No shocks in Arsenal 25-man squad

There were no shocks when Arsenal named its 25-man squad for the first half of the EPL season and there was a couple of surprises.

All clubs had to submit a squad of up to 25 players containing no more than 17 players who do not qualify as homegrown. Homegrown players are classed as players who “irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday”.

U21 players (born on or after January 1 1989) do not have to count towards the 25-man squads. Changes to the squads can be made in January.

Arsenal named seven ‘homegrown’ players as part of their 20-man squad. Those players are: Nicklas Bendtner, Denilson, Johan Djourou, Cesc Fabregas, Vito Mannone, Gael Clichy and Alex Song.

Fabregas qualifies as a home grown player because he he has been trained by Arsenal for more than three years before the age of 21.

Official squads
Arsenal: Manuel Almunia, Andrey Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner, Marouane Chamakh, Gael Clichy, Denilson, Abou Diaby, Johan Djourou, Emmanuel Eboue, Lukasz Fabianski, Cesc Fabregas, Laurent Koscielny, Vito Mannone, Samir Nasri, Tomas Rosicky, Bacary Sagna, Alexandre Song, Robin van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen, Sebastien Squillaci.

Aston Villa: Brad Friedel; Brad Guzan; James Collins; Carlos Cuellar; Curtis Davies; Habib Beye; Richard Dunne; Eric Lichaj; Stephen Warnock; Luke Young; Stewart Downing; Jonathan Hogg; Stephen Ireland; Isaiah Osbourne; Stiliyan Petrov; Nigel Reo-Coker; Moustapha Salifou; Steve Sidwell; Ashley Young; Gabriel Agbonlahor; John Carew; Emile Heskey.

Birmingham: Maik Taylor, Stephen Carr, David Murphy, Lee Bowyer, Roger Johnson, Liam Ridgewell, Sebastian Larsson, Craig Gardner, Kevin Phillips, Cameron Jerome, Garry O’Connor, Barry Ferguson, Colin Doyle, Matt Derbyshire, Scott Dann, James McFadden, Michel, Keith Fahy, Nikola Zigic, Stuart Parnaby, Alexander Hleb, Jean Beausejour, Ben Foster, Martin Jiranek, James O’Shea.

Blackburn: Paul Robinson, Martin Olsson, Chris Samba, Gael Givet, Ryan Nelsen, Brett Emerton, David Dunn, Nikola Kalinic, El-Hadji Diouf, Vince Grella, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Mark Bunn, Steven Nzonzi, Keith Andrews, Michel Salgado, Jason Brown, Frank Fielding, Pascal Chimbonda, Mame Biram Diouf, Jason Roberts, Benjani.

Blackpool: Charlie Adam, Alex John-Baptiste, Chris Basham, Stephen Crainey, Malaury Martin, Daniel Coid, Ishmael Demontagnac, Neal Eardley, Robert Edwards, Jaso Euell, Ian Evatt, Matthew Gilks, Elliot Grandin, Marlon Harewood, Dekel Keinan, Brett Ormerod, Keith Southern, Ludovic Sylvestre, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Luke Varney, David Vaughan, DJ Campbell, David Carney.

Bolton: Robbie Blake, Adam Bogdan, Gary Cahill, Tamir Cohen, Kevin Davies, Mark Davies, Sean Davis, Johan Elmander, Ricardo Gardner, Stuart Holden, Jussi Jaaskalainen, Ivan Klasnic, Zat Knight, Chung Yong-lee, Fabrice Muamba, Andy O’Brien, Joey O’Brien, Martin Petrov, Sam Ricketts, Paul Robinson, Jlloyd Samuel, Gretar Steinsson, Matt Taylor, Al Al-Habsi.

Chelsea: Petr Cech, Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien, Ramires, Frank Lampard, Yossi Benayoun, Didier Drogba, John Mikel Obi, Florent Malouda, Jose Bosingwa, Yury Zhirkov, Paulo Ferreira, Salomon Kalou, Ross Turnbull, John Terry, Alex, Nicolas Anelka, Henrique Hilario, Daniel Sturridge, Patrick van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma, Gael Kakuta, Fabio Borini, Josh McEachran.

Everton: Tim Howard, Mikel Arteta, Jan Mucha, Steven Pienaar, Iain Turner, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Tony Hibbert, Phil Neville, Seamus Coleman, Tim Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Louis Saha, Sylvain Distin, James Vaughan, John Heitinga, Victor Anichebe, Leigton Baines, Yakubu, Marouane Fellaini, Jermaine Beckford, Leon Osman.

Fulham: Mark Schwarzer, David Stockdale, John Pantsil, Fredrik Stoor, Aaron Hughes, Rafik Halliche, Chris Baird, Brede Hangeland, Carlos Salcido, Stephen Kelly, Zoltan Gera, Clinton Dempsey, Bjorn Helge Riise, Dickson Etuhu, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Danny Murphy, Jonathan Greening, Simon Davies, Damien Duff, Andrew Johnson, Diomansy Kamara, Moussa Dembele, Bobby Zamora, David Elm, Eddie Johnson.

