0 Premier League minutes for players over 27 this season – Is Chelsea’s inexperience starting to show?

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Adarabioyo oldest player in PL this term 

©TM/IMAGO

Former Liverpool defender turned pundit Alan Hansen once famously said, “You can’t win anything with kids”. Whilst that proverb ultimately came back to bite the Scotsman as Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, centred around their youthful ‘Class of 92’ academy players, went on to win the league, the value of experience can’t be underestimated. Ultimately in that United side in 1995/96, they still had 32-year-old Peter Schmeichel, 35-year-old Steve Bruce and 30-year-old Éric Cantona as the backbone of the team. However, the same certainly can’t be said of Chelsea’s youthful squad this season.

The Blues enjoyed an electric start to the season, quickly shaking off any criticism of their bloated squad full of young stars. Up until December 21, Chelsea were second in the Premier League table. New manager Enzo Maresca appeared to have his side well ahead of the curve. When asked about whether his team were in the title race in December, the Italian said, “No matter how many games we win, I think we are not ready to compete for the title.” He pointed to the age of the squad and that this team will be ready to dominate the league, but not for a few years. In recent weeks, their lack of experience has perhaps begun to show.

Chelsea are now five games without a win, and have dropped out of the top four to fifth after Newcastle’s 3-0 win against Wolves this Wednesday. They have led against both Fulham and Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge in that run, yet took just one point from those two matches. The Blues also were 1-0 up in the dying stages at Selhurst Park before a last minute Crystal Palace equaliser. All of a sudden after peering above them, Chelsea are perhaps now checking their shoulders in the Premier League table, and could have a serious fight on their hands to get top four football. If things do get tough, right now Chelsea don’t have much experience to call on.

As illustrated in the graphic above, remarkably, the oldest player to play a minute in the Premier League for Chelsea this season is defender Tosin Adarabioyo, aged just 27 years and three months old. To not have had a single player on the field aged 28 or older in 21 games is truly mind-boggling. As we can see above, every other team in the entire division has played a player aged 33 or older this season. There is having a young squad and a slight lack of experience and then there’s that. Chelsea are completely bereft of older heads –  the oldest player in the entire squad is 32-year-old goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli, who hasn’t played a single minute. The oldest outfield player is 28-year-old Ben Chilwell, who hasn’t played in the league and could reportedly be allowed to leave the club this January.

Last summer, Chelsea allowed 39-year-old Thiago Silva and 31-year-old Hakim Ziyech leave the club on free transfers. 29-year-old Kepa Arrizabalaga and 29-year-old Raheem Sterling were allowed to leave on loan, whilst 31-year-old Romelu Lukaku was sold to Napoli for €30 million. Whilst all of those transfers on paper made sense from a Chelsea point of view, the experience of that group has not been replaced. Their youthful energy saw the Blues speed up the league, but when setbacks hit, it’s asking a lot of this young group to react positively and show the experience to face adversity.

As highlighted in the graphic above, the Blues have the youngest average age among all squads in the Premier League this season. If Chelsea can keep this group together and show faith in their manager Maresca, then there’s every chance the Blues could be competing for Premier League titles again in two or three years time, but it’s unlikely with a squad this inexperienced they’d be able to go all the way just yet. That being said, it should be recognised that this young group has stood up and been counted so far this season. Star player Cole Palmer turns up week-in week-out and demands the ball and hurts opponents. Nicolas Jackson has made the striker spot his own, while the midfield trio of Moisés Caicedo, Enzo Fernández, and Roméo Lavia are beginning to show why Chelsea paid such huge sums for them.

If Chelsea, do make the top four this season it should be considered a huge achievement. They have been a club wrapped in turmoil on and off the pitch for some time. Let’s not forget they finished 12th in the 2022/23 season, and spent much of the lat campaign languishing around mid table, before a late flurry of results under Mauricio Pochettino saw them rise to sixth. Now is the time for trust to be shown in the manager and these young players. However, a couple of more experienced players to set the right examples and act as mentors to the young group could be crucial, and right now it’s a huge omission from the Chelsea roster.