Yet another season has come to an end with an all-new champion in the Premier League as Leicester City upset the odds and surprised everyone by winning the title with two games to spare. After taking the lead in mid-January, the Foxes never surrendered their no.1 spot to go all the way and become only the sixth club to lift a Premier League title.
Defending champions Chelsea lost their way under Jose Mourinho and eventually finished 10th, title favourites Manchester City failed to beat any of the top five sides and finished fourth, Tottenham Hotspur capitulated at the end of the season to finish third while Arsenal surrendered their lead at the top in the second half of the season to finish second.
Meanwhile, Manchester United failed to qualify for the Champions League yet again. However, they did win the FA Cup – a trophy they had not won since 2004. Louis van Gaal’s future has been shrouded in doubt with Mourinho set to take over at Old Trafford according to reports.
While a huge majority of the United fans want Van Gaal and his ‘philosophy’ gone, there is one reason to praise his efforts of sticking to the club ethos – trusting the academy players to deliver. The Dutch boss has handed out a number of league debuts to youngsters this season, some of whom have exceeded expectations.
No other Premier League club has seen their teenagers play more minutes than the Red Devils. A total of 2638 minutes were shared among Anthony Martial (until his 20th birthday on 5 December), Marcus Rashford (862 minutes), Cameron Borthwick-Jackson (692 minutes) and Timothy Fosu-Mensah (254 minutes).
While Martial was the most expensive teenager in football history and was thrust straight into the deep end in the North West derby against Liverpool, he came out in flying colours with a sensational goal on debut. Martial finished the season as United’s top scorer with 11 goals in the EPL (17 in all competitions).
Rashford impressed with a brace against FC Midtjylland before repeating the feat on his EPL debut against rivals Arsenal. His five goals in 11 league games (eight overall) saw Roy Hodgson include the 18-year-old forward in the provisional 26-man squad for Euro 2016 before a knee injury at Wembley put a spanner in the works.
Tottenham Hotspur are in second place with 2384 minutes but a huge chunk of that was from Dele Alli who celebrated his 20th birthday in April. The only other teenager to play for Spurs apart from the PFA Young Player of the Year was Josh Onomah who played 78 minutes.
The Merseyside clubs, Everton and Liverpool, are the only other clubs who saw teenagers play more than 1000 minutes. At the other end of the table, six clubs did not use a single teenager in the 38 games they played.
| Rank | Club | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester United | 2638 |
| 2 | Tottenhham Hotspur | 2384 |
| 3 | Everton | 1489 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 1433 |
| 5 | Manchester City | 778 |
| 6 | Aston Villa | 628 |
| 7 | Arsenal | 573 |
| 8 | Southampton | 450 |
| 9 | Chelsea | 411 |
| 10 | West Bromwich Albion | 292 |
| 11 | West Ham United | 210 |
| 12 | Leicester City | 177 |
| 13 | Newcastle United | 67 |
| 14 | Sunderland | 52 |
| 15 | Bournemouth | 0 |
| Crystal Palace | 0 | |
| Norwich City | 0 | |
| Stoke City | 0 | |
| Swansea City | 0 | |
| Watford | 0 |
Stats courtesy of Opta.
