Fantasy Premier League players left stunned as Susan Clarke, 67, tops overall leaderboard | OneFootball

With just nine weeks of the Premier League season remaining, players and fans also come to the business end of the Fantasy Premier League competition.

And ahead of Gameweek 30, beginning on 1 April, a 67-year-old woman finds herself top of the 11 million-player table thanks to her more basic pen-and-paper approach to the game.

Susan Clarke, whose team name is ‘The Ruby Reds’, currently sits on 2186 points, eight ahead of second place, ahead of the final nine gameweeks, and is over 200 points ahead of second in her own five-team invitational mini-league.

Speaking to FPL newsletter Lazy FPL, Clarke said that she has been “shocked but enjoying the reaction of my family and friends”, according to the Guardian.

“At the ripe old age of 67 (you can call me old fashioned!) my weekly lists with pen and paper seem to be the secret to my success!,” she added.

Fantasy Football, which allows players to try their hand at managing their ‘own’ makeshift Premier League team, continues to grow in popularity but is often dominated by people using a more data-driven or analytical approach, such is the availability of player statistics, trends and other relevant information.

So while Clarke’s approach has been a welcome anomaly so far, this means that it is unlikely that the Ruby Reds will be able to top the table come the end of the season, according to Mitch Murphy, co-founder of Lazy FPL.

Clarke recently gained big points by captaining Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes (Getty Images)

“On average, the people who rank highly in FPL are the ones spending an embarrassing amount of time analysing the data,” he told the Guardian.

“But what we really love is when someone like Susan comes along and demonstrates the randomness of football. No one wants to watch or play a game where the results are predetermined.

“Everyone wants to see Susan top of the league at game week 30,” he added.