It’s with great sadness that we have to bring you this (*provisional) team of the season.

But with Premier League football suspended – and no decision yet on a postponement or cancellation of the campaign – we thought we’d call time here for now.

So without further ado, here’s how it looks:

Caveats to our selection:

  1. We keep a two players per team quota in place
  2. We keep formation considerations too – most of the higher-scoring players are strikers, but that wouldn’t be a team!
  3. Where there are ties for points and neither of the above apply, we make a subjective judgement

So there you have it.

And whilst these eleven heroes grab the acclaim, spare a thought for those who racked up the Fantasy League points this term, but couldn’t squeeze themselves in due to our caveats.

Firstly, the 60+ point Liverpool duo, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane, on 62 and 60 respectively.

Sterling hauls that reflect a totally dominant campaign for the red half of Merseyside.

We’d like to highlight a trio of strikers that also distinguished themselves; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Marcus Rashford and Raul Jimenez on 55, 52 and 51 points respectively.

But back to the first-choice XI.

And specifically, the individual champion of Fantasy League in 2019/20, Jamie Vardy.

A terrific 69-point tally was pretty front-loaded, with the Foxes’ frontman’s goals drying up to a dribble in 2020.

But it was enough to fend off the extraordinary Trent Alexander-Arnold, despite the Reds’ full back’s mammoth 13 assists and 11 clean sheets.

He couldn’t quite nab the Top Assister crown though, which was taken by Kevin de Bruyne on 17. Remarkable, and reflective of a real return to form after the Belgian’s injury-wrecked 2018/19.

As for biggest surprises of the season, even the most ardent Sheffield United fan surely wouldn’t have predicted the team of the year would feature two Blades.

But it does, in George Baldock and John Egan (37 and 27 points respectively).

They were part of an incredible rearguard that conceded the second-fewest goals in the top flight (25), behind only Liverpool’s 21.

And the Blades’ success contributes to our tips on Fantasy League team selection.

Yes, as a taster for next season, here are three things we would recommend doing to find the hidden value:

  1. Don’t ignore promoted sides. You won’t always get this right, but the upside of getting players for next to nothing who then have a stellar season is clear.
  2. Pack your midfield with forwards. You only have to look at this season’s team of the year to see this at play. Anthony Martial, Heung-Min Son and Richarlison are forwards in all but name. And Mo Salah and Sadio Mane were also categorised as midfielders this term…
  3. Past performance CAN indicate future returns. Particularly in the case of the league’s top sides. Injury-permitting, the likes of de Bruyne, Alexander-Arnold and Rashford should continue having profitable campaigns for some time yet.

Whatever happens, let’s hope we get some football soon…