Starting XI for City clash our second youngest in Premier League history
Thu 27 February 2025, 09:00|
Tottenham Hotspur
Our starting XI from Wednesday night's narrow defeat to Manchester City was the second youngest that we have ever fielded in a Premier League fixture.
Fielding an 18-year-old, two 19-year-olds, a 20-year-old and with all of our players being 28 years or younger, the average age of the team which began the 1-0 loss at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was just 23 years and 243 days.
That was the second youngest side we have ever used in the competition since it began in 1992. The youngest side we have ever fielded had a starting XI with an average age of 23 years and 97 days and came in just our 10th ever Premier League match - a 2-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday in September, 1992.
Our starting XI vs Man City and their ages
Guglielmo Vicario - 27y 142d
Archie Gray - 18y 351d
Kevin Danso - 26y 160d
Pedro Porro - 25y 166d
Destiny Udogie - 22y 90d
Rodrigo Bentancur - 27y 246d
Lucas Bergvall - 19y 24d
James Maddison - 28y 95d
Mathys Tel - 19y 306d
Wilson Odobert - 20y 90d
Brennan Johnson - 23y 279d
Our youngest ever starting XI in the Premier League - Sheffield Wednesday (A), September, 1992
Ian Walker - 20y 333d
David Tuttle - 20y 235d
Dean Austin - 22y 155d
Steve Sedgley - 24y 125d
Jason Cundy - 22y 321d
Pat van der Hauwe - 31y 287d
Darren Anderton - 20y 209d
Paul Allen - 30y 31d
Nick Barmby - 18y 230d
Andy Turner - 17y 189d
Teddy Sheringham - 26y 179d
A rare sight in the Premier League
While it may seem quite commonplace for sides to have youthful squads, to see a starting XI with an average age of less than 24 years in the Premier League is very, very rare.
With 12,677 games now having been played in the competition since it was formed in 1992, we have seen 25,354 starting XIs fielded in total.
Incredibly, of those 25,354 teams, only 119 of them have had an average age of less than 24-years-old - 0.46 per cent.
Even more incredibly, this season has already seen the highest number of starting XIs with an average age under 24 years for a sole campaign - and there are still over 100 games still to be played in the competition this term!
There has already been 18 starting XIs used this season with an average age less than 24 years and two have belonged to us (Last night defeat to Man City and January's 2-1 loss to Newcastle United). The previous highest was actually seen in the campaign just gone with 2023/24 seeing 16 such XIs.
In fact, 28 per cent of those 119 youthful starting XIs have been seen in just the last two seasons alone while in only two of the other 31 Premier League seasons to date have we seen more than six teams fielded averaging an age younger than 24 years.
We were the first side to field a side with an average age of younger than 24-years-old - that being the aforementioned youngest ever side we have fielded in the competition as we fell away at Sheffield Wednesday in September, 1992. We were actually responsible for the first five teams fielded which average an age less than 24 years.
The youngest ever side fielded in the Premier League had an average age of 20 years and 181 days. That was a Middlesbrough side in May, 2006, and in a 1-0 loss at Fulham.
