We are so close to Gameweek 1 of the 2026/27 top-flight season getting underway, which means Fantasy Premier League (FPL) is back.
One of the world’s most popular online games, FPL was played by over 13 million people in 2025/26. It’s free, fun and very addictive.
For all the newcomers who’ve been roped into playing this by family and friends: firstly, you’re not actually an idiot. Secondly, here’s our attempt at neatly explaining the game.
WHEN IS THE GAMEWEEK 1 DEADLINE?
It’ll always be 90 minutes before the Gameweek’s first match. In this case, your squad needs to be finalised by 18:30 BST on Friday 21 August.
TEAM NAMES + MINI-LEAGUES
Click here to register for FPL. When asked to name your team, try one of these 150 suggestions – ranging from cringeworthy puns to surprisingly clever wordplay.
Once a squad is made, managers can ‘Join a League’ to either go against known rivals or be placed amongst randomly assigned opponents. Simply select the ‘Leagues’ tab.
To set one up, find ‘Create a League’ and become the administrator for either ‘classic’ (based on accumulated FPL points) or ‘head-to-head’ (three points for a win) scoring. By clicking ‘Invite Friends’, a code is generated for you to then give people.
HOW TO PLAY FPL: THE BASICS
All managers begin with £100 million to form a 15-player squad (maximum of three per club), then select a first 11 from it before every Gameweek deadline.
- READ MORE: Selecting your FPL team
Players then pick up points based on their real-life actions: goals, assists, clean sheets, defensive contributions (DefCon), saves and more. This builds an overall season-long score.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Playing up to 60 minutes | 1 |
| Playing 60 or more minutes (excluding stoppage time) | 2 |
| Each goal scored by a goalkeeper/defender/midfielder/forward | 10 / 6 / 5 / 4 |
| Each assist | 3 |
| A clean sheet (goalkeeper or defender) | 4 |
| A clean sheet (midfielder) | 1 |
| Every 3 shot saves (goalkeeper) | 1 |
| Each penalty save | 5 |
| Reaching 10 (defenders) or 12 (midfielders and forwards) DefCon actions | 2 |
OTHER POINTS
Here’s more detailed information on clean sheets, a few events that deduct points, and what on earth DefCon is.
As well as this, each match has a calculation that gives at least three individuals between one and three bonus points.
AUTOSUBS
When one of your starting XI doesn’t take part, a substitute comes in to replace them, based on the chosen bench order.
WHAT IS A CAPTAIN?
Meanwhile, one of the most important weekly decisions is picking your captain, because this player’s points get doubled.
For example, if Erling Haaland (£15.5m) gains 12 points in a match, those who’ve trusted him with their armband will receive 24 instead.
Just select the player, tick ‘Captain’, and save your team. If he doesn’t participate, the vice-captain simply takes over and gets double.
FPL TRANSFERS + CHIPS
Once the season begins, managers will receive one free transfer per Gameweek. It allows you to sell a player for someone else in his position, within budget.
The good news is that up to five of these can be ‘rolled over’ for later use. Alternatively, making an extra purchase beyond the freebies will incur a four-point deduction. More on that here.
To add both excitement and strategy, everyone is provided with chips to activate at some stage.
| WILDCARD | A Gameweek of unlimited free transfers to transform your future squad. |
| FREE HIT | Picking a one-time-only squad, before returning to its previous state. |
| BENCH BOOST | Receiving points from all 15 squad members |
| TRIPLE CAPTAIN | The captain’s points are multiplied by three, rather than two |
Each can be used once before Gameweek 19’s deadline, then once more from Gameweek 20 onwards. For example, many managers are planning to use their first Bench Boost in either Gameweek 1 or 2.
And don’t worry – activating a Wildcard or Free Hit chip won’t delete any free transfers you’ve collected. You’ll just get them afterwards.
In 2026/27, player price changes will occur at midnight (UK time) and be predicted on both the official FPL site and app.
BEST + WORST EARLY FIXTURES
Using our free-to-all Fixture Ticker, managers can identify which players are about to have a promising or tough schedule.
Over the first four Gameweeks, things look good for Liverpool, Brentford and Manchester United, but bad for the promoted trio.
Extend this to Gameweek 6, and suddenly Everton assets appeal while Sunderland and Bournemouth’s don’t.
As for other teams, our ‘jump on jump off’ study highlights their upcoming good spells.
Furthermore, our Chief Scout (paid subscribers) version gives you the ability to customise these team ratings.
WHO HAD A GOOD PRE-SEASON?
For this, you need the Ultimate Pre-Season Guide – one amazing page that lists our main summer articles and has a club-by-club roundup of how their friendlies have gone.
It shows that Christos Tzolis (£6.5m), Joao Pedro (£7.5m), Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m), Antoine Semenyo (£8.5m), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m) and Igor Jesus (£6.0m) will enter the campaign in good form.
Using the incredibly handy Minutes Tracker, you’ll notice that several big names barely took part because they went deep in the World Cup. Could that be a worry for Gameweek 1?
Alongside team previews for all 20 Premier League clubs, we’ve received a few clues on who’ll be taking penalties and set-pieces.
GAMEWEEK 1: BEST PLAYERS TO PICK
We’ve spent many hours breaking down each position, picking out the best FPL players. Give them a read!
As always, our Gameweek 1 Scout Picks and final Scout Squad can help – although these are only for Gameweek 1 in isolation.
For a better medium-term outlook, check out our Watchlist rankings
GET YOUR TEAM RATED
If you want to get your squad analysed by us – for free – upload a screenshot to ‘Rate My Team’ and get an instant rating out of 100. The very pretty FPL Draft tool helps you try to improve that number.
TEAM REVEALS
Finally, of course, our top-class gathering of Pro Pundits is regularly providing both expertise and Gameweek 1 team reveals:
- 5 of the world’s best FPL managers’ Gameweek 1 team reveals!
- Team Reveal – FPL General, who has three top 500 finishes to his name
- Team Reveal – Five-time top 1k finisher Tom Freeman
- Team Reveal – Former FPL champion Simon March
- Team Reveal – FPL Milanista has three recent top 3k ranks
- Team Reveal – Five-time top 10k finisher Dan Wright
- DefCon expert Tom Hadley’s comprehensive look at 2026/27
- 10 top tips from Tom Freeman
Well done for making it this far! Hopefully, FPL makes a bit more sense now.
From everyone at Fantasy Football Scout, we wish you the best of luck for both Gameweek 1 and the season ahead.
Don’t forget to check out our brand-new Stats Centre, which offers a crazy amount of data, DefCon information, points projections and more.
