James Milner Liverpool 2018Getty Images

Milner becomes second youngest player ever to reach 500 Premier League appearances

James Milner has made what is his 500th Premier League appearance in Saturday's meeting with Bournemouth, becoming the second youngest player to reach the milestone.

Over the course of his 16-year career to date, Milner has played in England's top flight for Leeds United, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Liverpool.

He becomes the 13th player in total to reach the 500-mark, with Gareth Barry currently the youngest to have got to the fifth century at 32 years and 219 days.

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Milner made his most Premier League appearances for City, where he was selected 147 times in England's top flight.

He is, however, closing on that total at Liverpool, who he joined back in 2015, and has now made a total of 111 league appearances for the Reds.

The last player to reach 500 in the Premier League was, ironically, former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard back in 2015.

Milner's total of 15 league goals for Liverpool is the most he has scored for any of the clubs he has represented, while he managed 13 for Manchester City, 12 for Villa, six for Newcastle and five for Leeds.

His 80 top-flight assists over his career matches the tally of David Beckham in the Premier League, all of which were, of course, achieved while playing for Manchester United.

The midfielder remains the second-youngest scorer in Premier League history, behind former Everton striker James Vaughan, as he found the net aged just 16 years and 357 days for Leeds against Sunderland in 2002.

Demonstrating his versatility, the 32-year-old was stationed at right-back for the game against Bournemouth, with Trent Alexander-Arnold benched, likely with an eye on the crunch Champions League clash with Napoli on Tuesday.

Regarding his decision to start Milner at right-back, Klopp explained: "It's no problem. I thought it could be a problem, but obviously he would have even played goalkeeper in game number 500!"

Klopp's side can move to the top of the table should they claim all three points against Bournemouth.

City, though, will have the chance to react to whatever result Liverpool achieve at the Vitality Stadium later in the day as they face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

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