The seemingly inevitable was confirmed last Monday: Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.2m) is to leave Liverpool at the end of the season.
There was an inevitability about the parting message, too. The obligatory puff of the cheeks to convey emotion, the camera-facing monologue, the montage set to music and, of course, the abuse in the replies.
After 20 years at Liverpool Football Club, now is the time for me to confirm that I will be leaving at the end of the season.
This is easily the hardest decision I’ve ever made in my life.
I know many of you have wondered why or been frustrated that I haven’t spoken about this… pic.twitter.com/emAw5RvXq0
— Trent Alexander-Arnold (@TrentAA) May 5, 2025
While Liverpool fans may have mixed feelings at best about his exit (there were more than a smattering of boos on Sunday), we Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers are bidding a fonder farewell to the premium defender of the last decade.
9 seasons of Trent Alexander-Arnold in FPL:
18 goals
73 assists
1,278 points
End of an FPL era 💔 pic.twitter.com/kexw0HrBN0
— Fantasy Football Scout (@FFScout) May 5, 2025
With nine seasons of the England international’s Liverpool career to look back on, we thought we’d reflect on his FPL exploits via six of his biggest and best hauls.
2018/19 – GAMEWEEK 28 V WATFORD (18 POINTS)
Alexander-Arnold entered FPL as a £4.5m pick in 2016/17 – not as a defender but as a midfielder!
Regardless, he was a mere Fantasy footnote in his debut campaign, only starting twice.
It was past the midway point of the following campaign that he started to establish himself as a regular, taking over from Joe Gomez at right-back. Now repackaged as a defender, his first-ever double-digit haul was a 14-point return against Swansea City in Gameweek 20 of 2017/18.
But the real breakthrough year was 2018/19. This was the season of his 13 assists and 185 points, all done from a starting price of £5.0m. He was never to dip below £7.0m again.
The highlight of this season was his 18-point haul against Watford in Gameweek 28. A 5-0 victory over the Hornets saw all five Liverpool goals assisted by their full-backs, with Alexander-Arnold claiming three of them. Mohamed Salah somehow blanked in the middle of it all.
That doubled Alexander-Arnold’s assist count for the campaign and he really let loose in the run-in, finishing 2018/19 with four successive double-digit hauls. A Fantasy star was well and truly born.
2019/20 – GAMEWEEK 19 V LEICESTER CITY (24 POINTS)
The haul he’s best remembered for in his best-ever FPL season.
Rising to £7.0m at the beginning of 2019/20, he was to become a must-have even at that price.
One goal and seven assists in the first 18 Gameweeks was slightly tempered by a shortage of clean sheets: just three for the right-back before Christmas as Liverpool’s unstoppable title push didn’t initially translate into a glut of shut-outs.
Then came Boxing Day and a trip to the King Power Stadium.
This was not the sorry Leicester City of the present day. This was a Foxes side in second place going into Gameweek 19, a club who had won eight successive Premier League matches between October and December – one of which was the 9-0 at Southampton.
The fixture difficulty even prompted a Fantasy manager or two to part with Alexander-Arnold…
Last time Trent played Leicester on Boxing Day back in 2019, he got 1 goal, 3 assists and a clean sheet.
I sold him ahead of that match for a -4 🤣
And you thought not owning Isak right now was bad…
— Andy (@LetsTalk_FPL) December 26, 2024
But Ben Chilwell (back when he was good), Youri Tielemans, James Maddison et al were to be utterly blown away on their own turf.
Alexander-Arnold was already on the way to matching the above 2018/19 haul by claiming another hat-trick of assists. Then, the icing on the cake: the then 21-year-old’s homage to Carlos Alberto.
Two assists, a goal, a clean sheet and the Man of the Match award 💫
The best bits from a SUBLIME @trentaa98 performance at Leicester ✊🔴 pic.twitter.com/9OB8r0cJ7G
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 28, 2019
That 24-point haul was part of a real purple patch for Alexander-Arnold in which he didn’t blank in 11 successive Premier League appearances.
A total of 19 attacking returns and 14 clean sheets saw him end the campaign on 210 points, just three short of Andrew Robertson’s record for a defender set the previous year.
2020/21 – DOUBLE GAMEWEEK 35 V SOUTHAMPTON/MANCHESTER UNITED (16 POINTS)
It was ‘after the Lord Mayor’s Show’ in the following season.
