You’ll probably know
which players have scored the most goals, made the most passes or
tallied the most assists this season in the Premier
League, but how about those leading in some of the more unusual
metrics across 2025-26?
The Premier League has reached the third international break of
the 2025-26 season, and with 11 games played, it feels like an
ideal time to check in on some of the statistical leaders.
You’ll be fully aware that Erling
Haaland has scored more goals than any other player and
David Raya is great at keeping them out at the other end of the
pitch, but this isn’t an article looking at the leading players in
categories you’ll already know about. This is our chance to look at
some of the quirkier metrics from Opta.
Who covers the pitch but sees the penalty area as their
kryptonite? Which defender loves those one-v-one battles? Who
prefers to shoot at goal without taking a touch to settle
themselves?
We answer these questions and more as we dive into the quirkier
statistical leaders of the 2025-26 Premier League season so
far.
Most
Shots From Outside the Box Without Scoring
Bruno Fernandes (12)
Bruno
Fernandes hasn’t had much luck from shooting outside the box
this season. The Portuguese has attempted 12 shots from range
without success, coming closest in the Matchday 10 draw at
Nottingham Forest, with his low shot striking the foot of the
post.
The fact that only Kevin De Bruyne
(15) has scored more goals from outside the box in the Premier
League than Fernandes (14) since the Manchester United captain’s
debut in February 2020 suggests his luck will eventually
change.
Maybe it’s time for him to come off
free-kicks, though; he’s only scored three of his 60 shot attempts
from free-kicks in the Premier League (5%), including two
unsuccessful efforts in 2025-26.
Long
Throws Into Opposition’s Box
Michael Kayode (54)
Long throws are back in fashion. That makes Michael
Kayode even more important than usual, with the Brentford
defender chucking more of them into the opposition’s box than any
other player in the Premier League this season.
Kayode has launched 54 long throws into the opposition’s box in
2025-26, eight more than second-placed Nordi Mukiele and 25 more
than Chris Richards in third. More importantly, six of his long
throws into the penalty area have led to a shot – four more than
any other player – and two have led to goals for the Bees.
Highest
xG Total Without Scoring
Igor Jesus (1.86)
Igor
Jesus hasn’t had a problem scoring for Nottingham Forest in cup
competitions this season. The 24-year-old Brazilian forward has
scored five goals from 13 shots across the League Cup and Europa
League, but the Premier League has been a more difficult
proposition for him.
He’s yet to score in 10 league games since joining Forest in the
summer from Botafogo, despite also having 13 shots in the top
flight. In fact, he is the player to have the highest expected
goals figure in the competition this season without scoring
(1.86).
One positive for him is that he isn’t the player with the most
shots without scoring in the Premier League in 2025-26. That is
Bournemouth’s David Brooks (16 shots, 0 goals).
Most
Shot Involvements Without a Goal or Assist
Florian Wirtz (28)
It’s been a tricky start to life in England for Florian
Wirtz. The Germany international signed for Liverpool in the
summer from Bayer Leverkusen in a deal that could be worth £116
million, but he’s yet to show the form that made the Reds so keen
to secure his signature.
Some of the criticism of Wirtz has been warranted, but a lot
seems harsh on a young player acclimatising to a new country. The
fact of the matter stands, however, Wirtz hasn’t yet delivered in
the Premier League.
Across his 11 league appearances for Liverpool, none of his 16
chances created have assisted a goal, which is hardly on him, but
he’s also recorded 12 shots without success.
Also 22 years old in his first season at Arsenal, Thierry Henry
struggled at the start of his Premier League career, with just one
goal and no assists in his first 12 appearances. But then things
started to click, and we know the rest…
Expected
Assists From Open Play
Jack Grealish (2.47)
Jack
Grealish tops the open-play assist charts with four in 2025-26,
but sometimes assists can be misleading. In order to assess the
true creative quality of a player’s passes, expected
assists (xA) offers a deeper understanding of how likely a pass
is to become an assist.
xA is measured on a scale between zero and one, where zero
represents a pass that will never result in an assist, and one
represents a pass that the receiver would be expected to score from
every single time. In 2025-26, Grealish’s Premier League passes in
open play have totalled 2.47 xA, higher than any other player in
the division.
