Your data guide to football betting, Dan Tracey shows you where the numbers point before the market catches up.
With the 2024/25 Premier League season recently coming to its conclusion, it is now time to all take a collective breath and although Liverpool will be singing to the tune of champions, that is not the only title is up for grabs.
Because within the world of football, there is always the argument between youth and experience and although clubs would love to win trophies with a litany of young precocious talents, this may also be offset by a selection of players who have been there and done it in the past.
This is arguably what saw Arsenal fall short once again and although deep progress within Champions League football and those sensational wins over Real Madrid acts as a consolation prize, the search for a first league title in more than two decades continues.
Leandro Trossard of Arsenal battles for the ball with Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley of Liverpool // Sportimage Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
Then again, even second place in the Premier League is not to be sniffed at and with Mikel Arteta cultivating a youthful squad in the red half of North London, he will hope for better fortunes when each of his players are a year older from now.
While with this topic of Arsenal’s young squad being one that is currently up for debate, it also offers us another ideal opportunity to take a data-driven deep dive and this time around we are going to hand out a title based on the average age of the 20 Premier League squads.
Of course, when it comes to age, what is best is ultimately subjective and although we could focus purely on experience, we are going to focus on youth instead. This means without further ado, here is the Premier League table when ranked from the youngest average squad to oldest.
Measure taken on all players who have appeared or that club at any point of the season
| Club | Players Used | Average Age |
|---|---|---|
| Chelsea | 29 | 22.4 |
| Tottenham | 31 | 23.9 |
| Brentford | 28 | 24.0 |
| Bournemouth | 29 | 24.1 |
| Brighton | 32 | 24.3 |
| Manchester Utd | 31 | 24.3 |
| Southampton | 36 | 24.8 |
| Manchester City | 30 | 24.9 |
| Arsenal | 25 | 25.0 |
| Crystal Palace | 29 | 25.4 |
| Leicester City | 29 | 25.4 |
| Liverpool | 24 | 25.6 |
| Nott'ham Forest | 23 | 25.6 |
| Ipswich Town | 32 | 25.6 |
| Everton | 26 | 25.8 |
| Aston Villa | 28 | 25.8 |
| Wolves | 31 | 25.9 |
| Newcastle Utd | 24 | 26.6 |
| West Ham | 27 | 26.6 |
| Fulham | 26 | 26.7 |
🔝🏆Chelsea reigns supreme! 📊⚽️With an average age of 22.4, their young Blues soar into the Champions League 🌍🔥 Testament to their envy-inducing recruitment policy. 🚀⭐️ Exciting times ahead as they nurture talent and make their mark! ✨🙌
At the top of the pile is none other than Chelsea. At an average age of 22.4, their young Blues have returned to the Champions League next season, and although they have spent an obscene amount of money over the past couple of years, they have at least put their faith in youth.
Faith that has been repaid to a certain degree and with the Blues capturing the Europa Conference League in May, manager Enzo Maresca will hope that silverware is the first step on a rather successful journey.
Then again, the ability of age can be viewed from the opposing angle and when you look at Southampton's average it manages to paint a rather different picture – a picture where the central theme is relegation for the Saints
Throughout the 2024/25 campaign many questioned whether Southampton had the experience to stay up and at an average age of just 24.8 (the seventh youngest in the division), it is safe to say that they did not as they recorded the second worst league points tally of all-time.
But what about the two title challengers Liverpool and Arsenal? Eventually the Gunners would misfire as their average age of exactly 25-years-old didn't quite have enough to stay the pace with Liverpool and by comparison, the Reds were just half a year older on average with a squad age of 25.6.
At the other end of the pile, it is Newcastle and West Ham (joint) and Fulham which had the oldest average ages in the Premier League at 26.6 and 26.7 respectively. Experience certainly made sure the Hammers stayed in the top tier but now Graham Potter must make sure there is progress up the table during the 2025/26 season. 
