James
Chelsea · DEF · £5.5m
World Cup England 344 mins
1484.6, down 3.9 after 1 point against Brighton (H)
Z-Score: DEF points per game are compared against a 2.48 average , spread 0.90. Measured against 2025-26, 42 players, because too few players have cleared the minutes bar this season.
Upcoming fixtures
2026/27 gameweek by gameweek
- GW2 Brighton, home 1 pts 1484.6 Elo -3.9 rating change -1 BPS
- GW1 Fulham, away 0 pts 1488.5 Elo -5.6 rating change A yellow card6 defensive actions 5 BPS
Season stats
Expected stats Expected goals and assists based on the quality of chances. Compares what a player 'should' score vs what they actually score.
Ownership
Percentage of FPL squads that have picked James right now.
Elo Glicko-style skill rating. It updates match by match and carries across seasons rather than resetting, so it is not a count of points scored.
It is built on 1.24 games, so most of this rating is still the starting assumption every player begins from, with about 11 per cent of it measured. Expect it to move a long way once matches are played.
FAPR Fixture-Adjusted Performance Rating. Adjusts PPG based on opponent difficulty faced.
PvE Performance vs Expected. Compares actual output to expected goals/assists. Shows if player is over or underperforming.
2026 World Cup load
James played 344 minutes for England, short of the 450 minute line, so this rating is held a little less firmly than a player who had the whole summer off.
Every rating carries a second number for how firmly it is held, called the rating deviation. A bigger deviation means the rating is less settled, so it moves further and faster once matches are played. It is not a mark against the player.
None of this is scored into the Elo rating. A World Cup is played against different opposition under different conditions, so counting it as Premier League evidence would make the number harder to defend. What a summer changes is how settled a rating is, not what it says.