With exactly three weeks until Gameweek 1 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) gets underway, many of us are still studying the player price list to see where the best value could come from.
In this article, we weave last year’s points with this year’s prices for a cursory look at where that value may lie.
POINTS PER MILLION PER GAME
FPL themselves use points per million for their ‘Value (Season)’ metric but we’ll use points per match per million for this study. This levels the playing field between the ever-presents and those who may have had injury-riddled campaigns.
Points per million per match (PPMPM) is, it has to be said, a basic route into FPL team value.
We wouldn’t just create a team of FPL assets based on this alone as we’ll inevitably end up with a huge wad of unused cash in the bank, due to the fact that Mohamed Salah (£12.5m), Erling Haaland (£15.0m) et al will struggle to feature prominently in the tables below.
Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) takes this to the next level and is something that has been written about at length by our clued-up community over the years.
We’re also looking solely at last season’s points, not ‘expected’ goals data or anything else. It will all be very different for some players this time around; past points aren’t a reliable gauge of what’s to come.
But ‘PPMPM’ is still a decent starting point for making an at-a-glance comparison of, say, two players of the same position and of similar price: Jordan Pickford (£5.0m) and Nick Pope (£5.0m), for example.
For the below, we’re discounting anyone who made fewer than 10 appearances.
GOALKEEPERS
| Name | Team | Apps | 2024/25 Price | 2023/24 Points | Points per million | Points per match per million |
| Muric | IPS | 10 | 4.5 | 47 | 10.4 | 1.04 |
| Areola | WHU | 31 | 4.5 | 116 | 25.8 | 0.83 |
| Sanchez | CHE | 16 | 4.5 | 59 | 13.1 | 0.82 |
| Pickford | EVE | 38 | 5 | 153 | 30.6 | 0.81 |
| Raya | ARS | 32 | 5.5 | 135 | 24.5 | 0.77 |
| Neto | BOU | 32 | 4.5 | 110 | 24.4 | 0.76 |
| Pope | NEW | 15 | 5 | 57 | 11.4 | 0.76 |
| Kelleher | LIV | 10 | 4.5 | 34 | 7.6 | 0.76 |
| Johnstone | CRY | 20 | 4.5 | 68 | 15.1 | 0.76 |
| Dubravka | NEW | 23 | 4.5 | 75 | 16.7 | 0.73 |
| Verbruggen | BHA | 21 | 4.5 | 68 | 15.1 | 0.72 |
| Flekken | BRE | 37 | 4.5 | 119 | 26.4 | 0.71 |
| Leno | FUL | 38 | 5 | 133 | 26.6 | 0.70 |
| Onana | MUN | 38 | 5 | 133 | 26.6 | 0.70 |
| Alisson | LIV | 28 | 5.5 | 107 | 19.5 | 0.70 |
Ari Muric (£4.5m) just about qualified in terms of appearances, so takes top spot from his small sample of starts. He has since moved clubs, of course, to Premier League new boys Ipswich Town.
Even with a rise from £4.0m to £4.5m, Alphonse Areola is right up there for value. He delivered more save points (39) and penalty stops (two) than any other goalkeeper last season, which helped mask his dismal clean sheet count (four). With Julen Lopetegui now at the helm, there’ll be hope that he can replicate his defensive record at Sevilla with West Ham United.
Even with price rises, Jordan Pickford (£5.0m) and David Raya (£5.5m) fare well in the above table. They were first and second among goalkeepers for FPL points in 2023/24.
Also featuring highly is Nick Pope (£5.0m), thanks to his price drop of half a million this summer. Injured for much of the previous campaign, his presence should hopefully stiffen a Newcastle backline that had a mid-season wobble. There are no midweek European distractions in 2024/25, either.
DEFENDERS
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