Ranking the average age of Premier League XIs: Arsenal lose top youth spot to Southampton

Will Ford
Arsenal celebrate goal v Tottenham

Arsenal are still young and now very good. Liverpool are getting older and it is starting to show while Man Utd might have the balance right.

 

20) Fulham (28.2)
Burnley waved and handed the newly promoted side their stock of Werther’s Originals on the way past, as Fulham replaced them as the geriatric kings of the Premier League. Tim Ream has started almost every game at 35.

 

19) West Ham (28.2)
Lucasz Fabianski is 37. Angelo Ogbonna is 34. And David Moyes is too stuck in his ways to bring in young players.

 

18) Tottenham (27.5)
33-year-old Ivan Perisic and the cruelty of time has taken Spurs from eighth last season to 18th.

 

17) Manchester City (27.2)
Much has been made of Liverpool having an ageing squad, but City have several key players over the age of 30. Riyad Mahrez being 32 has blown our minds.

 

16) Liverpool (27.3)
Liverpool are trying hard to remedy the problem but they are an ageing side.

 

15) Newcastle (27.2)
The signings of Sven Botman (22), Alexander Isak (23) have made a difference, along with the growing importance of Bruno Guimaraes (24), but five of the preferred starting XI are still 30 or over.

 

14) Aston Villa (26.9)
Jacob Ramsey (21) is the baby in a team that looks a whole lot better with Unai Emery in charge.

 

13) Manchester United (26.8)
Young signings in Tyrell Malacia (23), Antony (22) and Lisandro Martinez (24) have helped a lot this season to move the average age down. It also helps when Erik Ten Hag jettisons the aged Ronaldo.

 

12) Brighton (26.7)
Starting an 18-year-old striker will bring the number down; starting Adam Lallana brings it up again.

 

11) Wolves (26.7)
Craig Dawson, Mario Lemina and Pablo Sarabia have all come into the team in January to haul up that average age.

 

10) Crystal Palace (26.7)
They had the oldest average age in 2020/21 on a whopping 28.8, before plummeting to 27.2 last season with 26-year-old Will Hughes the oldest of seven signings. And here they are, dropping again.

 

9) Everton (26.7)
Amadou Onana is 21, James Garner is 22 and Dwight McNeil is somehow only 23. Frank Lampard oversaw a drop in age from 27.1 last season. Unfortunately, he also oversaw a drop in table.

 

8) Nottingham Forest (26.4)
14 of their 23 summer signings were under 25; only three players over 30 started the key win over Southampton.

 

7) Chelsea (26.4)
All those young signings have certainly helped bring down this number, along with that lengthy injury to the aged Thiago Silva.

 

6) Bournemouth (26.3)
A young team with a young manager doing much better than any of us expected.

 

5) Brentford (26.2)
This is no country for old men (unless you’re a centre-back).

 

4) Leicester (25.9)
The Foxes’ January signings were 20, 23 and 24. It’s a shame that they are all pretty rubbish.

 

3) Leeds (25.1)
They could probably do with a bit more experience right now but Jesse Marsch prized energy above all other qualities.

 

2) Arsenal (24.6)
The January signings of Jorginho and Leandro Trossard are causing this number to rise ever so slightly, but the Gunners remain a very young side to be involved in a title fight.

 

1) Southampton (24.5)
Gavin Bazunu (21), Armel Bella-Kotchap (20) and Romeo Lavia (19) all arrived in the summer to bring the age down from 25.4 last season.

Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham ‘stars’ take pride of place in our 2022/23 Transfer Flops XI

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