Today is February 12, or 12-2, and it represents a switch made by three Premier League players at their current clubs.
While there is an argument that the ‘second team’ would be best numbered to base-11 – i.e. goalkeeper 12, right-back 13, etc – there’s a neatness to a number move where the player drops by ten, such as Xavi Hernández going from 26 to 16 to 6 at Barcelona.
What is perhaps unusual is that, of the three players in question here – Arsenal’s William Saliba, Daniel Muñoz of Crystal Palace and Joe Gomez (Liverpool) – only Muñoz is a right-back.
The Colombian, who took 12 when he joined Palace in January 2024, dropped down when Joel Ward departed Selhurst Park last summer after 13 years at the club.
Saliba is an unusual case: his move to Arsenal was announced in 2019-20, but with the stipulation that he would stay at Saint-Étienne for another year.
Then, in the summer of 2020, at the same time as Bukayo Sako’s move from number 77 to 7 was made official, the Frenchman was assigned the number 4, with Mohamed Elneny having to move to 25.
However, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta felt that Saliba was still short of playing regularly in the Premier League and so the first half of 2020-21 only saw him feature twice in the EFL Trophy – sent off in one of those outings – and then he returned to France, joining Nice on loan for the rest of the season.
For 2021-22, he joined Olympique Marseille on a season-long loan, wearing number 2 there, and his Arsenal 4 was given to Ben White when he arrived from Brighton & Hove Albion.
When Saliba did return to the Arsenal fold in 2022, he was wearing the number 12, forming an strong central defensive partnership with Gabriel – White at right-back – as the Gunners launched an unlikely title challenge. Then, with Héctor Bellerin’s time at the club having come to an end, Saliba took the number 2 shirt that the Catalan had vacated.
While Joe Gomez was just 18 when he joined Liverpool in 2015, he was given the number 12 shirt – Victor Moses in 2013-14 had been the previous occupant. For seven years, he held it, earning England senior recognition along the way, with the 2019-20 title season seeing him play 43 games across all competitions.
Due to injury, Nathaniel Clyne – Liverpool’s number 2 since his arrival from Southampton in 2015 – did not feature at all in that season and he departed at its end following the expiration of his contract. Gomez didn’t move immediately, though – the shirt lay fallow for two seasons before he decided to drop by ten in 2022.
Like Saliba, Gomez is a centre-back but can fill in at right-back. However, given that his introduction there against Sunderland on Wednesday night came after injury to midfielder Wataru Endo – filling in due to injuries to Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong and Dominik Szoboszlai’s suspension – it’s rare to see the number sync up with its traditional position. Then again, that’s not out of the ordinary for Liverpool.
Incidentally, of the other 17 Premier League clubs, five have no number 2 while another two are out on loan. Out of the remaining ten, seven took the shirt on their arrival while Everton’s Nathan Patterson moved from 3, Manchester United’s Diogo Dalot from 20 and Newcastle United’s Kieran Tripper from 15.
Of the other ‘drop by ten’ number moves, a centre-forward switching from 19 to 9 is that can be popular – have you a favourite?
