Fantasy Premier League tips for a successful season

The number of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers passed six million on Thursday – a record for pre-season – as the game continues to rise in popularity.

FPL launched in 2002-03, attracting fewer than 100,000 players in its first year, and is now entering its 21st campaign.

Last season, PA tracked the fortunes of 1,000 FPL managers with multiple top-10,000 finishes to their name.

Here, we use the results from this and data from the official FPL website to provide some tips for enjoying a successful campaign.

Trying to pick the best players for the whole season before a ball has been kicked is a difficult task, but the winter World Cup this year allows FPL managers to focus on the shorter term.

Managers can make unlimited transfers before the Premier League resumes in December, which is, in effect, a third wildcard. As a result, it makes sense to use the first one early.

Even without the World Cup, the case for an early wildcard is clear. Almost four in five of the 1,000 fantasy managers tracked by PA had used their first wildcard by the eighth gameweek of last season.

That said, elite bosses tended to save their other chips – the Bench Boost, Free Hit and Triple Captain – until the second half of the season, allowing them to take advantage of blank and double gameweeks caused by fixture rearrangements.

The quality of opposition has a significant impact on a player’s FPL returns.

The official website rates the toughness of each opponent via its Fixture Difficulty Rating (FDR), but the measure lacks granularity.

More than half of the teams in the Premier League (11) have been assigned an FDR of two for both their home and away matches, making it impossible to distinguish between – for example – hosting Bournemouth and a