The Premier League is back, and that means Fantasy Premier League football is back too. There are some changes this year to how FPL works this season, mainly around the bonus points system and how it works.
The Premier League season is back, and it is time to spend your whole weekends watching back-to-back football. The 2025/26 season is set to be one of the most intriguing yet, with some familiar faces back, new faces and a whole lot of changes to players, managers and teams.
As the season starts up again, so does the Fantasy Premier League season, with players starting to assemble their squad, looking for the must-haves and smart buys. This season on the FPL, there are some changes that may impact what players have become desirable, as more points will be on offer than ever before in a match.
Changes to bonus points
The original bonus points system (BPS) - that saw players get one, two or three extra points from statistical contributions in the match - has been tweaked somewhat for the upcoming FPL season.
Goalkeepers now get three BPS points for saves in the box (up from two) and eight for saving a penalty (down from nine), with the saves in the box evening out the reduced points for the penalty save.
Staying with penalties, players in all positions now get 12 BPS points for scoring a penalty when it used to be tiered, with forwards getting 24 points, midfielders getting 18 and defenders getting 12.
The BPS for tackles now is just based on ‘tackles won’ rather than the overall of ‘tackles won’ minus ‘tackles lost’. Two BPS points are earned per ‘tackle won’. Players will also earn more BPS points for goalline clearances, up from three to nine points.
Bonus points based on the number of defensive actions
The weighting of the FPL towards players who complete offensive actions has finally come to an end. This season in Fantasy, bonus points (BP) will be allocated to players based on the number of defensive actions they make during a match.
Defensive actions are divided among defenders, midfielders, and forwards, with each player's role contributing to their defensive involvement. Defenders' defensive actions are clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles. Midfielders and forwards’ defensive actions are clearances, blocks, interceptions, tackles and ball recoveries.
Two BP are awarded to defenders for every 10 defensive actions, whereas midfielders and forwards receive two BP for every 12 actions.
Some of the best players who have been highlighted to get these bonus points for defensive actions are James Tarkowski, Murillo, Moises Caicedo and Elliot Anderson.
Two uses of all four chips
The use of chips has also changed for the 2025/26 FPL season. Usually, you have one chance to use ‘Triple Captain’, ‘Free Hit’ and ‘Bench Boost’ a season to earn you extra points in gameweeks. Now, you can use all those chips twice, to go in line with the ‘Wildcard’ chip that you could already use twice.
The ‘Assistant Manager’ chip used last season has been removed from the game this year.