A total of 160 points, via 10 attacking returns and as many clean sheets, is a great year by mere mortals’ standards. It was even enough to land him in the end-of-season Dream Team, his second of five (to date) appearances in that high-scoring XI.
But by his lofty expectations, 2020/21 was a bit underwhelming.
The 7-2 defeat at Aston Villa was a lowlight of the campaign but it was actually Liverpool’s only loss before New Year’s Day, with Jurgen Klopp’s reigning champions top at Christmas.
Eight defeats in 12 at the start of 2021 did the real damage, with the Reds even slipping to eighth at one point. A late-season surge added a veneer of respectability to the final points total.
So it was with Alexander-Arnold. Six of his 10 attacking returns in 2020/21 came from Gameweek 30 onwards, including a 16-point haul in Double Gameweek 35. A clean sheet in the home win over Southampton was followed by two assists in the 4-2 win at Manchester United, a match that had been postponed in the previous Gameweek due to fan protests.
After falling from favour with Fantasy managers in the autumn (he was sold by over two-thirds of his owners from Gameweeks 1-11), Alexander-Arnold was back in vogue ahead of 2021/22.
2021/22 – GAMEWEEK 12 V ARSENAL (15 POINTS)
Normal service resumed in this campaign.
Alexander-Arnold started as he had left off the previous season, rattling off 126 points by the halfway point of 2021/22. A new FPL points record for a defender, as well as a personal-best tally, was well within his grasp.
A 4-0 win over Arsenal in Gameweek 12 was a real statement of intent. Mikel Arteta’s side were on a 10-match unbeaten run going into that match but were obliterated by their hosts at Anfield, with Alexander-Arnold supplying two assists to go with a clean sheet and maximum bonus.
That was one of the England international’s nine double-digit hauls that season (one of which came in a Double Gameweek), and his biggest return of 2020/21.
Alas, both player and club were to fall just short. Liverpool were pipped to the title by just a point despite losing just twice all season, while there was no cigar for Alexander-Arnold either as he finished on 208 points, five behind Robertson’s record.
Blanks in the final three Gameweeks ensured the season ended on a damp squib Fantasy-wise, but he nevertheless remains the only defender in FPL to hit a double-century in two separate seasons.
2022/23 – GAMEWEEK 4 V BOURNEMOUTH (17 POINTS)
A match best remembered for Mohamed Salah’s stupendous points-dodging also saw Alexander-Arnold rack up a 17-point haul in Liverpool’s 9-0 demolition of Bournemouth.
It was an FPL defender’s perfect hat-trick: a goal, an assist and a clean sheet.
Liverpool players trying to get Salah to score https://t.co/MRTXYAzR8k
— 🗼 (@UsmanIfc) August 27, 2022
That was a rare high point for Alexander-Arnold, however, as he blanked in 13 of his first 15 appearances.
Again, a late-season resurgence saw him polish what had threatened to be a turd of a campaign. All but two of his 13 attacking returns came after Boxing Day, as did eight of his 10 clean sheets.
A total of 156 points was still enough to get him in the Dream Team for the fifth successive year, although he trailed top-scoring defender Kieran Trippier by 42 points.
Alexander-Arnold’s popularity hit its zenith in this season: his ownership of just over 60% in Gameweek 1 of this campaign was the highest it’s been before or since.
2024/25 – GAMEWEEK 19 V WEST HAM UNITED (15 POINTS)
A rise to £8.0m at the start of 2023/24 proved to be too much for many, with his ownership dipping below 10% in the autumn.
In what was an admittedly injury-ravaged campaign (knee issues reduced his availability after New Year), he delivered his worst FPL showing in six seasons as a fully fledged regular starter.
And so we move on to this, his final campaign in Liverpool red.
Back down to a more palatable £7.0m ahead of 2024/25, he still leads the defenders’ points standings ahead of Gameweek 37. Should he still be there after the final day, which is doubtful given his uncertain game-time amid an acrimonious departure, then he’d be the only defender to top-score in three separate seasons.
He’s already assured double-digit attacking returns for the sixth season in seven, while there’s still a decent chance of him making the Dream Team even if he doesn’t kick another ball.
His best haul of the campaign so far was a 15-pointer in the 5-0 away win at West Ham United in late December, a deflected long-range strike supplementing a clean sheet.
What may have been his last-ever double-digit haul in FPL came in Double Gameweek 25, with his 13 points split across clashes with Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
His standing in the eyes of Liverpool fans may have irreversibly damaged – but he’ll be more affectionately remembered by FPL managers.