Premier League 2026/27 squad preview: who has the depth
By Arasi Rex · Updated 12 August 2026 · 9 min read
The Premier League squad preview for 2026/27 does not tell you who is going to win the title, and that is the first thing to understand about it. Spurs and Chelsea each carry 36 registered players, the two biggest squads in the division, and they finished 17th and 10th. Arsenal won the league with a squad of 28, one of the smallest in the competition, and Man City finished second with 30. The biggest squad in the Premier League has never been the best squad, and the 2026/27 squad preview explains why: depth only matters when the minutes and the goals actually spread across it.
What a squad preview actually measures
A squad preview is more than a headcount. The registered squads in this database carry three useful signals: how many players each club has at its disposal, how those players split across positions, and what those players produced in 2025/26, the season every 2026/27 squad is built on. Squad size on its own is the weakest of the three. Position balance matters more, because a club can carry 36 players and still be thin in the one place that decides games. Production matters most, because a squad that gets goals from three or four names is a different weapon from a squad that relies on one.
None of this predicts the table on its own. It predicts who can survive a fixture pile-up, who can rotate without dropping points, and who has genuine cover rather than names on a list. That is what the 2026/27 squad preview is for.
Squad sizes for all 20 clubs in 2026/27
Here are the registered squad sizes for every Premier League club, based on the current squads in the database.
| Club | Players | Club | Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 28 | Leeds | 24 |
| Aston Villa | 28 | Liverpool | 34 |
| Bournemouth | 26 | Man City | 30 |
| Brentford | 26 | Man Utd | 33 |
| Brighton | 30 | Newcastle | 26 |
| Chelsea | 36 | Nott'm Forest | 27 |
| Coventry City | 29 | Spurs | 36 |
| Crystal Palace | 28 | Sunderland | 25 |
| Everton | 23 | Fulham | 23 |
| Hull City | 30 | Ipswich Town | 30 |
The range runs from 36 players at Spurs and Chelsea down to 23 at Everton and Fulham, a gap of 13 players between the biggest and smallest squads in the division. Leeds sit on 24, Sunderland on 25, and the promoted clubs sit in the middle of the pack: Hull City and Ipswich Town on 30 and Coventry City on 29.
The biggest squads were not the best squads
Spurs registered 36 players and finished 17th. Chelsea registered 36 and finished 10th. Arsenal registered 28 and won the title. The pattern is not a coincidence, and the position splits explain part of it.
Chelsea's 36 break down as 14 defenders, 12 midfielders, 7 forwards and 3 goalkeepers. Spurs' 36 break down as 14 defenders, 15 midfielders, 3 forwards and 4 goalkeepers. Both clubs loaded up on defenders and midfielders, and neither had a reliable scorer at the top of the formation: Spurs got 11 goals from Richarlison and Chelsea spread the load across João Pedro, Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernández. A big squad full of options in the middle of the pitch is still a squad without a centre forward.
Arsenal's 28, by contrast, are built with 7 defenders, 15 midfielders, 3 forwards and 3 goalkeepers, a tight group that won with the league's best defensive record, 27 goals conceded. Man City's 30 carry 10 defenders, 15 midfielders, 3 goalkeepers and just 2 forwards, and they still finished second on 78 points. The smallest squads, Everton and Fulham on 23, both finished in the top half of the table. Squad size correlates with nothing.
Where the goals came from in 2025/26
The production ledger for last season shows which clubs have genuine scoring depth. Chelsea and Man Utd each had three players reach double figures. Chelsea's trio was João Pedro on 15, Palmer on 10 and Enzo on 10, while Man Utd got 11 from Bryan Mbeumo, 11 from Benjamin Sesko and 10 from Matheus Cunha. Aston Villa and Bournemouth each had two: Watkins on 16 and Morgan Rogers on 10 for Villa, Junior Kroupi on 13 and Antoine Semenyo on 10 for Bournemouth.
Six clubs had exactly one player in double figures: Arsenal with Viktor Gyökeres on 14, Brentford with Igor Thiago on 22, Crystal Palace with Jean-Philippe Mateta on 12, Fulham with Harry Wilson on 10, Liverpool with Hugo Ekitiké on 11 and Spurs with Richarlison on 11. Thiago's 22 was the highest total in the division, scored for a club that finished ninth, which is exactly the point: a scoring chart is a list of names, not a table of strengths.
Man City had no player reach ten goals in the league-stats ledger and still scored 77, the second most in the division, because the goals were shared across the group. A squad that scores from everywhere is harder to stop than a squad with one 20-goal man, and the 2026/27 season will be decided by which clubs keep that spread.
