What are FPL Chips and Rules? When to Use in Fantasy Premier League Season 2025/26?

Marking the most major rule revision in the history of the game, Fantasy Premier League (FPL) formally unveiled revolutionary reforms for the 2025/26 season. The announcements were made through posts on the official Fantasy Premier League Twitter/X account (@OfficialFPL), with the main emphasis on adding defensive contribution points and doubling the chip allowance for managers.

These developments aim to honour defensive players often ignored and give managers more strategic choices throughout the season, possibly letting FPL managers score considerably more points than in past seasons.

What are New Defensive Contribution Points?

The most radical change for the 2025/26 season is the introduction of defensive contribution points, representing the largest overhaul of the scoring system since the game began more than two decades ago. This new system specifically seeks to reward centre-backs and defensive midfielders, who have historically been underappreciated in fantasy football, for their brilliant defensive efforts.

Explaining the New Defensive Contribution Points System

• Two more points can be earned by defenders under the new system if they accumulate 10 clearances, blocks, interceptions, and tackles (CBIT) in a single game.
• For midfielders and forwards, the arrangement is somewhat different. They must reach 12 defensive contributions to get the same two points, but an extra category—ball recoveries—among their qualifying activities is included.
• During games, like save points and bonus points are shown, the real-time tracking of these contributions will now be visible on the Fantasy Premier League website and app.

What are Double Chips in FPL?

The second big development for 2025/26 is the debut of a doubled FPL chips system, which provides managers with never-before-seen strategic freedom. Managers will now get two of each of the following FPL chips:

• Wildcard
• Free Hits
• Triple Captain

• Bench Boosts

  Essentially, FPL managers can now use a total of eight chips for the season rather than the typical four single-use chips.

When to Use FPL Chips in Season 2025/26?

The first series of chips has to be used before the Gameweek 19 deadline. Following Gameweek 19, the second set opens up, giving more tactical choices for the last portion of the campaign.

Early usage of FPL chips can be strategic by going after newly promoted teams, which have historically had difficulty defensively. For example, during the first half of the season, Erling Haaland plays all three newly promoted teams at home, so putting him in the running for Triple Captain could be a wise decision. Similarly, Mohammed Salah has good home games against Sunderland and Leeds United before his African Cup of Nations leave.

What are the New FPL Rules?

FPL's typical scoring approach—which has remained almost the same since the game's beginning—is radically different from the defensive contribution system. Previously, defensive players' points came from goals, assists, clean sheets, and bonus points alone. Centre-backs and defensive midfielders were often ignored because they offered little attacking threat and received little reward for their main defensive jobs.

For example, James Tarkowski of Everton ranked joint-26th among defenders under the antiquated system, scoring 105 points in the 2024/25 season. With the new defensive contribution rules applied retrospectively, though, he would have earned an additional 44 points, catapulting him to eighth place among all defenders with 149 points. The amazing change shown here shows the transformational power of the revised system.

The effects spread beyond single players to whole position groupings. Although Moises Caicedo of Chelsea only produced 98 points last season with one goal and four assists, his 42 defensive contribution points would have totalled 140. This would have put him ahead of Tottenham's Brennan Johnson, who scored 137 points with 11 goals and six assists but gained zero defensive contribution points.

Many FPL managers have responded favorably to these alterations and expressed excitement regarding the improved life of defensive players. FPL content creators have underlined how the new structure might make budget defenders from relegated or newly promoted teams more enticing choices, as they usually perform more defensive actions per game.

Will Assistant Manager Chip be There in the New Season?

In the FPL new rules, the Assistant Manager chip probably won't be offered during the 2025/26 season. Introduced as a "mystery chip" during the 2024–25 season, this contentious chip allowed FPL managers to choose a Premier League manager for three straight gameweeks and gain points according to their teams' performance.

The decision to eliminate the Assistant Manager chip seems to originate from a number of causes. First, the point ceiling of the chip was significantly greater than other chips, thereby upsetting the scoring system of the game. Second, many casual FPL managers felt the chip was far too complex and difficult to follow, especially concerning the manager pricing and transfer mechanisms.

FPL has simplified the chip system by doubling the conventional options that have shown success across many seasons instead of the Assistant Manager chip. The higher chip allocation and new defensive scoring mechanism help keep the game accessible while also giving more strategic choices.

With formerly disregarded players now plausible alternatives and managers having unmatched freedom in their chip use, these developments promise to make the 2025/26 season one of the most strategically varied in FPL history.