The 10 youngest XIs in Premier League history | OneFootball

The Premier League is such an intense competition, many managers tend to feel as though a little bit of experience is needed on the field at all times. This is why most captains tend to be in their late 20s or early 30s.

There is a belief that those who have been around the block once or twice, just have the nous to get across the line in difficult moments – hence Alan Hansen's infamous 'you can't win anything with kids' claim. Well, he was proven wrong about that with the youth of Manchester United firing the Red Devils to a Premier League and FA Cup double during that same 1995/96 season.

And, just like Sir Alex Ferguson, plenty of others have put their faith in the young talent emerging over the years. It certainly seems to be a ploy at Chelsea right now with the Blues naming their youngest-ever Premier League side in a December 2023 game against Crystal Palace which they won 2-1.

This got us thinking... Where does that team rank among the very youngest starting XIs to ever feature in the Premier League? Well, if you read on below you can find out who the top ten youngest teams were, the starting lineups, the average age, who they played against, and in which year the games took place.

10 Arsenal: 23 years, 47 days

Vs Derby County, April 2008

Line up: Lukasz Fabianski, Gael Clichy, Kolo Toure, William Gallas, Emmanuel Eboue, Alex Song, Cesc Fabregas, Denilson, Theo Walcott, Robin van Persie, Nicklas Bendtner

Arsene Wenger was well-known for putting his faith in youth, often preferring to develop talent as opposed to spending big sums in the transfer market and his Arsenal teams feature regularly on this list. First up, we have an Arsenal team which thumped Derby County 6-2 away from home in April 2008.

Goals from Bendtner, Van Persie, Walcott and a hat-trick from Adebayor saw the Gunners cruise to a comfortable win against the worst team in top-flight English football history. With an average age of 23 years and 47 days, every single player would go on to make at least 100 Premier League stats (if they weren't there already at this point) apart from Denilson who fell just short with 96 outings.

9 Arsenal: 23 years, 27 days

Vs Wigan, April 2009

Line up: Lukasz Fabianski, Kieran Gibbs, Johan Djourou, Kolo Toure, Bacary Sagna, Alex Song, Cesc Fabregas, Denilson, Theo Walcott, Andrey Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner

The following season, essentially a year later, Wenger named another young side in the Premier League, this time against Wigan. The side from north London were strong away from home again as they picked up a 4-1 win at the DW Stadium in April 2009.

Egyptian forward Mido actually gave the home team a lead before goals in the second half from Walcott, Mikaël Silvestre (on as a sub), Arshavin and Song wrapped up the scoring. Fabregas is the one name that stands out the most from the lineup. Already established as a star by that stage of his career, the Spaniard would later go on to win the World Cup and dominate domestically with Barcelona and Chelsea.

8 Chelsea: 23 years, 284 days

Vs Crystal Palace, December 2023

Line up: Dorde Petrovic; Malo Gusto, Axel Disasi, Benoit Badiashile, Levi Colwill, Moises Caicedo, Conor Gallagher, Mykhailo Mudryk, Christopher Nkunku, Ian Maatsen, Nicolas Jackson

As mentioned before, Todd Boehly seems to be putting all his eggs in one basket. This is a transfer policy, which has seen Chelsea hand out lengthy contracts to young stars in the hope that they will all develop into world-beaters. So far, the plan has yet to pay off.

Still, against Crystal Palace, Mauricio Pochettino's youthful side came out on top. 22-year-old Mudryk opened the scoring before 21-year-old Noni Madueke kept his cool from 12 yards to win the game 2-1 with a late penalty. It remains to be seen what comes of this talented but unproven bunch.

7 Everton: 23 years, 12 days

Vs Bolton, December 1997

Line up: Thomas Myhre, Michael Ball, Richard Dunne, Carl Tiler, Tony Thomas, Andy Hinchcliffe, Gareth Farrelly, Nick Barmby, John Oster, Danny Cadamarteri, Duncan Ferguson

We'll have to hop in our time machine and travel way back here to the 90s when Everton took on Bolton Wanderers in 1997. The Toffees managed to come out on top in front of their own fans, winning 3-2 with Ferguson bagging a hat-trick.

Names such as Dunne, Hinchcliffe and Barmby will be recognisable too many but Ferguson stands out as the player with the greatest legacy from this starting XI. It's appropriate then that he stole headlines in this fixture. He would go on to score 69 goals in 263 games for the club.

6 Manchester City: 22 years, 360 days

Vs Aston Villa, August 2008

Line up: Joe Hart, Micah Richards, Vedran Corluka, Javier Garrido, Tal Ben Haim, Elano, Martin Petrov, Gelson Fernandes, Kelvin Etuhu, Michael Johnson, Ched Evans

Now dropping into the teams with an average age of 22 years, we have Manchester City's side who took on and lost to Aston Villa 4-2 at Villa Park in the early stages of the 2008/09 season. Gabriel Agbonlahor's hat-trick fired the Villans to victory, despite goals from Elano and Corluka.

