The Best Passer in the Premier League

In one respect, statistics are the bread and butter of professional football. Millions of dreams – not to mention millions of pounds – rest on how many points every team garners and how many goals every team scores. But once you move beyond wins, losses, draws and goals, statistics have by and large been consigned to the shadows of modern football.

Many argue there’s a good reason: that other statistics don’t really tell you much. Take, for instance, passes. If you look at the most recent statistic tables, Chelsea’s Jon Obi Mikel currently leads the Premier League in number of passes completed this season – 1,016. The Nigerian defensive midfielder is followed by Birmingham’s Scottish midfielder, Barry Ferguson, who has successfully completed 856 passes.

Neither Mikel or Ferguson would ever be mistaken for the more celebrated passers of the game – players like Pirlo or Lampard or Xavi.  In fact, between the two of them, Mikel and Ferguson have been responsible for assisting only one goal in the league this season. (And we can’t remember the last time either of them put the ball back in the net themselves.)

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