James Milner’s Premier League record as he waits to join exclusive club

James Milner’s next Premier League appearance when the competition resumes will see the Liverpool midfielder move alongside Gary Speed in fifth place in the all-time list.

Here, the PA news agency looks at how Milner compares to the other leading names on the list and at some of his career accomplishments.

How he compares

Milner is in his 18th Premier League season – two more than Speed, though his total is matched or exceeded by the top four appearance-makers.

Former England midfielder Gareth Barry holds the record for Premier League appearances with 653, having passed Ryan Giggs’ tally of 632 for Manchester United during the 2017-18 season.

Frank Lampard played 609 games and David James, surprisingly the only goalkeeper in the top five, 572 while Milner is one behind the late Speed’s total of 535.

Giggs played for 22 seasons, scoring in 21 of them and winning 13 league titles – all Premier League records.

Barry played 21 seasons in the top flight and Lampard 20, with the latter’s 177 goals the most among the leading appearance-makers and ranking fifth among all Premier League players.

Milner has scored in 17 separate seasons for a total of 55 goals, fewer than all but Barry and James of the players with more appearances than him. He has played for five different clubs, matching James’ tally, and has scored for all five.

He also stands on the verge of winning his third title to move level with Lampard’s tally. Barry lifted the trophy just once, as part of the Manchester City squad alongside Milner in 2011-12, while James and Speed did not win a Premier League title – though the latter was victorious with Leeds in the final season of the old Division One.

Team player

Milner’s versatility is extraordinary, starting games in every outfield position apart from centre-back during his long career.

While typically deployed in midfield – in wide positions earlier in his career, shifting to a central role initially with Aston Villa and later City and Liverpool – he spent a lengthy spell as the Reds’ left-back of choice and was occasionally used up front when at City.

In addition, Milner has spent almost 11 and a half days of his life sitting on a Premier League substitutes’ bench. He ranks third all-time in that category, with Peter Crouch clocking up more than two weeks and Shola Ameobi just eight minutes short of 12 days, to Milner’s 11 days, 11 hours and 11 minutes.

He is one of only four players, with Barry, Speed and Rory Delap, to have made 100 or more Premier League appearances for three different clubs and uniquely has made 90 or more appearances for four clubs – Newcastle, Villa, City and Liverpool.

His 145 games for the latter is two fewer than he played for City, to go with exactly 100 for Villa, 94 for the Magpies and 48 for Leeds.

He has scored in 54 separate Premier League games, with his teams unbeaten in those fixtures – 43 wins and 11 draws.

That included a run of 16 games, spanning more than five years from September 2009, in which Milner’s Villa and City teams won every game in which he scored. That sequence ended with a 1-1 draw against the Tigers in February 2015.

He has scored more than once in a game on only one occasion, a pair of penalties while playing at left-back in Liverpool’s 5-1 rout of Hull in September 2016.