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Super Eagles midfielder Alex Iwobi can lay claim to being the best playmaker in the Premier League this season.
With the final international break of the calendar year having begun and nearly a third of the season played already, there is ample sample size to assess standout players and teams.
While Super Eagles midfielder Alex Iwobi has only registered two Premier League assists this season, which ranks him an unspectacular joint-20th, a deeper perusal of creative metrics proves the Nigeria international is one of the best playmakers in the division this season.
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Fulham manager Marco Silva has heaped praise on Nigeria's Alex Iwobi after his performance in the 2-0 win over Crystal Palace.
Assist metric doesn't do Iwobi justice
Assist numbers are a joint effort from the passer and finisher, as the receiver has to put the ball in the back of the net for the metric to be tallied, regardless of the quality of the delivery.
Hence, more advanced metrics like big chances created, xA (expected assists), PPA (passes into the penalty area) and the like that focus on the quality of delivery are more reliable for evaluating individual playmaking output.
So, while looking through assist numbers might betray Iwobi's output this season, a deeper perusal into more pertinent data points shows he is amongst the best in the division this season.
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Iwobi leads key stat
The Nigeria international leads the entire division in passes into the penalty area this campaign. This metric, as it says on the tin, measures the amount of completed passes a player delivers into the opponent's penalty area.
Iwobi's 31 passes place him heads and shoulders above everyone else, as he has five more than the next on the list, Manchester City's Savio with 26 PPA, according to Fbref.
The rest in the top ten are Dwight McNeil (Everton, 25), Pedro Porro (Tottenham, 24), Heung Min Son (Tottenham, 24), Dejan Kulusevski (Tottenham, 23), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool, 21), and the trio of Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City), Cole Palmer (Chelsea) and Jarred Bowen (West Ham) on 19.
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The former Everton man also excels in the expected assist stat, a yardstick that speculates the true number of assists a player should have based on the quality of their key passes.
Only three players in the division: Dwight McNeil (3.5), Bukayo Saka (3.4), and Trent Alexander Arnold (3.0) have generated more xA than Iwobi (2.9) in 11 Premier League games this season.
The 28-year-old is currently on international duty for Nigeria, and fans will hope he can provide his quality delivery into the area for one of the spate of elite forwards in the Super Eagles' ranks.
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