Strength in depth

Much is made of the strength in depth of the top four in comparison to rest of the Premier League, with an indication of this strength being the quality of your substitutes bench.

During 2008/09, the bench would routinely feature the likes of Hamman, Etuhu, Garrido, Evans, Caicedo, Gelson, Vassell and Glauber.

Fast forward to 2009/10, and as of today (and Adebayor and others could well yet arrive), the strongest line-up to me (with a 4-4-2/4-3-3 formation) looks to be; Given, Richards, Kompany, Onouha, Bridge, de Jong, Barry, Ireland, Robinho, Santa Cruz, Tevez.

This would leave the bench potentially as; Taylor, Zabaleta, Dunne, Johnson, Wright-Phillips, Petrov, Bellamy.

Some difference eh?