The PlayTheGame scoring system may be different from those you have seen in other fantasy leagues, but it is straightforward once you get used to it.

- Goalkeepers and defenders score points in five categories: Clean sheets, goals/assists, defence, average goals against and team points. Defence combines interceptions, catches, blocks, saves and successful passes. Average goals against reflects the number of goals per 90-minute game the player’s team concedes while he is on the pitch. So that if David James plays the full 90 minutes of a 2-0 defeat, his average goals per game score is 2. If he keeps a clean sheet in his next game, his average drops to 1. If he concedes a goal in the first half of his next game and is substituted at half-time, the arithmetic gets more complicated - luckily the website does the calculations for you. (1.2, in case you haven’t worked it out.) Points represents the number of points gained by the team in any match in which the player appears. So if he is brought on as a 94th-minute substitute to waste time with the team leading 1-0 and does not even touch the ball, he still collects three points.

- Midfield players and forwards also score in five categories: Goals, assists, successful passes, average goals for and points. The average goals for stat reflects goals scored while the player is on the field, again prorated over 90 minutes. The points stat works in the same way as for defenders and goalkeepers.

- Your league position depends on how well your players perform in the ten categories compared with the performances of the players belonging to the other managers in your league. Teams are ranked from first to last in each category. Points are then awarded according to the order in each category and added to determine an overall score and league rank. In a 20-team league, if a manager is leading in clean sheets, he/she is granted 20 points: second in clean sheets, 19 points, etc, down to 1 point for the manager who has the fewest clean sheets. The manager’s overall score is determined by adding the points in each category.

- After every match day, the cumulative scoring stats (clean sheets, goals, etc) for each player are added to each manager’s running totals, and the running totals in the two average categories are recalculated.

- With games being played on a daily basis, team point totals are subject to fluctuation throughout the season. Naturally, the swings will be much more volatile early in the season. So if your forwards go goal-crazy on Saturday, August 11, the opening day of the season, you could well find that you are top of your league’s goals category on Sunday morning, which adds 20 points to your team total. But if another manager’s forwards do even better during Sunday’s games, on Monday morning your goals score will have dropped to 19. Even late in the season, a team's overall score may rise several points one day as a result of tremendous output by their starting lineup - or drop because of a record-setting day by an opponent’s team. As in the real-life Barclays Premier League, your team may be good - but the others might be even better ...

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