Liverpool: Jamie Carragher, Joe Cole, Stephen Darby, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Brad Jones, Paul Konchesky, Jay Spearing, Daniel Agger, Fabio Aurelio, Ryan Babel, Milan Jovanovic, Dirk Kuyt, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Lucas Leiva, Raul Meireles, Christian Poulsen, Pepe Reina, Maxi Rodriguez, Martin Skrtel, Fernando Torres

Manchester City: Shay Given, Joe Hart, Stuart Taylor, Jerome Boateng, Wayne Bridge, Aleksander Kolarov, Vincent Kompany, Joleon Lescott, Shaleum Logan, Micah Richards, Kolo Toure, Pablo Zabaleta, Gareth Barry, Nigel de Jong, Adam Johnson, Michael Johnson, James Milner, David Silva, Yaya Toure, Patrick Vieira, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Emmanuel Adebayor, Jo, Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez.

Manchester United: Ben Amos, Darren Fletcher, Tomasz Kuszczak, Darron Gibson, Edwin van der Sar, Ryan Giggs, Wes Brown, Owen Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson, Park Ji-Sung, Jonathan Evans, Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Antonio Valencia, Gary Neville, Dimitar Berbatov, John O’Shea, Javier Hernandez, Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney.

Newcastle: Sol Campbell, Steven Taylor, Shola Ameobi, Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Peter Lovenkrands, Jose Enrique, Alan Smith, Leon Best, Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez, Steve Harper, Kevin Nolan, Wayne Routledge, Danny Simpson, Ryan Taylor, Mike Williamson, Xisco, Fraser Forster, Tim Krul, James Perch, Cheik Tiote, Hatem ben Arfa.

Stoke: Asmir Begovic, Danny Collins, Rory Delap, Salif Diao, Matthew Etherington, Abdoulaye Faye, Ricardo Fuller, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Danny Higginbotham, Robert Huth, Kenwyne Jones, Carlo Nash, Jermaine Pennant, Danny Pugh, Ryan Shawcross, Thomas Sorensen, Tuncay Sanli, Ryan Shotton, Tom Soares, Michael Tonge, Jonathan Walters, Glenn Whelan, Dean Whitehead, Andy Wilkinson, Marc Wilson.

Sunderland: Marcos Angeleri, Phil Bardsley, Darren Bent, Titus Bramble, Fraizer Campbell, Trevor Carson, Lee Cattermole, Paulo Da Silva, Ahmed El Mohamady, Anton Ferdinand, Craig Gordon, Asamoah Gyan, David Healy, Steed Malbranque, George McCartney, John Mensah, Simon Mignolet, Nedum Onuoha, Andy Reid, Kieran Richardson, Crisitjan Riveros, Michael Turner, Robbie Weir, Boudewijn Zenden.

Tottenham: Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Sebastian Bassong, David Bentley, Vedran Corluka, Peter Crouch, Carlo Cudicini, Heurelho Gomes, Michael Dawson, Jermain Defoe, William Gallas, Tom Huddlestone, Alan Hutton, Jermaine Jenas, Younes Kaboul, Robbie Keane, Ledley King, Niko Kranjcar, Aaron Lennon, Luka Modric, Kyle Naughton, Jamie O’Hara, Wilson Palacios, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Stipe Pletikosa, Rafael van der Vaart.

West Brom: Giles Barnes; Roman Bednar; Chris Brunt; Scott Carson; Marek Cech; Simon Cox; Graham Dorrans; Marc-Antoine Fortune; Pablo Ibanez; Gonzalo Jara; Dean Kiely; Abdoulaye Meite; Ishmael Miller; James Morrison; Youssouf Mulumbu; Boaz Myhill; Peter Odemwingie; Jonas Olsson; Steven Reid; Paul Scharner; Nicky Shorey; Gabriel Tamas; Somen Tchoyi; Jerome Thomas; Gianni Zuiverloon.

West Ham: Ruud Boffin, Robert Green, Tal Ben Haim, Manuel da Costa, Danny Gabbidon, Herita Ilunga, Lars Jacobsen, Winston Reid, Jonathan Spector, Matthew Upson, Luis Boa Morte, Valon Behrami, Jack Collison, Kieron Dyer, Julien Faubert, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Radoslav Kovac, Mark Noble, Scott Parker, Pablo Barrera, Carlton Cole, Zavon Hines, Benni McCarthy, Victor Obinna, Frederic Piquionne.

Wigan: Chris Kirkland, Mike Pollitt, Charles N’Zogbia, Emmerson Boyce, Gary Caldwell, Ben Watson, Hendry Thomas, Ronnie Stam, Jordi Gomez, Hugo Rodallega, Mohamed Diame, Maynor Figueroa, Steve Gohouri, Daniel De Ridder, Ali Al-Habsi, Antolin Alcaraz, James McArthur, Mauro Boselli.

Wolves: Marcus Hahnemann; Wayne Hennessey; Carl Ikeme; Kevin Foley; Ronald Zubar; Richard Stearman; Jody Craddock; Christophe Berra; Steven Mouyokolo; George Elokobi; Stephen Ward; Jelle van Damme; Karl Henry; David Jones; Michael Mancienne; Dave Edwards; Greg Halford; Nenad Milijas; Adlene Guedioura; Matt Jarvis; Stephen Hunt; Kevin Doyle; Steven Fletcher; Sylvan Ebanks-Blake; Marcus Bent.