Interestingly for Everton fans, another of their players ranks
second in this metric: Iliman Ndiaye (2.40), just ahead of Man
City’s Jérémy Doku (2.14) and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka (1.94).
First-Time Shots From Open Play
Erling Haaland (26)
Erling Haaland has been in electric form this season, plundering
14 goals in the opening 11 matchdays to top the Premier League
scoring charts. But we all know how good he is at scoring goals,
and this season’s feats have hardly come as a surprise. What might
be more surprising is how often he takes first-time shots in open
play.
Of his 44 open-play shots this season, 26 have come without any
prior touch (59.1%) and eight of his 14 goals have come with a
first-time finish. That’s more than any other player in the league,
but only just…
Jean-Philippe Mateta has had 30 shots in open play, and 25 of
those have been first-time attempts (83.3%).
Most
Touches Without One Being in the Opposition’s Box
Carlos Baleba (371)
Eleven different players have scored a Premier League goal for
Brighton & Hove Albion this season, but maybe don’t expect
midfielder Carlos
Baleba to join that group any time soon. That’s because,
despite having 371 touches of the ball across 11 appearances in the
competition this season, none of them have come inside the
opposition’s penalty area.
That’s the most touches by an outfielder without any coming in
the opposition’s box this season, 79 more than Axel Tuanzebe (292).
Across his Premier League career, Baleba’s only had 19 of his 3,230
touches in the opposition’s box (0.006%) and none have come in his
last 14 league appearances for the Seagulls.
Most
Fouls Without Being Given a Card
Ryan Sessegnon (20)
Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon could be considered the most fortunate
player to not have entered the referee’s notebook this season as
he’s committed 20 fouls without receiving a single card, four more
than Pape Matar Sarr (16) and five more than teammate Raúl Jiménez
(15).
Going back to last season, none of Sessegnon’s last 25 fouls
have seen him carded, last receiving a yellow card against Aston
Villa on 3 May from Rob Jones.
At the other end of the scale, three players have committed
fewer than 10 fouls but still been given four yellow cards this
season: Álex Jiménez (5 fouls), Tim Iroegbunam (6) and James Garner
(8).
Most
Carries Ending With a Shot Involvement
Cody Gakpo (20)
Cody
Gakpo has caused opposition defences problems with his direct
running this season, and the Dutch forward leads the Premier League
rankings for the most shot involvements following a ball carry
(20).
Twelve of those involvements have come with him taking the shot
after taking the ball at least five metres, with the other eight
seeing him create a chance for a teammate after running with the
ball at his feet.
Gakpo finds himself behind Man Utd’s Matheus Cunha (15) when
looking at shots following ball carries alone, while the leading
players for chances created following ball carries are Callum
Hudson-Odoi and Jérémy Doku (11).
Most
Carries Ending in Opposition’s Box
Jérémy Doku (72)
As highlighted above, Jérémy
Doku has shown how dangerous he is when running with the ball
at his feet, leading the rankings for chances created following a
ball carry (11).
There aren’t many players, if any, who can wriggle their way
through tight spaces to create chances for teammates as well as the
Belgian winger, and his ball carrying ability has seen him burst
into the opposition’s penalty area more often than anyone else.
Doku leads the Premier League rankings for ball carries ending
in the opposition’s box (72), with his tally 19 more than the next
highest players, Jack Grealish and Cody Gakpo (53).
Most
Possession Regains Leading to Shots
Idrissa Gueye (10)
Everton’s Idrissa
Gueye might not rank inside the Premier League’s top 10 for
possession won, tackles or interceptions in 2025-26, but when he
does win the ball back from opponents, his side make his efforts
worthwhile.
Gueye has started 10 separate shot-ending possession sequences
for Everton by winning the ball back from opponents, more than any
other player in the league this season. Add in instances where he’s
recovered a loose ball and his tally is still the most in the
league (17).
