Arsenal awash with current internationals as they lead Man Utd; Newcastle way behind

Arsenal played 18 full, current internationals in a friendly this week. They lead the way in the Premier League after a busy summer…

Arsenal: 23
They had 18 play in a pre-season friendly v MLS All-Stars, FFS. And that was without their most-capped player Mo Elneny (90). Surely, all talk of Arsenal having no strength in depth has gone.
Name that might surprise you: Auston Levi-Jesaiah Trusty (USA). And not just because that’s a name that would surprise anyone. He’s never played for Arsenal but he has played a full season for Birmingham City (Midlands, not Alabama), where they absolutely bloody loved him.

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Manchester United: 22
Strength in depth or the sign of a bloated squad, with the unwanted Harry Maguire, Eric Bailly, Alex Telles and Dean Henderson among their number? And that’s not counting Anthony Martial, Jadon Sancho and Donny van de Beek, all exempt because they have not been called up since 2021 or before.
Name that might surprise you: Not so much the name, but the number. How has Hannibal got 24 caps for Tunisia at the age of 20?

Manchester City: 20
What’s ludicrous is that the least-capped of those 20 players is Ederson (20).
Name that might surprise you: Issy Kabore has been a Manchester City player for three years, has never played for Manchester City and has 32 caps for Burkino Faso at the age of just 22.

Tottenham Hotspur: 20
A massive seven players who have at least 50 caps for their country, though three of those are probably up for sale. And new signing Manor Solomon brings 35 caps for Israel.
Name that might surprise you: We are surprised that Pedro Porro earned the second of his Spain caps while a Tottenham player. Just how short were they?

Chelsea: 18
It would have been more like 30 without the summer exits but Chelsea are still left with a hefty number, though Romelu Lukaku, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Hakim Ziyech all want out.
Name that might surprise you: Andrey Santos, who at just 18 has now played more times for Brazil (1) than Chelsea (0).

READ: Have Chelsea noticed they barely have any midfielders? Brighton have. Just cough up for Caicedo…

Nottingham Forest: 17
And five of those – who represent South Korea, Canada, Tunisia, USA and Costa Rica – have just arrived back on loan. This is a massive f***ing squad.
Names that might surprise you: All of the five mentioned above. Genuinely never heard of Ui-jo Hwang but he has 56 caps for South Korea.

Liverpool: 16
And Saudi Arabia might be about to knock that down to 14, which feels low for supposed title contenders, though Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott may get promoted by Gareth Southgate to the England senior squad.
Name that might surprise you: The pronunciation of Caoimhín Kelleher might surprise you, though him being an Irish international should not.

Brighton: 16
And four of those players were out on loan last season, demonstrating the phenomenal football operation at Brighton. The two players with the biggest caps hauls are Ecuador’s Pervis Estupinan and Moises Caicedo, if we’re not counting the retired James Milner or the still-hopeful Danny Welbeck. And we’re not.
Name that might surprise you: Facundo Buonanotte, a full Argentina international at just 18.

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Brentford: 16
The surprise is that only four of them are Danish. That really is quite a hefty number for a club not in Europe, boosted by the summer signings of Nathan Collins (Ireland) and Mark Flekken (Netherlands).
Name that might surprise you: Kevin Schade picking up two actual caps for actual Germany.

Burnley: 15
That’s an extraordinarily high number for a newly-promoted side, even though Wout Weghorst would probably quite like to escape those ranks, thank you.
Name that might surprise you: Ameen Al-Dakhil, an Iraq-born winger who made two substitute appearances for Belgium last month.

Newcastle United: 14
Less than Burnley seems weird, which demonstrates how thin Newcastle’s squad actually is. And the fact that Sven Botman and Anthony Gordon still don’t have international caps despite being rather expensive.
Name that might surprise you:  Garang Kuol, capped five times by Australia at just 18.

West Ham: 13
David Moyes would undoubtedly like to see more than one Englishman in those ranks, with Declan Rice leaving Jarrod Bowen on his own in that department. A reminder is now due that the Hammers paid £25m for Nikola Vlasic, who has 50 caps for Croatia but apparently no future with West Ham.
Name that might surprise you: We were going to ask how Alphonse Areola remains in the France squad, but then we remembered he is a European champion with the Hammers.

READ: Arsenal laughing as West Ham overcook Rice and have too many chefs in their own transfer kitchen

Aston Villa: 12
Youri Tielemans and Pau Torres have boosted their numbers this summer and they will surely target more. Unai Emery means business. A massive eight players have been capped but not in the last 18 months.
Name that might surprise you: Boubacar Kamara, who was an outsider for the France World Cup squad before being hamstrung by injury and Steven Gerrard.

Bournemouth: 12
Surprisingly high/seems mental, but plucky Bournemouth have signed Ilya Zabarnyi (Ukraine), Dango Ouattara (Burkino Faso), Milos Kerkez (Hungary), Antoine Semenyo (Ghana) and Hamed Traore (Ivory Coast) in recent months.
Names that might surprise you: Pretty much all of the above but also Jamal Lowe (Jamaica), whose existence we entirely forgot.

Wolves: 11
Still flabbergasted that Jose Sa does not have a Portugal cap; indeed, only three Wolves players are current Portuguese internationals. The times they are a-changin’.
Name that might surprise you:  Literally never heard of Bendegúz Bolla, the Hungarian international right-back who has spent the entirety of his Wolves career on loan at Grasshoppers.

Fulham: 10
It’s a low number, with Aleksandar Mitrovic rather keen to make it even lower.
Name that might surprise you: Who else had forgotten that 38-cap Serb Sasa Lukic had arrived in January?

Everton: 9
Ouch. There’s plenty of experience in there – Idrissa Gueye, Seamus Coleman, Alex Iwobi and Jordan Pickford all have 50-plus caps – but a massive lack of depth. England internationals Ashley Young, Ben Godfrey, Michael Keane, James Tarkowski, Dele Alli and Dominic Calvert-Lewin all feel a little far out of the picture.
Name that might surprise you: Demarai Gray – once called up by England – reached the semi-finals of the Gold Cup with Jamaica last month, notching two goals and assists along the way.

Sheffield United: 9
Some good experience there in Sander Berge, John Egan and new signing Anis Slimane, but there is definitely a lack of quality compared to Burnley, which is hardly a surprise.
Name that might surprise you: Any reminder that George Baldock plays for Greece should be embraced.

Crystal Palace: 8
Palace have more internationals in their ranks but some – Jeffrey Schlupp, Nathaniel Clyne, Jairo Riedewald – are long past the point of no return. It is a squad loaded with has-beens, not-quites and not-quite-yets, with new signing Jefferson Lerma (Colombia) bucking that trend.
Name that might surprise you: You would be forgiven for forgetting that Sam Johnstone has three caps for England.

Luton Town: 4
Jamaica, Ireland, Wales and Zimbabwe are all representing for Luton.
Name that might surprise you: Admiral Muskwe, because frankly it’s a f***ing brilliant name.