The minutes leaders: who carried whom
Minutes are the truest measure of a squad's dependence. The most-used player in the division last season was Jordan Pickford of Everton with 3,432 minutes from 38 appearances, just ahead of Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk on 3,431 and Fulham's Bernd Leno on 3,429. James Garner played 3,426 minutes for Everton, Bart Verbruggen 3,420 for Brighton, and Bournemouth's Đorđe Petrović 3,420.
The list is dominated by the clubs that could not rotate: Everton have three players in the top ten by minutes in Pickford, Garner and James Tarkowski on 3,342, which is what a 23-man squad looks like when it is working. Bournemouth also carry two of the top ten in Petrović and Adrien Truffert on 3,380, plus Nikola Milenković of Nott'm Forest on 3,375 and Caoimhín Kelleher of Brentford on 3,341.
The durability data shows the difference between a squad and a team. Everton finished 13th with 23 players because every one of them had to play; Brentford finished ninth with 26 because a smaller group can still be efficient. The clubs that spread minutes across a wide squad, like Arsenal with Raya, Gabriel and Saka all carrying big loads but sharing the goals, are the ones whose depth actually earns the description.
What the promoted clubs' squads look like
Coventry City, Hull City and Ipswich Town all built mid-sized squads for their return, and each made a deliberate choice. Coventry registered 29 players with 10 defenders, 11 midfielders, 5 forwards and 3 goalkeepers, a shape built to compete in the Championship style they are carrying up. Hull City and Ipswich Town both registered 30, and both invested heavily in goalkeepers: Hull carry 5 and Ipswich 5, the most of any clubs in the division, alongside 12 and 13 midfielders.
The promoted clubs do not have the luxury of a big squad and a settled one. Their position splits show squads built for survival, with bodies in every position but no obvious double-figure scorer carried over: none of the three promoted clubs appears in the ten-goal list for last season. Their 2026/27 depends on the same thing as everyone else's, spreading the load, except they have to do it with players who have never played a Premier League season together.
Premier League 2026/27 squad preview: the bottom line
Squad sizes and position splits are facts, but they are not the whole picture. The registered numbers do not capture injuries, fitness or form, and they do not tell you which 18 players are actually available on a Saturday. Everton's 23 worked last season; Chelsea's 36 did not. The difference was not the headcount, it was what the players did with the minutes.
The honest reading of the 2026/27 squad preview is a warning against the biggest clubs. The two largest squads in the division finished 17th and 10th, while the smallest squads finished 13th and 11th, and the champions carried 28. Squad size is the number that gets the attention, but the clubs that spread minutes and goals across the group are the ones whose depth is real. That, not the headcount, is what decides where the 2026/27 table lands.
Key takeaways
- Spurs and Chelsea carry the two biggest squads in the Premier League with 36 players each, yet finished 17th and 10th in 2025/26; Arsenal won the title with 28.
- Chelsea and Man Utd had the most scoring depth, three players in double figures each, while Man City scored 77 goals without a single ten-goal man in the league-stats ledger.
- Everton's 23-man squad had three of the division's ten most-used players, the price and the benefit of a small squad that has to play.
- Hull City and Ipswich Town each registered 30 players with five goalkeepers, the most in the division; Coventry carried 29.
- Squad size is the least reliable signal in this data: the two biggest squads underperformed, and the smallest squad in the division, Everton's 23, finished 13th.
FAQ
Which Premier League club has the biggest squad in 2026/27?
Spurs and Chelsea both carry 36 registered players, the joint-largest squads in the division. Everton and Fulham have the smallest at 23 each.
Which club had the most double-figure scorers in 2025/26?
Chelsea and Man Utd, with three each. Chelsea's were João Pedro on 15, Cole Palmer on 10 and Enzo Fernández on 10; Man Utd's were Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha, all on 10 or more.
Who played the most minutes last season?
Jordan Pickford of Everton led the division with 3,432 minutes, ahead of Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk on 3,431 and Fulham's Bernd Leno on 3,429.
Why did the biggest squads finish mid-table?
Squad size does not produce goals. Spurs' 36 players produced one double-figure scorer, and Chelsea's 36 spread the load without a reliable centre forward. Arsenal won with 28 players and the league's best defensive record.
Do the promoted clubs have big squads?
Coventry City registered 29 players, and Hull City and Ipswich Town 30 each. All three are mid-table sized, and Hull and Ipswich each carry five goalkeepers, the most in the division, the one squad preview number that stands out for the promoted trio.