Gareth Barry Has Broken The All-Time Premier League Appearance Record

Gareth Barry has become the all-time leading appearance maker in Premier League history after appearing against Arsenal on Monday Night Football. Here, we look at a selection of stats from a glittering career.

Barry was handed the captain's armband for West Brom's trip to Arsenal to mark his landmark outing.

The 36-year-old moved level with Ryan Giggs when he made his 632nd Premier League appearance in last weekend's 0-0 draw with West Ham and surpassed the Manchester United legend at the Emirates Stadium, in his side's 2-0 defeat.

But where does he rank in other areas? And what has happened in the Premier League since Barry's debut in May 1998? We take a look…

Such a long career means Barry ranks high in numerous areas. With 52,961 minutes already under his belt, Barry is well ahead of his nearest challenger in the list of the Premier League's all-time minutes played. David James lies second, with Frank Lampard and Giggs third and fourth in the list respectively.

Games started also sees Barry top James by a considerable margin. The former Manchester City midfielder has 30 more starts than James, who is second once more.

One table Barry may not be so keen to be topping is the yellow card leaderboard. He has picked up 119 cautions, 19 more than Wayne Rooney in second, and 20 more than Lee Bowyer and Kevin Davies.

In the early years of Barry's career, after breaking into the first team at Aston Villa and an initial slow start in front of goal, he began to hit the net regularly. It took 33 games for him to score his first Premier League goal and a further 156 to reach 10, but under the tutelage of David O'Leary and Martin O'Neill, Barry flourished, reaching 40 strikes before he had hit 350 appearances.

Such form earned him a move to Manchester City, where his role became much more defensive with better attacking players around him. Only 11 league goals have been accumulated since.

This is a stat which will make Barry feel his age: since his debut in May 1998, 16 current Premier League players have been born and then gone on to make a top-flight appearance.

Everton's Tom Davies was born just under two months after Barry donned a Villa shirt for the first time against Sheffield Wednesday. Among Toffees fans, Davies has since become a household name, just like Barry during his recent time at Goodison Park.

Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ben Woodburn are other notable players to have been born after Barry's debut.

Barry has faced Manchester United 35 times, Tottenham 35 times, Liverpool 34 and Chelsea and Arsenal on 33 occasions. However, it is United that Barry will be most pleased to see the back of when he does hang up his boots.

Of those 35 games, Barry has tasted defeat in 23 of them - seven more losses than Liverpool have inflicted on Barry in his career.

In fact, Barry has only emerged victorious from an encounter with United on six occasions in his 19 years as a player.

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