Best
One-v-One Defender Against Dribblers
Maxence Lacroix (87.0%)
Looking at the total number of “true tackles” attempted by
players, which is a sum of successful tackles (where possession is
regained or when the ball goes out of play and is safe), challenges
lost (where a player attempts a tackle and doesn’t connect with the
ball) and fouls when attempting a tackle, we’re able to assess the
best defenders at coming up against dribblers.
Of players to have faced at least 20 opponent dribbles, Crystal
Palace defender Maxence
Lacroix has the highest success rate (20/23 – 87%), just ahead
of central defensive partner Marc Guéhi (22/27 – 81.5%).
Of defenders, Kieran Trippier has the worst success rate in
stopping opposition dribblers. The Newcastle full-back has won just
32.3% of his one-v-one battles, committing a foul 10 times and
seeing his opponent dribble past him on another 11 occasions.
Most
Chances Created From Open-Play Crosses
Hugo Bueno (9)
Considering Wolverhampton Wanderers have fired in 20 more
successful open-play crosses than any other team in the Premier
League this season, it’ll come as no shock to see one of their
players as the leading creator in such scenarios.
Back following a loan spell at Eredivisie side Feyenoord last
season, Hugo Bueno has been attacking the left flank for Wolves in
2025-26. Despite a poor start to the season for the team, he’s been
one bright spark.
Bueno leads the Premier League rankings for open-play crosses
attempted (52) and successful (21), with a league-high nine of
those creating chances for teammates, while he also tops the
rankings for expected assists from such scenarios (0.87).
Most
Kilometres Run
Granit Xhaka (124.06km)
Sunderland have started the season brilliantly, and arguably no
player has stood out more for them than the experienced Granit
Xhaka. And curiously, although no spring chicken at 33 years
old, he’s covered more ground than any other player in the Premier
League this season, running 124.06km.
That total is 1.62km more than Nottingham Forest’s Elliot
Anderson, while Xhaka’s teammate Noah Sadiki (122.33km) ranks third
in the Premier League after 11 matchdays.
High
Pressures Applied in the Final Third
Igor Thiago (270)
Igor
Thiago endured a frustrating first season at Brentford.
Hindered by injury, the forward played just 168 minutes across
eight appearances in the Premier League. Now fit, the Brazilian has
become an integral part of Keith Andrews’ side and only Erling
Haaland (14) has scored more goals than he has (8) across the
opening 11 matchdays of 2025-26.
He works incredibly hard off the ball, too. He leads the Premier
League rankings for high pressures applied across the whole pitch
(609), but more importantly for his role in the Bees’ side, he also
leads the charts when looking specifically at high pressures
applied in the final third of the pitch (270).
Shots
With First Contact Following Corners
Dan Ballard (6)
Sunderland centre-back Dan
Ballard has scored twice this season in the Premier League, but
somewhat surprisingly, neither goal came following a corner.
That’s surprising because no player in the Premier League this
term has had more shots as the first contact following a corner
than Ballard (6). All six of his attempts have been headed, but
unlike his goal from open play in the MD1 win over West Ham, none
have found the net.
Ballard is the only player to have attempted more shots as a
first contact from a corner than Erling Haaland (5), who leads the
league ranking for the most attacking first contacts overall (11),
ahead of Leeds’ Joe Rodon (10).
Minutes
Played as a Substitute
Emiliano Buendía (200)
Emiliano Buendía has been a handy option for Unai Emery off the
bench for Aston Villa this season in the Premier League.
The Argentine has played more minutes as a substitute than any
other player in the top flight in 2025-26 (200), and his impact has
made a difference to Villa. No player has been involved in more
goals as a sub than he has (3 – 2 goals, 1 assist), while he also
leads the rankings for shot involvements as a sub (11 – 6 shots, 5
chances created) alongside Omari Hutchinson and Estêvão.
In fact, he’s been involved in more goals as a sub (3 in 200
minutes) than he has as a starter (2 in 229 minutes) this season
for Villa.
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