Albion’s substitutes bench against Crystal Palace on Saturday was the youngest in our Premier League history.
Roberto De Zerbi named five teenagers among his replacements, which meant the average age of the bench was 21 years, 131 days.
To illustrate how the bench has got younger and evolved during our time in the Premier League, for our first game at this level against Manchester City in August 2017 the average age of our subs was nearly a decade older at 31 years, 124 days.
It continues a trend that has seen Albion regularly name a young bench this season.
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In four games, against Chelsea, Arsenal, Southampton and AFC Bournemouth, the average age of the substitutes has been between 22 years and 127 days (Chelsea) to 22 years and 157 days (Southampton). Our second and third youngest benches were in the 2021/22 campaign against Wolves (22-54) and Chelsea (22-120).
Saturday’s game also set two more records. For the first time Albion had five teenagers – Julio Enciso, Yasin Ayari, Facundo Buonanotte, Evan Ferguson and Andrew Moran – in the squad. We have only had four teenagers on two occasions, during the 2021/22 season against Wolves and Arsenal in December 2021.
At the other end of the age scale, Saturday’s game continued a trend this season in which just one of our substitutes was aged over 30, the 11th time that has happened during the 2022/23 campaign.
Statistics supplied by club historian Tim Carder.