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#1 First club to field an XI without any British players in the Premier League

These days, in the Premier League, it is common to see the top clubs field a starting XI without a British player. In fact, Chelsea didn’t have a British player in six out of their nine starting lineups. this season.

However, back in 1999, that was considered a cardinal sin and the first club to commit this was Chelsea.

After 111 years, three months and 17 days of Football League history, on Boxing Day in 1999, Chelsea manager, Gianluca Vialli, made history by naming the first ever XI without any British player against Southampton.

The Chelsea team on that night was - Ed De Goey; Albert Ferrer, Celestine Babayaro, Emerson Thome, Frank Leboeuf; Dan Petrescu, Didier Deschamps, Gus Poyet, Robert Di Matteo; Gabrielle Ambrosetti and Tore Andre Flo.

Also read: The incredible XI of players sold by Manchester City

Once the lineups were out, the attention the game received was huge and the Chelsea players who took the field initially didn’t realise why there were so many reporters and photographers at the venue.

The lack of homegrown players in starting XI has become a trend for the Premier League giants over the years. Arsenal also fielded a foreign XI under Wenger while Chelsea and Manchester City have struggled to fill their homegrown quota over the years following the takeover.