a clamour for the 34-year-old, who had scored in five of his last six appearances and produced two double-figure hauls in that run.
But that form was not to continue at the Brentford Community Stadium as the forward was substituted at half-time and returned only one point.
GW9 most transferred-in players
| Player | Transferred in by ('000s) | Pts |
| Vardy | 1,354 | 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Townsend | 446 | 2 |
| Chilwell | 364 | 12 |
Andros Townsend (£5.7m) was unable to take advantage of a promising home fixture for Everton against Watford, blanking for a second consecutive Gameweek.
Meanwhile, Ben Chilwell (£5.7m) rewarded the 364,000+ managers who snapped him up ahead of the home encounter against Norwich City, scoring for a third successive Gameweek to make it 35 points over that period.
GW9 most transferred-out players
| Player | Transferred out by ('000s) | Pts |
| Lukaku | 1,612 | 0 |
|---|---|---|
| Ronaldo | 713 | 1 |
| Alonso | 412 | 0 |
An ankle injury sustained in Chelsea's midweek UEFA Champions League tie coupled with poor form led to more than 1.6m FPL bosses parting company with Lukaku. The Belgian had failed to score in his last four Premier League appearances.
Elsewhere, over 713,000 lost patience with Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.5m) following three successive blanks. The Portuguese was the second most-sold player for Gameweek 9 and those who did part company were rewarded as he claimed only one point in Manchester United's 5-0 defeat by Liverpool.
Marcos Alonso (£5.9m) was sold by 412,000+ managers and that proved to be a shrewd move as he was an unused substitute in the 7-0 win over Norwich.
GW9 most-captained players
| Player | Captained by (000's) | Pts |
| Salah | 3,187 | 24 |
|---|---|---|
| Ronaldo | 1,015 | 1 |
| Vardy | 720 | 1 |
For the sixth time this term, Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) was the No 1 captain pick, handed the armband by more than 3.1m for the contest at Old Trafford.
And those who did so will be revelling in his superb display as he claimed a hat-trick and an assist to bring home 24 points, his biggest haul of the season.
Salah is the first player to reach 100 points in Fantasy this season. His current tally of 107 points is 50 ahead of Vardy, his nearest challenger.
Despite being sold in large numbers, Ronaldo was captained by over 1m managers while more than 720,000+ took the decision to back Vardy.
Most-captained by top 100
| Player | Captained by | Pts |
| Salah | 64 | 24 |
|---|---|---|
| Havertz | 16 | 3 |
| Vardy | 8 | 1 |
The leading 100 FPL managers selected two of the same three captains, with Kai Havertz (£8.1m) replacing Ronaldo in second.
Havertz played up front for Chelsea in the absence of the injured Lukaku and Timo Werner (£8.6m) and was also the fourth most-transferred-in player for Gameweek 9.
But despite the flurry of goals at Stamford Bridge, the German returned only three points and was substituted after 69 minutes.
See: Fantasy Premier League stats
Also in this series
Part 1: FDR Analysis: Turn to Brentford for value picks
Part 2: GW9 Bonus points: Cresswell stars for West Ham
Part 4: FPL Saturday review: Chilwell the top target for Gameweek 10
