FPL Gameweek 6 Review: What Went Right And Wrong

GW6 Autopsy: The Week a Chelsea Keeper Broke the Game

An 18-point haul from Robert Sanchez's understudy-turned-starter — Henderson, owned by fewer than 1 in 100 managers — was the best score of Gameweek 6. If you're kicking yourself for not having him, stop. Nobody had him. That's the whole point of this week's lesson.

The average manager scored 58, and the top score out there was 131. So where did the gap come from? Not from the picks we all share — from lottery tickets. Henderson (18), Doku (12, owned by about 1 in 100), Cherif of Coventry (12, owned by basically nobody), O'Shea (11) and McGinn (10) were the rank-rockets, and the managers holding them weren't smarter than us. They were luckier. You don't build a season on 0.3%-owned goalkeepers.

Now look at what actually kept us safe. De Cuyper's 15 points landed in roughly 3.5 in 10 squads — a proper template haul that held the line for everyone sensible. João Pedro's 12 did the same for the near 7 in 10 of us who own him. That's the quiet maths of a protected rank: when the popular picks score, the week can't hurt us, because the people above and below us scored it too.

The captaincy is the sore spot. About 7.5 in 10 of us gave Haaland the armband, and the best captain in hindsight was Henderson — a keeper almost nobody owns, let alone captains. That's not a mistake on our part; that's hindsight doing what hindsight does. Chasing last week's miracle captain is how ranks get wrecked. The crowd pick exists because it's right more often than it's wrong over a season, even when a single week makes it look silly.

The honest caveat: weeks like this reward the gamblers, and your mini-league rival who punted on Dewsbury-Hall (13 points, owned by about 1 in 20) is crowing right now. Let them. One green arrow built on a Coventry midfielder isn't a strategy.

The call: make no panic moves. If you own De Cuyper and João Pedro, they're the reason your week was fine — protect them. Do not spend a transfer, and certainly not a hit, chasing Henderson or any of this week's one-off heroes. Hold the template, keep the armband on the obvious shoulders, and let the gamblers give their points back next week. They usually do.