Chelsea possesses an embarrassment of riches as Enzo Maresca attempts a juggling act, while Cole Palmer is snubbed at the FWA awards for the Team of the Year.
CHELSEA’S EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES
The Springboks finally have a rival to their famed “Bomb Squad”. It comes in the form of Chelsea’s unwanted stars who have been told their surplus to demands and they must train on their own until they are shipped off to other clubs.
There’s over £ 320 million of value in Raheem Sterling, Ben Chilwell, Romelu Lukaku, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Trevor Chalaboah, David Fofana and others, making a total of 16 who are awaiting their fate. Despite that, ahead of their Europa Conference play-off game on Thursday, there were 24 first-squad Chelsea players at training, including four goalkeepers.
PALMER SNUBBED BY EPL PEERS
Cole Palmer’s omission from the PFA Premier League Team of the Year this week baffled, and offended, many fans, considering he was named PFA Young Player of the Year on the same night. One thing to be remembered is that the team was selected by EPL players themselves, via an accumulation of points.
The PFA XI was: David Raya and William Saliba (Arsenal), Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Gabriel Magalhaes (Arsenal), Kyle Walker and Rodri (Man City), Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard (Arsenal), Erling Haaland and Phil Foden (Man City) and Ollie Watkins (Villa).
MILNER HAS PASSED THE TEST OF TIME
When James Milner appeared for Brighton in their 3-0 win over Everton on the opening day of the 2024/25 season, he was starting his 23rd consecutive season in the English Premier League, one more than Ryan Giggs, although the Man United legend also had 23 (2 in the old First Division and 21 in the EPL).
Milner, who lives a quiet life – during Covid, there were skits of him cutting his lawn with nail clippers – is now 38 years old with 635 EPL games to his name and only Italians Francesco Totti and Gianluigi Buffon have played in more consecutive seasons than him in the major European leagues.
COLEMAN LEADS THE 2024/25 LOYALTY LEAGUE
The expression “If you want loyalty buy a dog” rings true when it comes to football. Very few players – Ryan Giggs and Steven Gerrard spring to mind – stick with one club through thick and thin. Therefore it’s surprising to note that 20 current EPL players have been with the same club for 10 years or more.
The list is headed by Seamus Coleman (15 years at Everton), Lewis Dunk (14 years at Brighton) Jamie Vardy (Leicester) and Joel Ward (Crystal Palace), both 12 years and 1 month. Of the traditional “Big Six” EPL clubs, Luke Shaw (Man United) and Ben Davis (Tottenham) have lasted a decade.
SEAGULLS SPREAD WINGS FAR AND WIDE
Brighton are a team which always seems to unearth talent and keep producing results no matter how many players, and staff, are head-hunted. They could well have the best talent scouts in the EPL. It should come as no surprise then that they are represented by the most countries in their official first-team squad – 21.
Bournemouth (19), Wolves (18) and Brentford and Liverpool (both 17) are next on that particular table. The three teams with the least number of different countries? Everton (9), Ipswich (10) and Crystal Palace (11).
EPL SCORELINES ALREADY GOING TO FORM
Superbru players probably found the first round of fixtures fairly predictable. Most results went to popular scorelines, with three 2-0’s, two each of 1-0, 1-1 and 2-0 and one 3-0.
The missing one? 0-0. Come the end of the season all these might actually be the most common. Another tip for Superbru players. There are an average of three to four away wins a round, as we highlighted last week. So, when it came to Tottenham visiting Leicester on Monday night, we were already up to four away wins. It ended 1-1. Fortune favours the brave.
