A new study has found English players face a greater struggle for playing time in the Premier League compared to Spanish and French players in La Liga and Ligue 1 respectively.
The CIES Football observatory calculated the percentage of league minutes played since the start of the season, and discovered opportunities for English players were most limited at Watford (nine per cent of minutes played by English players), Chelsea (16 per cent), Man City (17 per cent) and Arsenal (23 per cent).
But following England's laboured win over minnows Malta, the most significant finding is the lack of playing time for English footballers in the Premier League compared to rival nationalities in their respective domestic divisions.
English players played more than half of available minutes at just four Premier League clubs - Everton, Crystal Palace, Burnley and Bournemouth.
In Spain, for example, domestic players have played at least 50 per cent of minutes at 11 clubs, while in France's Ligue 1, all but three teams - Nantes, Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain - have predominately used French players so far this season.
In England, the top four - Man City (17 per cent), Tottenham (28 per cent), Arsenal (23 per cent) and Liverpool (37 per cent) - all used English players less than Real Madrid and Barcelona used Spanish players (both 41 per cent of minutes played by Spanish players)
In fact, the El Clasico pair boast higher percentages of domestic players than 14 Premier League clubs.
It is a slightly different story in Germany and Italy, but both countries still boast a higher share of minutes played by domestic players than England.
Seven Bundesliga clubs have used German players at least 50 per cent of the time, while in Italy eight teams used Italian players more often than not.
Premier League success stories are few and far between but the example of Everton stands out.
They are the only English team currently ranked in the top third of the Premier League table who fielded English players for more than half of available minutes (52 per cent).
The likes of Ross Barkley, Gareth Barry, Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka all feature regularly for Ronald Koeman, who has guided Everton up to fifth after seven games.
La Liga's Osasuna are the European team with the largest domestic bias (97 per cent Spanish), while Serie A side Udinese sit bottom of the table (one per cent Italian).