Behind The Numbers: Academy graduates

This week Arsenal statistician Josh James analyses the impact of the Arsenal Academy graduates on the first team.

Emmanuel Frimpong became the 48th Arsenal Academy product to progress to the first team, when he came on against Newcastle United on Saturday.

The Gunners' academy was set up in 1998, and has produced a steady stream of players since then.

Ghanaian born midfielder Frimpong - who this time last year had just suffered a cruciate ligament injury - is the latest of them, having been schooled the Arsenal way since he was 11 years old. Now 19, the midfielder has progressed to the first-team squad this season, and has been given the No 26 shirt.

Of the 48 graduates so far, 10 of them (21 per cent) played just once for the first team, so Frimpong will be looking to move away from that particular group as soon as possible.

At the other end of the scale, Cesc Fabregas played more than 300 times for the first team, having joined the Club as a member of the academy in September 2003. Cesc represented the youth team on three occasions in his first season in north London, including scoring away to Crawley Town in the FA Youth Cup in November 2003. He also netted three goals from 13 reserve appearances in 2003/04.

In total, the Academy products have played 1,306 times for the Arsenal first team since November 1999, scoring 139 goals between them.

In fact, in every season since the academy opened, Arsenal have blooded graduates - the most in one season was 2009/10 when seven youngsters made their senior debuts, in three different competitions.

Season by season debuts

Of the 48 graduates, 15 (31 per cent) are still at Arsenal, while seven (Ashley Cole, Jermaine Pennant, David Bentley, Sebastian Larsson, Fabrice Muamba, Jerome Thomas and Matthew Connolly) play for other Premier League teams. Larsson and Muamba were both on target on Saturday (for Sunderland and Bolton respectively).

Fifteen (31 per cent) of the players are full internationals, while four are full England internationals (Cole, Bentley, Gibbs and Wilshere). Nacer Barazite and Armand Traore both made their senior international debuts recently, for Morocco and Senegal respectively.

The overwhelming majority of the graduates (38) made their Gunners debut in the League Cup (79 per cent), which has proved to be a successful breeding ground. Of those, 22 went on to play for the first team in other competitions too, meaning that 32 graduates have played in games other than just the League Cup for the first team.

Frimpong is the fourth to make his bow in the Premier League. Wilshere also first played for the team in the league (against Blackburn Rovers on September 13, 2008) and in so doing became the Club’s youngest ever league player (aged 16 years and 256 days), taking the record previously held by Fabregas.

Competition by competition debut

Frimpong wasn’t able to celebrate his debut with a win on Saturday, but that puts him in the minority. Eighty-three per cent of the young debutants’ first experience of playing for Arsenal was a winning one (13 per cent drew first up, 4 per cent lost).

The good news for Arsenal fans is that there are plenty more players progressing through the ranks with their eyes on the first team. So who will be No 49?

Josh James also provides the stats for the Arsenal Analysis pages of the matchday programme. To subscribe, or buy online, click here.