The lack of star quality in the Man City lineup goes to show just how much the club's fortunes have changed thanks to the enormous wealth of their ownership, with Sheikh Mansour completing his takeover in September 2008, just one month after this game. The likes of Hart and Richards managed to keep their places in the team over the following years, despite the significantly increased investment in transfers.

5 Leeds United, 22 years, 341 days

Vs Manchester United, October 2000

Line up: Nigel Martyn, Ian Harte, Rio Ferdinand, Daniel Mills, Dominic Matteo, Lucas Radebe, Lee Bowyer, Olivier Dacourt, David Batty, Mark Viduka, Robbie Keane

Leeds United would finish the 2000/01 Premier League season fourth and were helped on their way to that success by a 1-1 draw against rivals Manchester United in October. Australian icon Viduko would net an 84th-minute leveller after Luke Chadwick fired the Red Devils into a lead.

Several players in the Leeds lineup are recognisable but Ferdinand stands out the most. Of course, he would swap Elland Road for Old Trafford in 2002, and go on to become a legend winning the Premier League six times, as well as the Champions League and many other honours.

4 Arsenal: 22 years, 315 days

Vs Sunderland, May 2008

Line up: Lukasz Fabianski, Alex Song, Philippe Senderos, Johan Djourou, Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Eboue, Denilson, Gilberto Silva, Theo Walcott, Emmanuel Adebayor, Nicklas Bendtner

Yet another Arsenal team of the late 2000s gets a mention here. This time, Wenger named a team with an average age of just 22 years and 315 days on the final day of the 2007/08 season. The Gunners finished third that term, five points behind first-placed Man Utd.

Against Sunderland, a single goal from Walcott secured the points for Arsenal at the Stadium of Light. The winger retired in 2023, having scored 80 goals and provided 56 assists in 397 Premier League outings. He featured for Everton and Southampton as well as the north London outfit over the course of his career.

3 Manchester United: 22 years, 284 days

Vs Crystal Palace, May 2017

Line up: Joel Castro Pereira, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Eric Bailly, Phil Jones, Demetri Mitchell, Scott McTominay, Axel Tuanzebe, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Wayne Rooney, Josh Harrop

Jumping a little closer to the modern day, Manchester United feature next on this list with one of their strangest Premier League lineups. Jose Mourinho had a Europa League final on the horizon, so protected his senior stars by playing a bunch of untested youngsters against Crystal Palace.

The Red Devils still managed to come away with all three points thanks to goals from Pogba and Harrop. We all know plenty about the Frenchman, who won the World Cup but could soon be banned from the game due to a failed drug test. As for Harrop, he played just once for Man Utd despite scoring on his debut vs the Eagles.

2 Arsenal: 22 years 237 days

Vs Portsmouth May 2009

Line up: Lukasz Fabianski, Emmanuel Eboue, Johan Djourou, Alex Song, Bacary Sagna, Aaron Ramsey, Denilson, Theo Walcott, Andrey Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner, Carlos Vela

Just a month after the aforementioned youthful Arsenal team beat Wigan 4-1 in 2009, Wenger called upon a similar side to get the job done again. Gibbs, Toure, and Fabregas came out, with Eboue, Ramsey and Vela, which was enough to see the team's average age drop to 22 years 237 days.

Bendtner scored twice and Vela also scored as the Gunners beat Portsmouth 3-0. Arsenal had a Champions League semi-final vs Man Utd next up, which explains why Wenger mixed the team up. Arshavin wore the captain's armband on the day and is fondly remembered by Gooners for delivering some iconic moments, including his four-goal display at Anfield.

1 Middlesbrough: 22 years, 181 days

Vs Fulham, May 2006

Line up: Ross Turnbull, Andrew Davies, David Wheater, Matthew Bates, Andrew Taylor, James Morrison, Jason Kennedy, Lee Cattermole, Adam Johnson, Danny Graham, Malcolm Christie

Finally, we have the youngest team to ever start a Premier League game. Middlesbrough named a team with an average age of just 20 years and 182 days when they took on but lost to Fulham on the final day of the 2005/06 season. This just so happened to also be Steve McClaren's last Premier League game in charge before taking on the England job.

Only 18 years and 47 days at the time, Cattermole was the youngest man on the pitch. Although he was joined by six other teenagers, including Wheater – which is hard to believe as it feels as though the two players were both born as 30-year-old men. They went on to have respectable careers in the English games, as did the likes of Morrison and Graham.