Why Semenyo was not given a second assist in FPL Gameweek 8

Fantasy Premier League (FPL) confirmed on Sunday that Antoine Semenyo (£8.0m) would not get an assist for Bournemouth’s first goal in Gameweek 8.

We’ve seen a few people confused about the reasoning for this, so we thought we’d clarify – to the best we can! – in this article.

FPL’S REASONING

After the initial ‘TBC’ on Eli Junior Kroupi‘s (£4.5m) first goal, FPL came to a final decision some 24 hours later.

Their message was as follows:

WHAT IS AN ‘INADVERTENT TOUCH’?

In Opta-speak (for it is the data collectors who make the calls on each match event), an inadvertent touch is when the ball bounces off a player and there is no intentional pass or shot.

‘INADVERTENT TOUCH’ – THE CONFUSION

But, you may be thinking, don’t the FPL rules say that an ‘inadvertent touch’ can still lead to an assist?

They sure do:

However, further down the same page, there’s this message:

By ‘directly’, it means not touching an opponent en route to the goalscorer.

APPLYING THE RULE IN SEMENYO’S CASE

In this case, Justin Kluivert‘s (£7.0m) corner is whipped in, comes off Semenyo’s back, hits a Palace defender, and loops up to Kroupi to nod in on the goalline:

To sum it all up, Opta were not counting Semenyo’s touch as a shot or attempted pass. Therefore, it goes down as an inadvertent touch.

And because it hits a Palace defender before reaching Kroupi, the rules say no assist.

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FPL’s relaxation of the assist rules before the start of 2025/26 means we’ve had far fewer contentious calls this season – but Saturday’s example just goes to show that where there’s any subjectivity left in a decision (the subjectivity here being Opta deeming Semenyo not shooting/passing), there’ll always be room for dispute.

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