The 20 most creative players in the Premier League this season, according to stats

The 20 most creative players in the Premier League this season, according to stats
Chelsea star Eden Hazard was crowned the Premier League’s assist king for the 2018/19 season.The Belgian superstar may have an uncertain future at Stamford Bridge but he’s put on a show this campaign with 15 assists.

Eden Hazard of Chelsea poses for a photo with the Playmaker award trophy

It was an impressive total, one ahead of Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser, and earned him the Playmaker award, which will no doubt be front and centre on his mantelpiece.Hazard has plenty of competition in the English top-flight when it comes to incredible creative talents, with Christian Eriksen and Kevin De Bruyne amongst them. But was he really the best, according to advanced statistics?Here at talkSPORT we’ve used UnderStat.com to check out which Premier League stars had the highest ‘Expected Assists’ for the campaign.

Expected assists (xA) definition

According to Opta, xA measures the likelihood that a given pass will become a goal assist.It considers several factors including the type of pass, pass end-point and length of pass.Adding up a player or team’s expected assists gives us an indication of how many assists a player of team should have had based on their build up and attacking play.

20. Willian (Chelsea)

Expected assists – 6.52Assists – Six

19. Joao Moutinho (Wolves)

Expected assists – 6.53Assists – Eight

18. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)

Expected assists – 6.65Assists – Two

17. Sead Kolasinac (Arsenal)

Expected assists – 6.74Assists – Five

Arsenal’s left wing-back Kolasinac has weighed in with his fair share this campaign

16. Felipe Anderson (West Ham United)

Expected assists – 6.78Assists – Four

15. Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton)

Expected assists – 6.79Assists – Six

14. Raul Jimenez (Wolves)

Expected assists – 6.99Assists – Seven

13. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)

Expected assists – 7.22Assists – 12

The young English ace has over-performed in terms of assists this season

12. Alex Iwobi (Arsenal)

Expected assists – 7.64Assists – Six

11. Lucas Digne (Everton)

Expected assists – 7.71Assists – Six

10. Christian Eriksen (Tottenham Hotspur)

Expected assists – 7.88Assists – 12

Eriksen has done far better than statistics believe he should have

9. James Maddison (Leicester City)

Expected assists – 7.94Assists – Seven

8. Andrew Robertson (Liverpool)

Expected assists – 8.06Assists – 11

Robertson, like Alexander-Arnold, has been a star for the Reds creatively

7. Leroy Sane (Manchester City)

Expected assists – 8.10Assists – 10

6. Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)

Expected assists – 8.63Assists – Seven

5. David Silva (Manchester City)

Expected assists – 10.11Assists – Eight

Silva remains one of the most creative Premier League players around

4. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

Expected assists – 10.47Assists – Eight

Salah hasn’t been as good as last year but his statistics are still impressive

3. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)

Expected assists – 10.79Assists – 10

It’s no wonder Sterling was named PFA Player of the Year

2. Eden Hazard (Chelsea)

Expected assists – 11.57Assists – 15

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Hazard, according to stats, wasn’t the most creative player this season

1. Ryan Fraser (Bournemouth)

Expected assists – 16.18Assists – 14

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Fraser has excelled for the Cherries this season and could now be on the move

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