FPL Focal has been playing Fantasy Premier League (FPL) for over 11 years and spent some gameweeks ranked number one in the world in the 2021/22 season.
Oscar makes FPL content on his YouTube channel, and here, takes a look at the biggest FPL Gameweek score of all-time.
For this article, we’ll be pulling out the record books as we look at the biggest FPL Gameweek score of all-time. This manager didn’t just break the record, they obliterated it! And despite the player base having more than doubled since then, the record still stands to this day.
Unfortunately, no high-resolution screenshot of the team exists, so consider this an HD remaster as I’ve reproduced the kits and team in Photoshop and dug through every match to get the full breakdown of this record-breaking score. If you’re a veteran player there are some real throwback names in here too.
The date was April 16th 2016. It was Gameweek 34 of the 2015/16 campaign and it was a Double Gameweek due to many teams having postponements. The team by the name of Savage Strikers had activated the Bench Boost chip for the Gameweek, and here’s what happened.
We’ll start off in goal, which was Watford’s Heurelho Gomes. He got a ridiculous 21 points that Gameweek, through the unlikeliest of means. The majority of his points came in the first match, where Watford beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0. Besides the clean sheet he saved a penalty taken by Saido Berahino in the 67th minute. In the 87th minute West Brom win another penalty, Berahino steps up again, and Gomes saves it AGAIN. The second of the double was a 3-1 loss to West Ham United where Troy Deeney also missed a penalty.
The next two defenders were Hector Bellerin and Laurent Koscielny from Arsenal. Nothing substantial here as they kept a clean sheet against West Brom and drew 1-1 with Crystal Palace, and they finished the Double Gameweek with eight points each. It was arguably Bellerin’s best league season for the Gunners, certainly in FPL, where he played 36 times, kept 18 clean sheets and rose from £5.5m to £6.5m, picking up 172 points along the way. Koscielny also had a strong season, scoring four times and picking up 18 bonus points.
The last defender in the starting XI was Aleksandar Kolarov from Manchester City. The Serbian was an extremely attacking full-back, took direct free kicks and every game he started had the potential to haul. He got 12 points in the Double, which came from a clean sheet against Chelsea in a 3-0 win which featured a Thibaut Courtois red card. His second game was a 1-1 draw against Newcastle United where he also got an assist.
The first midfielder is a player you might not recognise in this FPL position, which is Roberto Firmino. 2015/16 was his first season with Liverpool and he was classified as a midfielder that campaign before changing to a forward. In the first game, Firmino scored as Liverpool beat Bournemouth 2-1, before blanking in the second against Everton, albeit a 4-0 win.
Next up is an FPL cult hero which is Dimitri Payet from West Ham. He was incredible that season, picking up nine goals and 12 assists in 30 games, starting at £7.5m and rising to £8.6m. Despite his form that season he actually scored the lowest score of this entire team in the Double, getting a single assist and a yellow card which left him on six points.
Onto the Captain which was Alexis Sanchez, who got a staggering 25-pointer in the Double via a goal against Crystal Palace and a brace against West Brom. He got all three bonus points in both games which scored 50 points alone. Sanchez had a fantastic end to that campaign, picking up seven goals and three assists in the final 10 gameweeks. Despite Sanchez’s 25-point haul he wasn’t even the highest scorer in the team, more on that later.
Another player you might not recognise as a midfielder is Michail Antonio. Back then he wasn’t the striker you recognise today. He was a versatile player having started in both left and right midfield roles, and even at right-back for seven of his 26 appearances. He started the season priced at £6.0m and dropped all the way to £5.3m. It wasn’t a great Gameweek for the West Ham double up, and Antonio subsequently played at right-back in both games, but a reasonable punt all things considered. In retrospect, it’s quite impressive how he developed from a utility player wherever he was needed to the striker he is today.
Onto the strikers, and it’s yet another player who’s since been reclassified, which is Marcus Rashford. He was just 18-years old at the time and it was his breakout season, getting five goals and two assists in just 11 appearances under Louis van Gaal. He was only priced at £4.5m, and the type of budget player needed in this team to afford some of the premiums, especially the next name on the team sheet. In the Double Gameweek, Rashford scored the winner against Aston Villa in a 1-0 win, and in the second game he blanked in a 3-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur, where he was pulled at half-time.
Onto another FPL and Premier League legend, which is Sergio Aguero. He scored a breath-taking 26 points in the Double in what was a dominant season for him. In his first game of the Double, he scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 win against Chelsea, and in the second he scored again in a 1-1 draw against Newcastle United. He picked up three bonus points in both games and finished the season with 34 goals and two assists from 30 games. Another FPL highlight that season was in Gameweek 8, where Aguero scored five goals against Newcastle in just 66 minutes before coming off.
The final player in the starting XI was Daniel Sturridge who got 17 points. It was a tough season for Sturridge as the majority of it was plagued with injuries and he only made 14 appearances in total. However, he ended the season very well with five goals and an assist in the last eight matches. Veteran players will have fond memories of Sturridge in his 2013/14 season with Luis Suarez when the duo were unstoppable. During the Double Gameweek Sturridge scored in both games which netted him 17 points. Sturridge got the vice-captaincy which fortunately wasn’t needed or it would’ve been a very different story.
The first two players on the bench were both Man Utd players, which was David de Gea and Matteo Darmian. De Gea kept a clean sheet in both games, however, he only made one save which got him 12 points. In Darmian’s case, he scored his only goal that season in all competitions in a very timely fashion. His goal came in a 2-0 win against Crystal Palace, where he also got an assist, kept a clean sheet and all three bonus points.
The third player on the bench was Aaron Cresswell who actually failed to keep a clean sheet in either game, conceding two to Leicester City during their title-winning season, and conceding again in a 3-1 win against Watford. However, he still had a strong showing in the double after getting a goal in that game against Leicester and a bonus point.
The final player on the bench is Phillipe Coutinho, who was reasonable value that season getting eight goals and five assists in 26 appearances. He missed the first game of the Double, sitting it out completely on the bench, but played in the second in a 4-0 win against Everton where he scored and got a bonus point.
That completes the team behind the biggest Gameweek score of all-time, with a total 226 points. What’s also crazy to note is that a -20-point hit was taken to build this team, perhaps one of the rarest occasions that a 20-point hit has ever been repaid.
That season there were 3.7m managers, and the player base has more than doubled since then, yet the record still stands. The record will undoubtedly be beaten again one day, however evidently so much has to fall perfectly into place, so who knows how soon we will see it broken next.
1 year, 11 months ago
A guy in mine mini league got a GW score of -2pts.