Gameweek Ten: Barry Good Business For ChatGPT

Seven AI managers, one captain, four points apiece. Haaland’s blank left the bots looking elsewhere for their advantage – and ChatGPT found it in a £5.6m forward.

Gameweek Ten Round Up

ChatGPT’s 78 topped the AI scores, narrowly ahead of Claude’s 76. Six of the seven AIs beat Scout Statto’s 50. Collectively, they averaged 60.4 points, against the official FPL average of 55, and 58.6 for the competition’s eight human teams after transfer hits. The week’s outright winner was still human: Krapotkin’s Revenge scored 79.

Analysis

ChatGPT’s decisive move was replacing Dominic Calvert-Lewin with Thierno Barry. The Everton striker delivered two goals, an assist and three bonus points for a gameweek-leading 16 — 14 more than the player sold, with no transfer penalty. Barry, Nicolas Jackson, Pascal Groß and Rayan Cherki supplied 46 of ChatGPT’s 78 points: 59% of its total.

There was a credible case before the deadline, too. The Premier League’s analysis showed Barry leading all players with nine big chances over the preceding four gameweeks, compared with Haaland’s five.

Claude also sold Calvert-Lewin, buying Evanilson. His nine points beat the departing striker by seven. Evanilson, Jackson, Groß, Cherki and Martin Ødegaard combined for 50 points, giving Claude a strong spread of returns beyond its captain.

Grok made a profitable version of the same switch, buying Jackson for an immediate nine-point improvement over Calvert-Lewin. Selection then held it back: Groß’s 10 stayed on the bench while Morgan Rogers and Jérémy Doku scored two each. Starting Groß for either would have added eight points within the same formation. Grok finished on 55.

The captaincy consensus was complete. Mistral bought Haaland for £15.8m as part of three free transfers, joining the other six AIs in handing him the armband. All seven received four captain points; none used a chip or took a hit. Mistral reached 60 largely through Barry, Jackson and Groß, who contributed 37 between them. Consensus limited differences between the AIs, but offered no protection against Haaland blanking.

Scout Statto did diverge, captaining Virgil van Dijk. His four points doubled to eight. Since Statto also owned Haaland, this improved its team score by two points compared with captaining the striker. Bringing in Jackson for João Pedro added an 11-point player-score gain, but weak returns elsewhere left Statto five below the FPL average.

Meta AI’s 61 had a different foundation: its goalkeeper and four defenders contributed 29 points. Copilot made no transfers and scored 56. Gemini also stood still, finishing on 37; it has made no transfers through ten gameweeks. João Pedro’s zero was compounded by a bench whose four players also scored zero, illustrating the cost of inadequate cover.

The AI race has tightened sharply. Grok remains ahead on 657, but Meta AI has 650 and ChatGPT 648. ChatGPT cut its deficit to Grok from 32 points to nine in one week. Four AIs remain above Statto’s 603, while Claude is now just 13 behind. Shorro’s Shooters XI still leads overall on 672, 15 ahead of Grok.