Arsenal’s Eberechi Eze is one of many Premier League stars who will feel aggrieved by their lack of playing time.

Competition for places is fiercer than ever, and we’ve looked at those who haven’t played enough in the early months of 2026/27.

Including Premier League players with fewer than 140 minutes in the top flight this season, here is the strongest XI…

GK: Giorgi Mamardashvili (Liverpool)
With zero minutes to his name in the Premier League or Champions League this term, Mamardashvili gets the nod ahead of a bunch of second-choice goalkeepers, mainly because he is arguably the best back-up Our League has to offer.

Alisson Becker (who has really not been great this season) is one of those rare injury-prone goalkeepers, so Mamardashvili’s chance will likely come this side of Christmas.

RB: Martin Zubimendi (Arsenal)
What would one of these XIs be without a midfielder crowbarred in as a full-back? It’s a thing. And we love it. Zubimendi has filled in at right-back for Arsenal before, for what it’s worth.

The Spanish international was Arsenal’s most-used player until the run-in last season, losing his starting spot to Myles Lewis-Skelly. The Hale End graduate took his chance and, just like that, was starting in a Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain.

Zubimendi’s prospects only became bleaker following the summer signing of Bruno Guimaraes, and now a fine player is rocking the bench and being linked with an exit.

It’s a real shame, but that’s the nature of the beast. He won’t be happy with only 94 minutes so far this season.

CB: Tosin Adarabioyo (Tottenham)
Before Tottenham’s first win of the season over Coventry on Monday, summer signing Tosin had racked up five minutes of league action for his new club. Having started in a long-awaited win for Roberto De Zerbi’s side, we can’t imagine the ex-Chelsea defender will drop out of the XI, which means he will surely drop out of this XI if/when we decide to revisit it.

Tosin has shot up from five minutes to 76 minutes for the season after a win that should kick-start Spurs’ season. We’ll see about that…

CB: Omar Alderete (Sunderland)
After an excellent maiden Premier League campaign, Alderete has been used sparingly by Regis Le Bris in 2026/27, and when he has played, he’s shown exactly why he has been relegated to the bench.

In only 82 minutes, Alderete has managed two errors leading to a goal, the joint-most in the Premier League alongside… Sunderland centre-back Kevin Danso. No wonder they’re bottom…

LB: Rico Lewis (Manchester City)
Tuesday was a big night for Lewis, who assisted fellow City academy graduate Phil Foden twice in the 5-1 Champions League win over AEK Athens. Yet, only three days before, Lewis wasn’t even in the squad as Enzo Maresca heavily rotated for the visit of Ipswich in the league.

With Matheus Nunes and Abdukodir Khusanov ahead of Lewis in the right-back pecking order, and Josko Gvardiol and Nico O’Reilly ahead of him in the left-back pecking order, a mere 56 minutes in the 2026/27 Premier League is hardly surprising.

DM: Ayyoub Bouaddi (Manchester City)
Including Bouaddi, City spent £300million on three central midfielders in the summer transfer window, so a lack of Premier League minutes for the 19-year-old hardly comes as a shock.

Elliot Anderson and Enzo Fernandez are clearly undroppable, meaning we will likely see Bouaddi in the Champions League and Carabao Cup, with the occasional rotational league start thrown in there, which is what happened against Ipswich Town last weekend.

Before that appearance, he had 35 minutes across three substitute appearances. Bouaddi now has 125 minutes under his belt.

CM: Eberechi Eze (Arsenal)
Is Eze in danger of being fully Grealished? His performance against Nottingham Forest was not down to Mikel Arteta coaching the fun out of him; he was just really bad. Those games happen, but Eze’s overall output since joining Arsenal has been bitterly disappointing, excluding a couple of fantastic games against Spurs.

Without his five goals in two north London derbies, Eze would be widely regarded as one of Arsenal’s biggest-ever flops, but they have papered over the cracks for a player who has clearly lost the mojo we all saw and loved at Crystal Palace.

It’s clear that consistent playing time is key for players, and no player more so than Eze, whose preferred position isn’t left wing but who will likely have to play there to get his league minutes, with Martin Odegaard undroppable.

Eze’s 130 minutes make him the least underplayed in this XI, yet he feels like the biggest waste of talent here.

CM: Mikel Merino (Arsenal)
Merino has become typecast as an impact sub, which is a fun role if you accept it. It guarantees you won’t be a scapegoat and brings all the glory for little work if it goes well. Still, every player wants to start, and there is more expectation at club level than with the national team, where Merino is competing with your Pedris, Rodris and Dani Olmos. At Arsenal, competition is stiff, but he’s much more likely to become unsettled if the starts do not come.

The World Cup and European Championship winner has 111 minutes in the Premier League this season, having come off the bench in all seven of the Gunners’ matches.

RW: Estevao (Chelsea)
Are we looking at Arsenal’s next Chelsea signing? Probably not, because he would actually be a home run, and Mikel Arteta only likes contentious signings from Stamford Bridge, like Jorginho, Willian, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz and Kepa Arrizabalaga.

It’s difficult to see a way into the Chelsea starting XI for Brazilian wonderkid Estevao, unless Cole Palmer and/or Morgan Rogers get injured. If one does, Pedro Neto moving into a more attacking role is more likely than the 19-year-old becoming a regular starter.

It’s a shame because he is a fantastic talent. We saw that potential under Enzo Maresca, but under Xabi Alonso, Estevao wasted his biggest chance against Leeds United in the Carabao Cup.

Estevao has been brought on five times and is yet to play more than 10 minutes in a match, totalling 29 league minutes this campaign.

LW: Alejandro Garnacho (Aston Villa)
It’s not looking good. Not for Garnacho. Not for Chelsea. Not for Aston Villa. And not for Unai Emery, who might be forced to Harvey Elliott another loanee.

The former Manchester United youngster was given four, 12 and then 15 minutes in Villa’s opening three league games before spending three weeks as an unused substitute and facing the nightmare scenario of being left out of the squad completely on matchday seven at Newcastle United.

That’s 31 minutes from a possible 630 for a player with a £40million buy option in his loan deal. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that it probably won’t be exercised, and it’s now a question of whether he will receive similar treatment to Elliott, who was ostracised last season so Villa could avoid triggering the buy clause in his loan from Liverpool.

He was good against Viking, mind. That’s his level.

ST: Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal)
The striker signing Arsenal fans had longed for, Gyokeres took Kai Havertz’s spot in Mikel Arteta’s starting XI at the start of last season. A year on, and the Swede is playing back-up to the German, which Jamie Carragher predicted would happen long before it did.

He was never the player Arsenal fans hoped he would be, but he did play a big role in winning the Premier League last season.

Gyokeres is still waiting for his first league start of the season, though we can see it coming soon considering Havertz’s current form. Next up for Arsenal? Everton at home. A perfect opportunity to add to his measly 84 minutes played.