Ranking average age of Premier League starting XIs

Sarah Winterburn

Which teams are already future-proof? Manchester United and Liverpool are poles apart. We look at the average age of Premier League XIs this season from the oldest to the youngest…

 

20) Crystal Palace (average age: 29.4)
Palace’s youngest Premier League starters this season are Jairo Reidewald (23), Max Meyer (24) and Jeffrey Schlupp (27). The Premier League’s oldest manager has not built a team for the future but a team for excellent dominoes nights.

 

19) Watford (28.9)
Ben Foster pushes up the average age but it turns out that Hertfordshire is no county for young men.

 

18) Burnley (27.9)
Sean Dyche likes what he likes, though the addition of Josh Brownhill (24) must make Dwight McNeil (20) feel less like he has found himself on the wrong side in a Dads v Lads clash.

 

17) West Ham (27.5)
There’s a lot of money for old ropey players available at West Ham, who fielded three goalkeepers aged 35, 34 and 34 this season. But Jarred Bowen (23) and Tomas Soucek have contributed to an upturn of form since the restart.

 

16) Manchester City (27.1)
Just as we were thinking that British managers had the monopoly on ageing teams, along comes Pep Guardiola with Fernandinho, David Silva and Sergio Aguero. They need quite the rebuild. It starts with Eric Garcia and Phil Foden.

 

15) Sheffield United (26.9)
Their only outfield player to feature under the age of 23 this season was January signing Sander Berge. He was barely toddling when Phil Jagielka made his Blades debut.

 

14) Liverpool (26.7)
The core of Liverpool’s team is 26-29. That might be a long-term worry if they didn’t also have Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott etc.

 

13) Wolves (26.6)
Their most-used XI this season features players aged 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32 and 33. How’s that for balance?

 

12) Tottenham (26.5)
New signings have been younger – Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso, Steven Bergwijn, Ryan Sessegnon, Gedson Fernandes – but have not been used nearly enough. Putting them on the bench does not count, Jose.

 

11) Brighton (26.4)
They would have been 15th on this list last season under the more cautious Chris Hughton but Graham Potter has brought in younger signings Neal Maupay and Adam Webster while bringing through Steven Alzate and Aaron Connolly. They have been brilliant since the restart.

 

10) Newcastle United (26.3)
Surprisingly youthful teams being picked by Steve Bruce. Seriously, how the f*** can Isaac Hayden be only 25?

 

9) Leicester City (26)
Eight of their 11 most regular starters are between the ages of 23 and 26. The rest are Premier League champions. Excellent, excellent planning.

 

8) Norwich City (25.9)
Five of their first-choice XI are 23 or under. The problem is that relegation will undoubtedly prompt a fire sale this summer.

 

7) Arsenal (25.9)
Their youngest number for five years thanks to the emergence of Bukayo Saka, Joe Willock, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah and others.

 

6) Southampton (25.8)
Ryan Bertrand, Alex McCarthy and Shane Long are the last men standing over the age of 30. Ralph Hasenhuttl is one of our manager of the season picks for this and other reasons.

 

5) Everton (25.6)
No more Phil Jagielka. Very little Leighton Baines. This is a younger Everton. But can they be a better Everton? They were bloody awful on Monday night.

 

4) Chelsea (25.5)
Crashed down from 27.3 last season as Frank Lampard has blooded a whole host of young players like Mason Mount, Reece James, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori and Billy Gilmour, but now rising again after the belated realisation that the old guys are still in good nick.

 

3) Aston Villa (25.5)
Remarkably, Tyrone Mings is the oldest outfield player in Villa’s most-picked XI this season at the age of 27.

 

2) Bournemouth (25.1)
With 30-plus players Simon Francis, Andrew Surman, Charlie Daniels and Junior Stanislas all either injured or sidelined this season, the Cherries’ average age has plummeted along with the team.

 

1) Manchester United (24.8)
They were eighth and older than Liverpool last season but there has been a clearing-out of the old guard (Ashley Young, Antonio Valencia, Marcos Rojo) and a bringing-through of a new generation (Mason Greenwood, Brandon Williams), while new signings have been designed for the next five years. Of their XI most-picked players in the Premier League this season, none have hit 30. And yet they were clever enough to discard Nemanja Matic.

 

Let’s talk Manchester United…

F365 Features