Gameweek 4 was a normal round with two derbies in it, and the derbies took the crowd apart. The most-backed team in the game lost. The next two most-backed teams both finished level. When the last ball was kicked on Monday night, only eight players out of 118 had the round's top score.

FPG is simple: pick one Premier League team each round. If they win, you score points.

Here is how Gameweek 4 actually landed.

The Picks That Paid Off

Thirty of the 118 players backed a winner. The two derbies decided the top of the round.

A derby in FPG scores differently: +1 for a win, but -1 for a draw as well as -1 for a loss, so there is nowhere to hide in one. If you want the long version, we explain how derbies score in FPG.

Both derbies went to the away side. Nottingham Forest won 2-1 at Aston Villa (Sat 12 Sep, 15:00) and Manchester City won 1-0 at Manchester United (Sun 13 Sep, 16:30). Those two results produced every three-point score in the round.

Three points is the maximum anyone could reach in Gameweek 4, and it breaks down like this: +1 basic, which is the core of the game at +1 for a win, 0 for a level result and -1 for a loss; +1 head-to-head, the extra point for backing the team another player's pick was up against; and +1 for the derby. Eight players got there.

The full list of picks that came in:

  • Nottingham Forest — 8 picks, 6.8% of the field. Won 2-1 at Villa, in a derby.
  • Manchester City — 6 picks, 5.1%. Won 1-0 at United, in a derby.
  • Brighton — 6 picks, 5.1%. Won 5-0 at Coventry (Sun 13 Sep, 14:00).
  • Arsenal — 4 picks, 3.4%. Won 2-0 at Sunderland.
  • Leeds — 4 picks, 3.4%. Won 4-1 against Newcastle (Mon 14 Sep, 20:00).
  • Ipswich — 2 picks, 1.7%. Won 3-2 at Crystal Palace.

Twelve of those thirty winners lost a point to the dock. That is FPG's one penalty for missing the deadline: if you don't pick, a team is picked for you, it scores as normal, and if that score is positive you lose a point. These twelve still banked a point or two, just one fewer than if they had picked themselves.

The Bankers That Bombed

Aston Villa were the most-picked team of the round: 14 players, 11.9% of the field. Villa lost 1-2 at home to Forest, in a derby, which is the worst combination in the game. Basic -1, head-to-head -1, derby -1. Minus three, the lowest score of the round, and 17 players finished there once you add the three who picked Manchester United.

The rest of the heavily backed teams did not lose. They just went nowhere:

  • Liverpool — 13 picks, 11.0%. Held 0-0 by Fulham.
  • Chelsea — 11 picks, 9.3%. Pegged back to 2-2 by Hull City.
  • Everton — 9 picks, 7.6%. Held 0-0 at Tottenham.
  • Brentford — 3 picks, 2.5%. Level at 2-2 at Bournemouth.

Four of the ten matches finished level, and between them they swallowed 46 of the 118 picks — 39% of the field scored exactly zero. Add Hull City (5 picks), Tottenham (4) and Fulham (1) to the list above and you have all of them. Gameweek 4 was not a Draw Means More round, the round type where a level result is worth +2 instead of nothing, so a stalemate paid nothing at all.

The other two that hurt: Crystal Palace, 10 picks, beaten 2-3 at home by Ipswich, and Newcastle, 7 picks, taken apart 1-4 at Leeds. Both are -2, which is basic -1 plus head-to-head -1 in a non-derby.

Final count: 30 players positive, 46 on zero, 42 negative.

The Lonely Pick of the Week

Nobody landed one.

A lonely pick is the +1 bonus for being the only player in the game on a team — but only if that team wins. Exactly one player went solo in Gameweek 4, on Fulham. Fulham held Liverpool 0-0 away from home, which was a fine afternoon for Fulham and worth precisely nothing in FPG. No win, no bonus. The full logic is in what is a lonely pick.

Every other team that got picked had at least two backers. One team in the round had none at all: Bournemouth, who finished 2-2 with Brentford, were not picked by a single player.

Table Movers

Four rounds in, the table is 118 players deep and the front of it is tight. The leader is on 13 points, one clear of two players tied on 12, with fourth on 11. Nothing is settled — one derby result was the difference between +3 and -3, and Gameweek 4 just proved which way that lands when the crowd gets it wrong.

The full spread is 23 points, from 13 at the top to -10 at the bottom. That is four rounds of damage, and there are a lot of rounds left to undo it. Worth remembering that each Premier League team can only be picked twice in a whole season, so the bankers you spend early are bankers you do not have later.

FAQ

What happened in FPG Gameweek 4? The derbies decided it. Nottingham Forest won 2-1 at Aston Villa and Manchester City won 1-0 at Manchester United, which put eight players on the round's top score of three. Aston Villa were the most-picked team at 14 of 118 and finished bottom of the round on -3.

Why did some players score zero? Four of the ten matches finished level, and 46 players had picked a team in one of them. A level result is worth 0 in a normal round. It is only worth points in a Draw Means More round, where it pays +2.

Why did twelve winners lose a point? They missed the deadline, so a team was picked for them. An auto-assigned pick scores as normal but loses one point whenever its score is positive, and all twelve won.

What is different about Gameweek 5? Gameweek 5 is a Draw Means More round, so a draw is worth +2 instead of 0. The deadline is Fri 18 Sep, 20:00 UK time. The full rules are here.

Four rounds gone, a long season to go, and a table that is still anyone's. Play FPG — pick one team, every round, free.

Written by Toby Gaskell, Founder of FPG