Introducing The Magic Number

On Monday night, Southampton named Shane Long, Michael Obafemi, Will Smallbone, and Will Ferry as substitutes against Manchester United, for the third successive game. All but Ferry were introduced in the second half, with Obafemi going on to score a late equaliser in the game. This was the first time since August 2014 that a manager had brought on three Irish players, and Southampton are only the fourth of the 49 clubs in Premier League history to have done so, following Sunderland, Stoke, and Hull.

Sunderland have actually introduced three Irish players on seven occasions - against Arsenal in March 2002, against Manchester United, Reading, Middlesbrough, and Blackburn all in August 2007, Fulham in October 2007, and finally against Aston Villa in September 2008. Both Daryl Murphy and Anthony Stokes were among the trios in five of these games, while Liam Miller was introduced in three of these games.

No player has appeared in an intrudoced trio for more than one team, but Shane Long was also introduced from the bench for Reading in the game against Sunderland in September 2007 that saw the Black Cats bring on Anthony Stokes, Daryl Murphy, and Liam Miller.

Season	Date	Home	Score	Away	Home Introduced Subs	Away Introduced Subs
2001-02	Saturday, 30th March 2002	Arsenal	3-0	Sunderland		Thomas Butler(45) Kevin Kilbane(76) Niall Quinn(21)
2007-08	Saturday, 1st September 2007	Manchester United	1-0	Sunderland	John O'Shea(84)	Liam Miller(82) Daryl Murphy(69) Anthony Stokes(82)
2007-08	Saturday, 15th September 2007	Sunderland	2-1	Reading	Anthony Stokes(64) Daryl Murphy(83) Liam Miller(81)	Shane Long(67)
2007-08	Saturday, 22nd September 2007	Middlesbrough	2-2	Sunderland		Liam Miller(53) Anthony Stokes(67) Roy O'Donovan(76)
2007-08	Saturday, 29th September 2007	Sunderland	1-2	Blackburn	David Connolly(65) Daryl Murphy(66) Roy O'Donovan(66)
2007-08	Saturday, 27th October 2007	Sunderland	1-1	Fulham	Ian Harte(71) Daryl Murphy(61) Anthony Stokes(61)
2008-09	Sunday, 25th September 2008	Aston Villa	2-1	Sunderland		Andy Reid(59) Daryl Murphy(59) Anthony Stokes(79)
2010-11	Tuesday, 9th November 2010	Stoke City	3-2	Birmingham City	Glenn Whelan(73) Jonathan Walters(89) Marc Wilson(89)	Keith Fahey(61)
2014-15	Saturday, 16th August 2014	QPR	0-1	Hull City		Paul McShane(46) Stephen Quinn(40) David Meyler(82)
2019-20	Monday, 13th July 2020	Manchester United	2-2	Southampton		Shane Long(64) Will Smallbone(69) Michael Obafemi(87)