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A Chelsea lineup by top flight league appearances in 4-2-3-1 formation

By Olaoluwa Nwobodo

French forward Christopher Nkunku gives a press conference during the preparation of the French squad for the upcoming UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament qualifying matches, in Clairefontaine in June 10, 2023. (Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP) (Photo by BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images)
French forward Christopher Nkunku gives a press conference during the preparation of the French squad for the upcoming UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament qualifying matches, in Clairefontaine in June 10, 2023. (Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP) (Photo by BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images) /
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Chelsea, Conor Gallagher
Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher (Photo by Chloe Knott – Danehouse/Getty Images) /

Conor Gallagher (Central midfielder, 2000) 99 apps

Chels‘ is somewhat scarce in the appearances department in midfield, mostly because they have a very young midfield. They also have several midfielders with zero top flight league appearances. With 99 appearances from West Bromwich Albion, Crystal Palace and Chelsea, Gallagher is actually the Blues’ most experienced central midfielder.

Enzo Fernandes (Central midfielder, 2001) 50 apps

It should come as no surprise that Fernandez has the fewest top flight league appearances, considering he’s also the youngest in this list. Most of Fernandez’s top flight league appearances came in Argentina and Portugal.

Raheem Sterling (Left winger, 1994) 348 apps

Sterling’s numbers are actually outrageous for a 28-year-old, especially considering that all those appearances have come in the same league. Sterling also has goal production numbers impressively proportional to his appearances. He is by far Chelsea’s most experienced winger in this regard. The numbers are more impressive when you consider that a larger chunk of those games have come under an extremely demanding manager in Pep Guardiola.

Christopher Nkunku (Central attacking midfielder, 1997) 174 apps

With over 100 appearances in the Bundesliga and over 50 appearances in Ligue 1, Nkunku gets in at attacking midfield. Having just arrived, he’d be expected to come with goal creation and production, or at least more goal creation and production than those he would be replacing, which you’d think wouldn’t be too difficult.

Hakim Ziyech (Right winger, 1993) 280 apps

Ziyech has over 200 appearances in Netherlands’ Eredivisie across three different clubs, and is Chelsea’s second most experienced winger. With over 60 top flight league appearances for Twente and over 150 for Ajax, Ziyech is known more for his goal creation than his scoring.

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Romelu Lukaku (Center forward, 1993) 430 apps

This was very close between Lukaku and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with the later being five appearances behind. Chelsea, as it turns out, is very heavy in the striker department, with just two players accounting for over 800 appearances. It is still astonishing that none of Chelsea’s four previous managers got anything anything useful out of either of them.

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