What would a Chelsea lineup made up of players with the most top flight league appearances look like? It should be noted that top flight league appearances are games played in the highest tier in any country, even non-top five divisions. The west London side has many young players, so it may be interesting to see just how much experience the team has. Here is our lineup:
Kepa Arrizabalaga, Chelsea (Goalkeeper, Born 1994) 162 apps
Arrizabalaga has made over 100 appearances in the Premier League alone, and this contributes greatly to his tally. Gabriel Slonina and Marcus Bettinelli never stood a chance in the area. In fact, Arrizabalaga has more appearances in La Liga (53) than Slonina and Bettinelli have top flight outings combined (50).
Reece James (Right back, Born 1999) 98 apps
James comfortably has more top flight appearances than any other right back at the club. Gusto is second, but not a close second, which is not at all surprising considering that James is more than three years older than Gusto. All of his showings have come in the EPL.
Thiago Silva (Centerback, Born 1984) 445 apps
Silva’s presence here is unsurprising considering the outrageous feats he has achieved in his career. Still being an active player at 38-years-old is testament to his longevity. Starting in Brazil, Silva made most of his top flight league appearances in France’s Ligue 1.
Interestingly, Silva has not made up to 100 top flight league appearances in any league except France, where he made more than 200 (204). He has also been named permanent captain for two of the four teams he has played for, including impressively getting handed the captain armband from Day 1 at PSG.
Malang Sarr (Centerback, 1999) 131 apps
This might come as a surprise to many, but Sarr had actually already made over 100 Ligue 1 appearances before making his Chelsea debut in 2021, and his career practically derailed when he came to the Bridge, going on two loans since arriving here. In fact, he had more Ligue 1 appearances than Badiashile did at their respective times of making their debuts in west London. Badiashile comes second to Sarr though, with 117 apps.
Marc Cucurella (Left back, 1998) 165 apps
This was very close between Cucurella and Ben Chilwell. Chilwell had 156 top flight league appearances, all from the Premier League. This is likely down to his several long term injuries. As you may have guessed, most of Cucurella’s top flight league appearances came in Spain.
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.
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.