For Fantasy Premier League managers who are planning to activate the new Assistant Manager chip in Double Gameweek 25, along with the 416,000+ managers who backed David Moyes (£0.5m) in Double Gameweek 24 and could now move to another Assistant Manager, The Scout helps with the choice between Liverpool's Arne Slot (£1.5m) and Aston Villa’s Unai Emery (£0.8m).
The new Assistant Manager chip allows you to pick a real-life Premier League manager and earn points from their club’s results over a three-Gameweek spell.
With Liverpool and Aston Villa both playing TWICE in Double Gameweek 25 (DGW25), if you use the Assistant Manager chip now on Slot or Emery, you would profit from FOUR matches over the next three Gameweeks.
Liverpool host Wolverhampton Wanderers and visit Villa in DGW25 before facing Manchester City and Newcastle United in their two subsequent matches.
Liverpool's next three Gameweeks
| GW | Opponent | FDR* |
| 25 | Wolves (H), Aston Villa (A) | 2, 3 |
|---|---|---|
| 26 | Man City (A) | 4 |
| 27 | Newcastle (H) | 3 |
*Fixture Difficulty Ratings: 1 = easiest possible fixture, 5 = hardest
Villa, meanwhile, have three home matches over the next three Gameweeks. They entertain Ipswich Town and Liverpool in DGW25, before hosting Chelsea and visiting Crystal Palace.
Aston Villa's next three Gameweeks
| GW | Opponent | FDR* |
| 25 | Ipswich (H), Liverpool (H) | 2, 5 |
|---|---|---|
| 26 | Chelsea (H) | 4 |
| 27 | Crystal Palace (A) | 3 |
How to score points
The Assistant Manager chip earns points based on your chosen manager’s club performance. They earn points from a number of metrics, but you CANNOT captain them.
- Team win = 6 points
- Team draws = 3 points
- Goal scored by team = 1 point per goal
- Clean sheet from team = 2 points
- Table bonus: If your chosen manager faces a club ranked at least five places higher in the Premier League table at the start of the Gameweek, you get an EXTRA 10 points for a win, so 16 in total, or an additional five points for a draw, so eight in total.
In light of Slot's red card against Everton on Wednesday, it is worth noting that yellow or red cards do NOT impact a manager's points in Fantasy, which are purely based on their club’s results.
There are two strategies when playing the Assistant Manager chip over the remainder of the season.
You could pick a manager of a club towards the top of the table to rack up the points for victories, goals and clean sheets over a kind run of fixtures.
Alternatively, you could opt for higher risk and higher reward by choosing someone who could collect table-bonus points.
How have Slot and Emery performed recently?
Slot is the top-scoring manager in Fantasy, with his total of 198 points, if scoring had started back in Gameweek 1, being second only to the 251 points of Mohamed Salah (£13.7m) among all assets in Fantasy.
The Dutchman has collected 25 points across his last three matches.
He claimed 10 points in a 4-1 win over Ipswich, earning six points for the win and four points for four goals scored.
Slot then picked up another 10 points in a 2-0 win over AFC Bournemouth in the first match of Liverpool's Double Gameweek 24.
And he collected a further five points from Liverpool's 2-2 draw at Everton on Wednesday evening.
| GW23 | DGW24 | DGW24 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Result | 4-1 v Ipswich | 2-0 v Bournemouth | 2-2 v Everton |
| Win/draw pts | 6 | 6 | 3 |
| Table bonus win/draw pts | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Goal pts | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Clean sheet pts | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Total | 10 | 10 | 5 |
Emery, by contrast, has managed just 14 points across Villa's last three matches.
He was awarded 10 points for Villa's 2-2 draw with Arsenal in Gameweek 21 - three points for the draw, five more for the table-bonus draw, and a further two points for goals scored.
Emery has earned just four points from Villa's last two matches against West Ham United and Wolves. All four of those points came courtesy of the 1-1 draw with the Hammers, with the Spaniard picking up zero points for the 2-0 loss to Wolves.
| GW22 | GW23 | GW24 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Result | 2-2 v Arsenal | 1-1 v West Ham | 0-2 v Wolves |
| Win/draw pts | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Table bonus win/draw pts | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Goal pts | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Clean sheet pts | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 10 | 4 | 0 |
So, who's the better pick?
Ultimately, Slot's consistency makes him the more likely manager of the two to reward investment.
Nonetheless, it is worth bearing in mind that Moyes outscored the Liverpool boss by 22 points to 15 in DGW24, which helps to highlight the potential offered by the table bonus element.
Although Villa's lack of form is a clear concern, their displays in home matches suggest Emery could still be worth the risk using the Assistant Manager chip, given both of his fixtures in DGW25 are at Villa Park.
Villa have earned 23 Premier League points at home this season, just three fewer than Liverpool, after winning six and drawing five of their 12 matches.
Move to a different manager in GW26?
There is also the option of using your free transfers to change your Assistant Manager after DGW25.
Fantasy Managers who activate the chip and pick Slot or Emery in DGW25 could target a different club who have favourable fixtures for Gameweeks 26 and 27.
You could move to Bournemouth's Andoni Iraola (£1.1m), who faces Wolves and Brighton & Hove Albion in Gameweeks 26-27.
If you wanted to target the table-bonus element, Wolves’ matches against Bournemouth and Fulham could pay off handsomely for Vitor Pereira (£0.8m), although there is a far higher element of risk attached with picking him.