Fabian Schär Of Newcastle United during the Newcastle United FC v Everton FC English Premier League match at St.James' Park, Newcastle, England, United Kingdom on 25 May 2025 // Every Second Media / Alamy Stock Photo
The Perfect Balance
With that in mind, it is now time to compare each of the average ages in the Premier League to the respective final positions and perhaps more importantly, see if there are any further correlations that we can draw from this.
| Club | Players Used | Average Age | Premier League Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chelsea | 29 | 22.4 | 4 |
| Tottenham | 31 | 23.9 | 17 |
| Brentford | 28 | 24.0 | 10 |
| Bournemouth | 29 | 24.1 | 9 |
| Brighton | 32 | 24.3 | 8 |
| Manchester Utd | 31 | 24.3 | 15 |
| Southampton | 36 | 24.8 | 20 |
| Manchester City | 30 | 24.9 | 3 |
| Arsenal | 25 | 25.0 | 2 |
| Crystal Palace | 29 | 25.4 | 12 |
| Leicester City | 29 | 25.4 | 18 |
| Liverpool | 24 | 25.6 | 1 |
| Nott'ham Forest | 23 | 25.6 | 7 |
| Ipswich Town | 32 | 25.6 | 19 |
| Everton | 26 | 25.8 | 13 |
| Aston Villa | 28 | 25.8 | 6 |
| Wolves | 31 | 25.9 | 16 |
| Newcastle Utd | 24 | 26.6 | 5 |
| West Ham | 27 | 26.6 | 14 |
| Fulham | 26 | 26.7 | 11 |
When looking at the table above, one thing should leap off the page and that is the fact that Liverpool finds themselves neatly within the lower reaches of mid-table – something that suggests that the perfect blend of youth and experience has been combined by manager Arne Slot in order to win the Premier League title.
As we now know, if a squad is too young or too old, it will run into trouble. However, with Liverpool having the joint-twelfth oldest squad, there was ideal equilibrium in their capture of English football's coveted crown.
While it does seem as if experience has aided Newcastle as the Tyneside outfit not only celebrated success in the Carabao Cup but their joint-second oldest squad in the Premier League at the age of 26.6 was wiley enough to return the Magpies to the Champions League.
Another thing to highlight is the range from top to bottom and with Chelsea being the youngest squad at 22.4 and West London rivals Fulham having the oldest at 26.7, it means there is a 4.3 year difference from the lowest to the highest values. Not a huge number when you consider the ages of Premier League players and footballers in general but an interesting insight nevertheless.
Staying in the capital and you can see how a lack of experience had hampered Tottenham in the Premier League. They may have an exciting squad in terms of youth - reflected by an average age of 23.9 but the second youngest squad in the division toiled to a 17th place finish under the now former manager Ange Postecoglou.
Over or Under
Another thing to consider here, is the makeup of each of the 20 Premier League squads and one way to get a better gauge of how each group is comprised, is by seeing the number of players who are under 25 and then 25 or over.
Something that with the same sample data available, we have now managed to compile together another table.
The overriding notion that we can take from this is that Premier League squads seem to be getting much younger. 47% of all players used last season were 25 or under - not good news if you are approaching 30 and looking for a new contract.
Chelsea had the highest percentage of under 25's in their squad. Out of the 29 that got minutes, 22 of Enzo Maresca's men were under the age marker, this equates to 75.86% in percentage terms.
Noni Madueke of Chelsea seen in action with Ibrahim Sangare of Nottingham Forest // SOPA Images Limited / Alamy Stock Photo
Next in the list was Chelsea's unofficial feeder club Brighton. The Seagulls had 65.63% of their squad aged under 25. The fact that Joao Pedro has recently made the move from The Amex to Stamford Bridge must be more than a simple coincidence.
Six clubs have a squad that has more than 50% of personnel aged under 25. The two clubs mentioned above joined by the quartet of Brentford, Tottenham, Bournemouth and Manchester United.
Three more clubs have a perfect equilibrium between under and over. The 50/50 splits can be found at Southampton, Everton and Manchester City.
As for champions Liverpool. they leaned in to experience over youth as two thirds of their squad were aged 25 or over. Experience may have won over Arsenal this time around but there is a fine line between overperformance and overrealiance on older players.
Something that manager Arne Slot may have to address as the Gunners will not fancy a fourth successive second place finish in the Premier League.
Methodology and Contributor Information
All Data for this look at the average ages of Premier league players have been gained from FBRef.com
Meet The Author
Researched and written by Dan Tracey ahead of Publishing by Steve Madgwick
Dan Tracey is a multi-talented writer, data analyst and podcaster whose six-year career in the sports data sphere has seen incredible successes. From helping UEFA create their annual technical reports to writing articles for Sports Betting Websites including sites like TheLinesUS and Goal - there's no shortage of areas where his expertise shines through! In addition he can be heard on podcasts lending an insightful voice as well as providing weekly betting angles - all culminating with him teaming up OLBG.com in the present day. Simply put: wherever you find angled data being crunched? You'll also likely find Dan not far behind!
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