Manchester United put their faith in youth, Swansea played their reserves and Southampton went all out for victory. That’s what the stats tell us about how Premier League teams approached the FA Cup third round.
Louis van Gaal’s team at Yeovil on Sunday was a full two years younger than their average Premier League line-up, the greatest disparity in average age of all 20 top-flight clubs over the weekend.
It was Swansea who took the biggest gamble in terms of experience, though. Their starting XI against Tranmere had played 3,867 Premier League minutes this season – more than 190 hours fewer than Southampton’s line-up against Ipswich.
United fielded three of the five youngest players to feature for a top-flight side in the FA Cup third round programme – James Wilson, Paddy McNair – in a team with an average age of 24.3 years, compared to 26.3 in the league.
The side wasn’t exactly short of star quality – Wayne Rooney, Radamel Falcao and Ander Herrera all played – and it was considerably older than the team hammered 4-0 by MK Dons in the Capital One Cup in August, which averaged 23 years and 118 days.
Newcastle’s Adam Armstrong – at 17 years and 326 days old – was the youngest player to feature for a Premier League side, while former Magpies goalkeeper Steve Harper was the oldest, featuring for Hull at the age of 39 years and 296 days.
The Tigers, last season’s runners-up, did not appear primed for another run to Wembley though. Their line-up at Arsenal in a re-run of last year’s final contained the second-fewest league minutes of any side (6,255).
The two sides under new managers, Tony Pulis’ West Brom and Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace, both faced Conference opponents – and both took them seriously.
The Baggies’ line-up was sixth in the table in terms of minutes played (11,514) and the Eagles 12th (9,059). Pulis’ selection also showed the second-biggest increase in age from league to cup, with the XI against Gateshead 369 days older than their league average.
Tottenham’s team at Burnley showed the greatest rise in average age, going up from 25.0 to 26.3 as none of the trio of Harry Kane (21), Ryan Mason (23) or Nabil Bentaleb (20) started.
Source: SNAPPA
