Fantasy Premier League: FPL Winners & Losers

Another week of FPL is now behind us. We are now in the latter half of the 2025/26 Premier League season – how is your team looking at this crucial stage?

It was a positive period for teams such as Arsenal, Brentford and (for once) Wolves, while clubs such as Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and Everton will be licking their wounds.

Goalkeepers

Only one goalkeeper scored more than six points this week – Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen was one of just three goalkeepers who kept clean sheets in the Premier League at the weekend. For his efforts, he was awarded seven points.

The other two were Jose Sa and Nick Pope, who each scored six points for their displays against West Ham United and Crystal Palace, respectively.

Meanwhile, FPL owners of David Raya will have been disappointed. Despite being the most expensive ‘keeper in the game, he scored just one point during Arsenal’s 3-2 win over Bournemouth.

Defenders

Malick Thiaw was one of three stars of the show this week. We’ll get to the other two later on, but Thiaw belongs to a trio of players who each scored 17 points in FPL during gameweek 20.

He scored a goal, kept a clean sheet and picked up the maximum bonus points to give himself such a bumper tally. Elsewhere, Hugo Bueno and Nathan Collins scored 11 and 10 points, respectively.

On the other end of the spectrum, we picked Virgil van Dijk as our biggest loser in terms of defenders. The Dutchman had a deeply erratic game against Fulham – he never looked sure of himself and was directly at fault for the Cottagers’ first goal.

Midfielders

Here’s the second player who scored 17 points this week – Arsenal’s Declan Rice was on fire against Bournemouth, setting himself a brace. Before this gameweek, Rice was an injury worry – well done to anyone who took the risk, because it certainly paid off.

Additionally, John McGinn also scored a brace as Aston Villa defeated Nottingham Forest at Villa Park. For his efforts, McGinn bagged himself 15 points.

We’ll pick Antoine Semenyo as our biggest midfield loser. He didn’t do particularly badly, playing against the meanest defence in the Premier League, but one would expect more than a single point from a player of his lofty pedigree.

Forwards

Only one man can take the crown of our top striker for this week – the final player of the trio, Igor Thiago, scored a hattrick against Everton to amass his mammoth points total.

Mateus Mane was a surprise package – the 18 year old showed plenty of flair against West Ham, tying the Hammers’ defenders in knots and scoing 12 points for the week. Elsewhere, Sunderland’s Brian Brobbey scored nine points for his goal against Tottenham Hotspur.

However, it was another gameweek to forget for Erling Haaland. This now marks the third gameweek in a row where the legendary Norweigian has failed to score a goal or register an assist – is he starting to show signs of fatigue amid a turbulent winter schedule?