Next season starting lineup and the new Financial Fair Play rules

By Sir Hardly Anyone

• 93 players rumoured to be going to Arsenal. Are the journos getting lazy?

Last season 19 players made 10 or more starts in first team matches for Arsenal. In addition to the 38 league games we had six in the League Cup and one in the FA Cup.

This coming season we will obviously be in one extra competition – the Europa League – which will mean at the very least another six games, and quite possibly another 10 or more games all told.  We will start in the League Cup one round later, meaning one game fewer, but hopefully will make up for that by not going out in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.  So an extra ten games is likely to be the minimum we’ll get.

Here is a list of the 19 players who made ten or more starts last season in declining number of starts.

Number	Player	Position	Starts	Subs
7	Bukayo Saka	Defender/Midfielder	40	3
6	Gabriel	Defender	37	1
32	Aaron Ramsdale	Goalkeeper	37	0
4	Ben White	Defender	37	0
8	Martin Odegaard	Midfielder	36	4
34	Granit Xhaka	Defender/Midfielder	29	1
35	Gabriel Martinelli	Forward	26	10
5	Thomas Partey	Midfielder	24	2
10	Emile Smith Rowe	Midfielder	24	12
3	Kieran Tierney	Defender/Midfielder	24	1
9	Alexandre Lacazette	Forward	23	13
17	Cédric Soares	Defender	21	5
18	Takehiro Tomiyasu	Defender/Midfielder	21	1
20	Nuno Tavares	Defender	17	11
23	Albert Sambi Lokonga	Midfielder	16	8
16	Rob Holding	Defender	14	7
14	Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	Forward	13	2
30	Eddie Nketiah	Forward	13	14
25	Mohamed El Neny	Midfielder	11	6

 

Of course we know that Aubameyang and Lacazette have gone taking us down to 17 such players.   Incoming we have Matt Turner, Fabio Vieira and, although not officially confirmed as yet, everyone seems to agree, Jesus.  Which takes us back to 20.

Quite how we are going to line up, of course we don’t yet know.  But one popular guess could give us

Ramsdale

Tomiyasu White Gabriel Tierney

Partey Vieira

Saka   Odegaard   Martinelli

Jesus

That lineup leaves Smith Rowe, Nketiah, Elneny, Xhaka, Pepe, Turner, Holding, Soares, and Saliba not playing in the first-choice selection.

Additionally, we have Daniel Ballard, George Lewis, James Olayinka, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Matt Smith, and Zak Swanson who are over 21.  We might note in passing that the rules for the under 23 competition that was have now changed making it an under 21 league with five outfield players and the goalkeeper all able to be over 21.

Of course, there is always a high level of turnaround with the under 23, now under 21, squad so many of those under 23s who did not break through last year will have left by the time the season starts.

Meanwhile, the rule about substitutes which was introduced as a covid emergency measure has been retained as a permanent part of the regulations, so nine substitutes can be named for each league game.

Only five of the nine can be made at three separate intervals – which normally means two intervals since clubs need to hold back their final substitute option in case of a late injury.