James FPL: buy, sell or hold?
James plays DEF for Chelsea at £5.3m, owned by 4.2% of managers. Projection, form, every public rating we hold and our own forecast record — free.
Should you sell James?
James is our 122nd-ranked defender of 217 for the next 6 gameweeks, on 3.8 projected points. 112 defenders at his price or below project higher over the same run. The best 5 are below — if you are moving him on, that is where the money goes.
| Instead of James | Price | To GW12 | Gain |
|---|---|---|---|
 De Cuyper BHA | £5.2m | 36.3 | 32.5 |
 Vuskovic BHA | £5.1m | 28.3 | 24.5 |
 Bogle LEE | £4.7m | 28.2 | 24.4 |
 Justin LEE | £4.5m | 26.9 | 23.1 |
 Muharemović LEE | £5.0m | 26.8 | 23.0 |
Is James injured?
James is currently flagged as injured. The club news reads: “Knee injury - Unknown return date” FPL puts his chance of playing the next match at 0%. A flagged player still scores if he plays; the risk is that he does not start.
Projection by gameweek
| Gameweek | Fixture | xP |
|---|---|---|
| GW7 | at EVE | 0.0 |
| GW8 | v TOT | 0.4 |
| GW9 | v MUN | 0.6 |
| GW10 | at SUN | 0.9 |
| GW11 | v LEE | 0.9 |
| GW12 | at NFO | 0.9 |
Our record on James
What we forecast before each deadline, against what he actually scored. Published first, graded after — the misses stay up. Rows marked backtest were produced later by re-running the model with only the data it would have had at the time; they were never published in advance and are kept out of our accuracy record.
| Gameweek | Mins | Forecast | Actual | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GW1 backtest | 90 | 0.9 | 0 | 0.9 |
| GW2 | 22 | 3.0 | 1 | 2.0 |
| GW3 | 90 | 2.1 | 1 | 1.1 |
| GW4 | 90 | 3.8 | 1 | 2.8 |
| GW5 | 0 | 2.7 | 0 | 2.7 |
| GW6 | 0 | 3.5 | 0 | 3.5 |
This season, match by match
| GW | Opponent | Mins | G | A | DefCon | xG/xA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GW1 | at FUL | 90 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.10/0.07 | 0 |
| GW2 | v BHA | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00/0.00 | 1 |
| GW3 | at ARS | 90 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.07/0.05 | 1 |
| GW4 | v HUL | 90 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.16/0.14 | 1 |
| GW5 | at BRE | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00/0.00 | 0 |
| GW6 | v BOU | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00/0.00 | 0 |
292 minutes, 0 goals, 0 assists, 3 points.
Match ratings
A blend of independent match ratings for James, each normalised to its own scale before averaging, so a strict marker and a generous one carry equal weight. Versus average is how far above or below the league he graded.
| GW | Rating | Vs average | Raters |
|---|---|---|---|
| GW1 | 6.9 | +0.11 | 2 |
| GW3 | 6.9 | -0.05 | 1 |
In the feed
| Date | Story | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-10 | TEAM NEWS | James (CHE): Unspecified injury - 75% chance of playing |
| 2026-09-18 | TEAM NEWS | James (CHE): Hamstring injury - 75% chance of playing |
More
The rest of the Chelsea squad and their predicted XI · All 654 players ranked · Price changes tonight · Differentials · Our forecast record · Gameweek 6 results · Gameweek 5 results