RocktheCasbah that stat is true but misleading. The whole team started only a few games together but 9 or 10 of them started every game. It's misleading because most of the players started almost every game. Thierry started 37, Lehmann started 38, Campbell started 35, Toure 36, Pires 33, Cole 32, Lauren 30.
Even Gilberto and Vieira started 29 games each with Freddie starting 27 games and they all had injury/suspension issues. If you split this up into 3 separate spells missing each that's enough to cover almost a whole season of not having the full first XI playing.
IMO the biggest reason was Bergamp starting in just over half our games. That's already 17 games guaranteed that the first XI didn't play together.
So whilst true, that stat is misleading and makes it seem we were playing a bunch of subs the whole time. In reality, apart from the first XI, the only players that featured regularly were Parlour, Edu, and Cygan. Wiltord and Reyes would have been another if they'd been one player but as it is they ended up splitting pre and post January minutes covering for Dennis.
