We’re almost a third of the way through this season and Manchester City find themselves on top for the first time this season. The worrying thing for everyone else is that they haven’t even looked at their best. Manchester United haven’t drawn a game yet and are going on excellent win streaks only to lost the odd game here or there and Chelsea have found their first bad patch under Roberto Di Matteo.

This article will focus on which players are doing the business on the pitch and which ones are the Top players so far. We’ll be looking at Goal Scoring, Creativity, Possession Wins and Final 3rd Passing. The rest of the stats are available on our Stats Centre which you can subscribe to!

Premier League Goal Scorers

Luis Suarez is now two goals clear at the top of the Top Goal Scorers charts in the Premier League. Suarez has almost matched his total from last season of 11 goals in less than half of the games played in comparison. Demba Ba also scored to put him level with Robin van Persie whilst Michu continues to impress at Swansea and he scored a lovely diving header on Match Day 12 against Newcastle. Carlos Tevez’ brace puts him in fifth position.

We can analyse this further by filtering by Shots Attempted. For players with over 30 shots attempted this season here are the most frequent scorers so far this season i.e. the players who take the least mins per goal.

As shown above Luis Suarez is scoring goals the most often now for players who attempted over 30 shots with a goal every 107.7 minutes. Robin van Persie’s average has dropped in the last few games as he was averaging in the 90’s a few weeks ago.

We can change this up further and look at the chart when filtered for just 15 shots attempted – there are a few new additions as shown below:

All of a sudden two Manchester City players jump right to the top of this list. Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero are averaging a goal faster than the other strikers who have attempted over 15 shots at goal. Dzeko is scoring at a very impressive rate of a goal every 67 minutes. Dzeko’s average will probably stay at this rate as he is most likely to play the season as a substitute unless one of Tevez or Aguero is injured.

There are lots of other stats that can be sorted upon in the Top Stats area as shown above. We’ll move on to Creativity next (please use the Quick Links below or the page numbers below).

Top Goals Scorers | Top Creators | Most Possession Wins | Most Final Third Passes

Premier League Creators

Leighton Baines becomes the first player to create 50 chances this season and it’s less than a third of the way through it so far. Last season’s top creators just managed to get over 100 chances created so Leighton Baines is on course to beat that by a long way.

The graphic below is dominated by players plying their trade on Merseyside. Two from Everton and Liverpool respectively with Santi Cazorla coming in second place with 38 chances created. Next we’ll look at assists and Clear-Cut Chances.

Top Premier League Assists

Juan Mata has assisted the most goals this season with 6. His team mate Hazard led the table with five since the first few weeks so it’s been a while since he’s been stuck on five. Mata though has been the form player for Chelsea in the last two months. Bryan Ruiz has also been very impressive in the last month or so for Fulham whilst Rooney hasn’t played much this season and still finds himself in the Top 5. Adam Lallana has been impressive this term too and finds himself in 5th place.

Premier League Clear-Cut Chances

[quote]A situation where a player should reasonably be expected to score usually in a one-on-one scenario or from very close range.[/quote]

Juan Mata tops this list too and his team-mate Eden Hazard is also in the Top 5. Anthony Pilkington has been impressive here with 7 clear-cut chances created whilst Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure seem to create the major goal-scoring opportunities for their team too.

So Juan Mata is creating opportunities for his side that you’d expect Chelsea to score from – he’s been the top creative player this season really.

There are lots of other stats that can be sorted upon in the Top Stats area as shown above. We’ll move on to Most Possession Wins next (please use the Quick Links below or the page numbers below).

Top Goals Scorers | Top Creators | Most Possession Wins | Most Final Third Passes

Premier League: Most Possession Wins

The view from our Top Stats area below shows you which players are winning possession back for their teams the most. The usual suspects exist in the list with Joe Allen, Youssuf Mulumbu, Mikel Arteta, Obi Mikel and Mark Noble in the Top 5. It’s Joe Allen that impresses (despite being off colour in the last few games for Liverpool) winning possession back for Liverpool every 10 minutes. On average he also loses possession every 10.8 minutes but as you can see this is the best figure out of the Top 5 with Mark Noble losing possession every 5.16 minutes.

Joe Allen also wins possession back in midfield every 17.7 minutes which is more than any of the other Top 5. Youssuf Mulumbu tops the possession wins in defensive third winning the ball back every 19.29 mins whilst Mikel Arteta wins the ball back once every two games in the attacking third which is the best out of the Top 5 also.

There are lots of other stats that can be sorted upon in the Top Stats area as shown above. We’ll move on to Most Final 3rd Passes next (please use the Quick Links below or the page numbers below).

Top Goals Scorers | Top Creators | Most Possession Wins | Most Final Third Passes

Premier League: Most Final 3rd Passes

Santi Cazorla has been one of the most impressive signings this season if not the MOST impressive new player to grace the Premier League. His main work is done in the Final 3rd of the pitch and as you can see below Santi has attempted the most passes in the final 3rd so far this season. He’s also been the most accurate in the Final 3rd out of the Top 5 players too.

Looking at the numbers below it’s Steven Pienaar that attempts the highest proportion of his total passes in the Final 3rd – 52.4%. Eden Hazard is second when it comes to proportion of total passes in Final 3rd whilst Santi is 3rd. Yaya Toure and Steven Gerrard make up the numbers in the Top 5.

The players in this list have a correlation in creativity – every single one of the players in the list below will be in the Top Five in one of these sections: Chances Created (total), Assists or Clear-Cut chances created.

There are lots of other stats that can be sorted upon in the Top Stats area as shown above (for subscribers only). Please use the Quick Links below or the page numbers below to view any of the other sections.

Top Goals Scorers | Top Creators | Most Possession Wins | Most Final Third Passes