All 20 clubs ranked
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Due to the growing demands placed on the modern footballer, football clubs are often forced to do their due diligence in each transfer window by spending extra money on squad players. After all, the league campaign is a marathon not a spring and if a club is fortunate enough to take part in European football, they can often exceed 60 games across all competitions. Individuals may dominate the highlight reels and newspaper columns, but squad depth often brings home the silverware.
Despite that, there is always a clamour among fans of the Premier League to put together the strongest starting XIs of any given squad to compare them to other big-hitters in a bid to predict the outcome of the forthcoming league campaign. Head-to-head clashes are often pivotal in title races that offer so few margins for error and as such star power can sometimes sway a season in one club or another’s favour. But which clubs can lay claim to the most valuable starting XI ahead of this forthcoming Premier League season? Let’s take a look.
To no great surprise, the teams that typically challenge for the Premier League table are at the top of the list. However, they’re not quite in the same order as the list of clubs based on the highest squad market value. For example, while Manchester City have the most valuable squad in the English top-flight with a market value of €1.35 billion, Pep Guardiola’s most valuable XI actually comes in second behind Arsenal. Despite his squad having a market value that’s €30m less than Man City’s, Mikel Arteta’s strongest starting XI is actually €28m more valuable than his former mentor’s.
Equally, Chelsea sit third in the table for squad market value (€1.17bn), but their most valuable starting XI comes in fourth with a market value of €615m, which is more than €100m less than Liverpool’s strongest starting XI (€718m). This is despite the fact that Arne Slot’s squad has a market value that is €130m less than their Stamford Bridge rivals. Similarly, despite having the seventh most valuable squad in the Premier League, Newcastle’s most valuable starting XI is the fifth highest in the league, suggesting that Eddie Howe’s squad is built on quality rather than quantity.
To understand these discrepancies in the market value of these squads and their corresponding starting XIs, we need only piece together a starting XI of the most valuable players in each position to get a better idea of what’s going on. As we can see in the graphic above, the most valuable XI in the Premier League features no less than six Arsenal players in David Raya, Gabriel, William Saliba, Jurrien Timber, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka. Man City then follow with three players in Josko Gvardiol, Rodri and Erling Haaland, while Liverpool and Chelsea have one player each in Florian Wirtz and Cole Palmer.
Whether the market value of a team’s best XI or their overall squad is more important for winning league titles and cup competitions is certainly up for debate. But there’s no denying that among England’s biggest clubs there are some that seem to favour more top-quality players, while others clearly prioritise fewer stars of greater quality. Perhaps by next May we’ll know which strategy is best suited to winning a Premier League title.
