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Getting Fantasy Premier League points is the whole name of the game. Actually knowing how those points are calculated, however, is a different matter entirely.
Plenty of Premier League fantasy football fans have been playing the game for years. If you asked them how many points they actually got for a clean sheet, however, or how many they lost for a yellow card, they’d look at you blankly.
This article will tell you everything you need to know about Fantasy Premier League points. We’ll cover how they’re calculated by position, explain captaincy and triple captaincy, and give you some Fantasy Premier League tips on calculating player value based on their points output.
The goalkeeper is the most annoying spot to fill in EPL fantasy. You have to have one – the game makes you – but getting any points from the bloody position is incredibly hit-or-miss.
Primarily, this is because the clean sheet is so dominant. Goalkeepers get 4 points for a clean sheet, which is actually the same amount as a forward gets for scoring a goal.
(Clean sheets are quite hard to come by, unfortunately. Even the best keepers will only get 10-15ish per season).
Long story short – clean sheets are rare (and often expensive) in FPL.
Goalkeepers do get 6 points for scoring a goal, which is nice to know but almost never happens. What does happen, thankfully, are saves. Saves are the great equaliser for the goalkeeper position in FPL fantasy football. Goalkeepers get 1pt for every 3 saves they make during a game.
That might not sound like a lot. Basically though, it allows you to get a cheap keeper from a not-so-great team, and still get points out of him, rather than shelling out for an expensive premium keeper. You won’t get as many points from this as you would for an… actually-good goalkeeper, but it helps to balance the game (and your budget).
Elsewhere, we have two of the rarer occurrences: penalty saves and own goals.
Goalkeepers get 5pts per penalty save. Obviously, you’re not going to select the goalkeeper for your FPL team based on this, since it’s pretty random.
Goalkeepers lose 2pts per own goal. Technically every player does, but goalkeepers or defenders are the most frequent victims. This is my least favourite of the Fantasy Premier League rules. It’s nonsense – players shouldn’t be punished for a freak accident – and I wish it was removed. Unfortunately, we just have to live with it.
Finally, goalkeepers lose 1pt for every two goals conceded. This is an argument against picking a keeper from a rubbish team, since it will detract those inevitable save points he’s getting.
Technically, the most FPL points a defender can score in one go is 6pts, for a goal. In practice, this is extremely rare.
Even the defenders we tend to think of as ‘goal threats’ – like Virgil van Dijk, or Reece James – will get at most five goals per season. That’s not really enough to base your decisions on when crafting the best FPL team possible.
A better route to go is clean sheets, which net 4pts for a defender.
A premium defender might cost a pretty penny. But – if he’s part of a great defence – he can be worth his weight in gold when it comes to clean sheets alone. The perennial priciest defender, for example – Trent Alexander-Arnold has notched 18, 10, 14, and 16 clean sheets between 2019-2023, adding up to a bucketload of points.
Another thing to note is that defenders tend to rack up more minutes than midfielders and forwards. A top centre-back is typically locked in for 90 minutes every week, which – in turn – locks you in to the 2pts for playing 60+ minutes.
They’re the nice, sunny parts of owning a defender. Now let’s look at how FPL Towers rain on our parade.
Like goalkeepers, defenders get -1pt for every two goals conceded. Due to their position, they’re also the most likely players to get yellow cards and red cards*, worth -1 and -3 points respectively.
(*This is my second-least favourite FPL fantasy rule, at least when it comes to points. In the post-David Luiz era, red cards are almost completely random, and can’t possibly factor into your thinking or analysis as an FPL manager).
In recent years, the assist has become key for FPL defenders.
Defenders get 3pts per assist, like any other position. Some players rack up assists with their traditional defensive points, however, and this is when a player’s value really hits the highest heights. Unsurprisingly, this is also why creative full-backs – like James, Munoz et al – are invariably the most expensive defenders.
Finally, post-2025, we now have defensive contributions. These have been a game-changer for defenders, and made owning centre-backs far more viable than before.
We’ve explained how DefCons are actually calculated here.
Ah, Fantasy Premier League, in which the concept of ‘midfielder’ is so very fluid.
Gakpo, who plays on the left wing for Liverpool, is a forward. Salah, who played for many years on the right wing for Liverpool, was a midfielder. Good luck working that one out.
Regardless, as in real-life, midfielders are the most versatile of Fantasy Premier League assets. They also tend to be the biggest-scorers, year on year.
A large part of this is because – as noted – the positioning is strange to say the least. The likes of Mo Salah and Son-Heung Min scored goals by the hatful, but were listed as midfielders in the game. This is especially important because midfielders get 5pts for a goal, whereas forwards only get 4pts.
Like all other positions, midfielders also get 3pts for an assist. Based on their real-world positioning, however (usually on the wing or playing attacking midfield, for FPL assets), they’re most likely to actually get those assists.
On top of that, Fantasy PL midfielders also get 1pt for each clean sheet. Obviously that’s nowhere near as much as defenders (who get 4pts), but it still helps to flesh out a midfielder’s scoring output.
In addition, midfielders – like defenders – can get DefCon points nowadays.
In short, midfielders can rack up points in all sorts of ways. This is why they tend to be the highest-scoring players, and – in general – are worth devoting a big chunk of your budget towards.
In real life, you could easily make the case that forward is the most important position on the field. These are the goalscorers, after all – the match winners.
In FPL, this is generally not the case. That’s thanks largely – as noted – to the fact that many of the best real-life forwards are ‘midfielders’ in the game. In an average season, there will often be a mere couple of forwards among the top FPL scorers.
