West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce ruffled Manchester United's feathers when he claimed Louis van Gaal's side are a long-ball team after their 1-1 at Upton Park on 8 February.

Van Gaal responded by producing a series of diagrams disputing Allardyce's assertion at his news conference ahead of Wednesday's 3-1 win over Burnley.

But who are the Premier League's number one long-ball team? With help from our friends at Opta, BBC Sport can reveal it's not Manchester United but West Bromwich Albion, who have played a total of 1,063 long balls in 25 league matches this season.

The Premier League's long-ball table Team Long balls played Premier League position West Brom 1,063 14th Burnley 994 19th Hull City 852 16th West Ham 793 8th Crystal Palace 775 13th Leicester City 772 20th QPR 768 17th Southampton 755 4th Newcastle 680 11th Aston Villa 661 18th Sunderland 577 15th Tottenham 558 6th Man Utd 529 3rd Everton 515 12th Stoke City 504 10th Swansea City 457 9th Chelsea 432 1st Arsenal 395 5th Liverpool 390 7th Manchester City 358 2nd

Long pass v long ball - the statistician's definition

According to football statisticians Opta, a 'long pass' is one that is 35 yards or more and is aimed at a particular team-mate. It does not have to be forward.

In contrast, they classify a 'long ball' as a forward pass that is 35 yards or more and is kicked into a space or area on the pitch rather than a precise pass aimed at a particular team-mate.

As such a 'long ball' is perhaps more indicative of a team that likes to regularly lump the ball forward, perhaps towards the opposition's penalty area.

A 'long pass' could be a cross-field switch of play to a team-mate.

Opta's head of UK media and content Duncan Alexander pointed out: "There is a vast difference between someone like Andrea Pirlo playing a precise long pass and an agricultural launch forward.

"We agree and separate those two things out. In the Opta world a long pass is one aimed to a specific player (think Pirlo), while a long ball is one played into a specific zone (think "hit the channels")."

Short passes table Team Short passes attempted % passes short Manchester City 13,530 91.54 Arsenal 12,046 91.38 Chelsea 11,976 89.15 Liverpool 11,051 88.41 Swansea City 10,603 88.07 Tottenham 10,936 87.84 Everton 11,320 87.35 Manchester United 11,706 85.66 Southampton 10,368 85.50 Stoke City 8,490 84.82 Newcastle United 8,692 84.45 Sunderland 8,449 84.16 Aston Villa 9,020 83.72 West Brom 8,711 82.80 Hull City 8,199 82.31 West Ham 7,347 81.20 Leicester City 7,295 80.35 QPR 7,363 79.36 Burnley 7,237 78.77 Crystal Palace 6,218 78.17

It might not be a huge surprise that the teams boasting the higher percentage of short passes have a large number of top class midfielders such as David Silva of Manchester City, Arsenal's Mesut Ozil and Eden Hazard of Chelsea.

Long passes table Team Long passes attempted % passes long Crystal Palace 1,736 21.83 Burnley 1,951 21.23 QPR 1,915 20.64 Leicester City 1,784 19.65 West Ham 1,701 18.80 Hull City 1,762 17.69 West Brom 1,809 17.20 Aston Villa 1,754 16.28 Sunderland 1,590 15.84 Newcastle 1,601 15.55 Stoke 1,519 15.18 Southampton 1,758 14.50 Manchester United 1,960 14.34 Everton 1,639 12.65 Tottenham 1,514 12.16 Swansea 1,436 11.93 Liverpool 1,449 11.59 Chelsea 1,458 10.85 Arsenal 1,136 8.62 Manchester City 1,250 8.46

There has been a lot of talk about Manchester United being a long ball team since Allardyce raised the subject last weekend. While it is true that the Red Devils have attempted more long passes than any other team in the Premier League, this needs placing into context.

United have had more possession and this leaves them 13th in the long passes table table with 14.34%. The top four teams in this table are all battling for Premier League survival.