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 worst individual FPL player scores of all-time.
It’s not often you see a negative score in FPL, but it happens to the best of us. Every once in a while, players score own goals, miss penalties, get sent off, concede heavily or even a combination of those.
So, I’ve sifted through the records as far back as the very first 2002/03 season of FPL, to identify the biggest disasters the game has ever seen. I’ve also reproduced some of the kits where records no longer exist or only low-resolution screenshots have survived.
It’s possible that there are one or two worse scores buried deep in the records, though hopefully we’ve covered them all here. There are also some scores that narrowly miss out or are tied.
Quite fittingly the formation happens to be a 5-2-3, which is arguably one of the worst formations too.
We’ll start off in goal. It was Gameweek 19 of the 2019/20 season and a match packed with disaster classes. 12 minutes into the game Ederson was shown a straight red card for his challenge on Diogo Jota. Barely 10 minutes later Raheem Sterling missed his penalty, although he did score the follow up. Manchester City went on to lose the match 3-2 which resulted in a -3 score for Ederson.
The first defender holds the record for the most negative ever score in FPL. It was Gameweek 22 of the 2020/21 season and Southampton faced Manchester United away. Only two minutes into the game Alexandre Jankewitz got a straight red card. In the 34th minute, Jan Bednarek scored an unfortunate own goal and by that point it was already 3-0. At the end of the game in the 86th minute Bednarek was shown a straight red to put the Saints down to nine men. It was already 6-0 by this point. Man Utd went on to score a further three goals after the red card including two in stoppage time, which resulted in a 9-0 loss and an unbelievable -7 score for Bednarek. That same Gameweek Arsenal also had two straight reds, for David Luiz and Bernd Leno, and there were even some poor managers with all three in their team for -11 points. There were a fair few managers who had Bednarek captain, and a single manager in the entire player base had him triple captain for -21 points.
Next up is another Southampton player, who coincidently also lost 9-0 in another fixture. In Gameweek 10 of the 2019/20 season, the Saints faced Leicester City at home. Ben Chilwell put the Foxes’ up 10 minutes into the game, and two minutes later Ryan Bertrand got a red card. Leicester went on to score a further eight goals including a Jamie Vardy hat-trick which resulted in a -6 score for Bertrand.
Now onto Richard Dunne. It was the last day of the 2007/08 season and Man Utd had won the league, while Man City sat 9th. Man City faced Middlesbrough and 15 minutes into the game Dunne got sent off and they went on to lose 8-1 away. Dunne finished the season with a Gameweek 38 score of -6.
One of the most infamous losses in Premier League history came in Gameweek 3 of the 2011/12 season when Man Utd faced Arsenal at home. By half-time the Gunners’ were 3-1 down and things were looking bleak. However, in the second-half it only got worse as Arsenal were 6-2 down by the 74th minute. In the 77th minute, Carl Jenkinson got a second yellow card and Man United went on to score a further two goals finishing the game with a historic 8-2 win. Jenkinson finished the Gameweek with a -5 score having at least made it past the 60th minute for an extra appearance point.
We complete the defence with Kieran Gibbs who received one of the most controversial red cards in Premier League history, due to a case of mistaken identity. In Gameweek 31 of the 2013/14 season, Chelsea were already 2-0 up within seven minutes. In the 15th minute Eden Hazard takes a shot that is heading past Wojciech Szczesny into the back of the net, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain dives and gets a hand to it to save the shot. Referee Andre Marriner shows a straight red card for the incident to Gibbs who looks completely confused by the mistake. Oxlade-Chamberlain pleads to the referee and admits that it was him, but Marinner ignores the pleas and Gibbs gets dismissed. Arsenal go on to lose the game 6-0 and Gibbs gets an incredibly undeserved -5 points.
Our first midfield spot goes to Jonathan Walters in perhaps the most infamous Gameweek in FPL history. You can’t help but feel sorry for him as he’s the first entrant to the team without a red card and it was on his 100th Premier League appearance. It was simply one of those days where everything went wrong. In Gameweek 22 of the 2012/13 season Stoke City faced Chelsea at home. Right on the stroke of half-time, Branislav Ivanovic put a dangerous cross into the box which was finding Juan Mata, Walters spots the run and sprints to try and reach it but heads it straight into his own net. In the second-half Mata fires a looping corner into the box which finds its way to Walters again who accidentally puts it into his own goal again. In the 90th minute Stoke win a penalty. A likely consolation goal but a shot at redemption as Walters stepped up to take it. He fires it to the left-hand side of Petr Cech who saves it. Walters finished the Gameweek with a score of -4 from two own goals and a missed penalty.
Steven Gerrard completes our midfield duo and he did it in impressive fashion. In January of the 2014/15 season, Liverpool legend Gerrard announced that he would leave upon the expiry of his contract at the end of the season. In March it was Gameweek 30 and Liverpool faced Man United at Anfield. At half-time, Adam Lallana was substituted off for Gerrard. 30 seconds into the second-half Gerrard deliberately stood on Ander Herrera’s leg in the view of Martin Atkinson. It’s one of the fastest ever red cards in Premier League history and he finished the Gameweek with a score of -2.
Our first striker is Michael Proctor from Sunderland, this is our earliest disaster and we have to go all the way back to the very first season of FPL when it launched, in the 2002/03 season. It was February 2003 and Gameweek 26. In the 29th minute a poor shot is heading straight at Proctor who sticks a leg out and puts it into his own goal. Only three minutes later a strike at Sunderland goalkeeper George McCartney is saved near post, and is pushed straight into Proctor of all players who puts it into his own net again. The two own goals meant he ended his top-flight career on a goal difference of zero after undoing his work earlier that Premier League season in scoring at home to both Liverpool and Leeds United.
Next up is Aston Villa’s Juan Pablo Angel. For this one we go back to the 2006/07 season when Aston Villa faced Tottenham Hotspur at home. It was an eventful game. Aston Villa win a penalty and the 30-year-old Colombian stood tall and insisted he would not walk away from his penalty duties, despite missing five out of six. He misses the penalty and it remained 0-0. In the 73rd minute Calum Davenport got a straight red for Spurs and things were looking promising for Aston Villa. Three minutes later Angel puts the ball into his own net to put 10-man Tottenham 1-0 up. He finished the Gameweek with a score of -2 from his missed penalty and own goal. In the 81st minute Gareth Barry rescued an equaliser and the game finished a draw.
We complete our 11 with Saido Berahino who is in a very exclusive club of only three players in Premier League history to have done what he did here. If you read The biggest FPL Gameweek score of all-time article you might remember how Berahino was involved. It was Gameweek 34 of Leicester’s title-winning 2015/16 season. In the 67th minute West Bromwich Albion win a penalty, Berahino steps up and Watford’s keeper Heurelho Gomes saves it, an opportunity to equalise blown. In the dying minutes of the game West Brom win a second penalty, a chance to salvage an important point in their bid to avoid relegation. Berahino steps up again and once again Gomes saves it. They lose the game 1-0 and he gets a score of -2. Some argue this was the end of what once looked like a promising career, and he never scored a Premier League goal for West Brom again in his 35 appearances that followed.
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