To a large extent, this is because forwards simply have fewer ways to gain points. Unlike midfielders, they get nothing for clean sheets, nor do they obviously get the save points of goalkeepers.
Forwards do get 4pts per goal, which is how most of their points are generated.
This is significantly less than the 5pts for a midfielder, despite many of the Premier League’s regular top scorers – Salah, Son, Saka, and so on – being midfielders. You can see immediately, therefore, why forwards tend to get fewer points per minutes than their midfield counterparts.
Elsewhere, forwards get 3pts per assist, like any other position.
And… that’s about it! Apart from that (and technically hitting DefCons every now and then), forwards simply deal with the same points for minutes played, the deductions for cards received, and so on, as any other position.
We’ve focused on how FPL points are calculated by position so far. There are also a few key categories, however, in which all positions are judged equally.
One of the most important is playing time.Every player gets 1pt for playing up to 60 minutes, and 2pts for playing 60 minutes or more.
In short, there’s value in simply having a player who’s nailed-on to start every week, and play most – if not all – of the game. Getting an automatic 2pts each week, preferably from all your FPL players, is a great foundation on which to build.
Every position also gets -1pt for a yellow card, and -3pts for a red card. The latter are basically random, but defenders and midfielders are naturally more likely to pick up yellows.
Elsewhere, every position also gets -2pts for missing a penalty. Penalties remain a great source of points, however, and have helped to massively pump up the value of owning the likes of Salah, Kane, and – previously – Bruno Fernandes.
Finally, the –2pt per own goal deduction is also distributed equally. I can’t emphasise how much I hate this rule, but… that’s just the way it is.
There’s one key component of scoring we haven’t touched on yet – FPL bonus points.
We’ve written about those in full here.
In short though, any FPL player – regardless of position – can get 1-3 bonus points. Every match, three players will be awarded Fantasy Premier League bonus points.
The chosen players are determined by the Bonus Points System (BPS), which analyses each game via a range of different performance-based stats. You can get a full rundown of the criteria on the official Fantasy Premier League website.
Based on those Fantasy Premier League stats, the best, second-best, and third-best players will get 3pts, 2pts, and 1pt respectively. You can get live, in-game updates on which players are most likely to get the bonus points here.
On their day, any player can have a good game and pick up a few bonus points. This is another way, however, in which the consistent premium FPL players – Haaland, Gabriel, Bruno, and so on – distinguish themselves from the crowd, and help to separate themselves in terms of overall, season-long points.
You now know all you need to about how an individual player’s Fantasy Premier League points are calculated. For your own week-to-week purposes, however, there’s one more major tool in your armoury – captaincy.
Captaincy doubles the basic points your player scored. All the player’s contributions (positive and negative) will be calculated as normal first, then the total will automatically be doubled. You can also set a vice-captain. This doubles your points too, but only activates if your first-choice captain doesn’t play.
Finally, we come to one of the three ‘chips’ you’re given each season – triple captaincy.
As the name suggests, this will triple the score of your chosen player for that game, instead of just doubling it.
This can have an absolutely massive impact, so don’t waste it early on. I’d advise always waiting for a double gameweek (i.e. two games in one gameweek) to use your triple captain, which is when you can rack up truly enormous scores. These tend to come later in the season, so be sure to bide your time.
Obviously, individual players can lose points for yellow cards, red cards, conceding goals, and so on. There’s also one way, however, in which you can personally lose FPL points. Exciting!
The way to do this, of course, is by taking a hit. Each gameweek you’re awarded one free transfer. You’re allowed to roll this over one time, for a maximum of two free transfers in a given week.
You’re allowed to make moves exceeding this free transfer cap, but it’ll cost you. Specifically, you’ll get -4pts per transfer. Resist the temptation to do this too often, since hits can really add up. At a basic level, you should only take a hit if you think it’ll make up those 4pts you’re losing in the upcoming FPL fixtures. Looked at another way, the player/s you’re bringing in should outscore the player/s you’re moving out by at least 4pts.
After reading this article, you should have a firm grasp on exactly how FPL points are calculated. We’ve broken it down for you by position, covered the more general Fantasy Premier League points every player can get, and touched on captaincy, triple captaincy, taking hits, and more.
Simply understanding how Fantasy Premier League works is an underrated step towards getting better at the game. We’ve also provided a sprinkling of FPL tips to help you throughout this article. For plenty more where that came from, be sure to follow us on Reddit and get our Fantasy Premier League advice for the latest gameweek here.
How are Fantasy Premier League points calculated?
Certain outcomes – like yellow cards, red cards, and assists – score the same points regardless of position. Others, however – like goals and clean sheets – get more or fewer FPL points depending on the player’s position.
How do FPL bonus points work?
Every game, the three ‘best’ players are determined using the Bonus Points System. These players are then awarded an additional 3, 2, and 1pts respectively.
How many Fantasy Premier League points does a hit cost you?
A ‘hit’ means making transfers exceeding the number of free transfers you have. You lose 4pts per hit, and can take as many as you like.
Should I take a hit in FPL?
You shouldn’t make a habit of it, since FPL points are hard to come by. Only take a hit if you believe the player/s you’re bringing in will outscore those you’re binning by at least 4pts.
When should I use my triple captaincy?
Triple captaincy – as the name suggests – triples your captain’s score for one gameweek. You can use it twice per season. We’d recommend waiting until a premium player has a double gameweek before using it.
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