Seven players share the Premier League assist lead on three. That is what happens when you rank a low-frequency event after five games, and it is why this page does not stop at the leaderboard.
An assist needs somebody else to finish. Chances created does not, which makes it the steadier measure of who is actually doing the creating - and on that list the picture changes considerably. Granit Xhaka has created thirteen chances, five of them big ones, and has no assists at all.
After 5 games, league only
| # | Player | Team | Assists | Chances created | xA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pascal Groß | Brighton & Hove Albion | 3 | 15 | 0.86 |
| 2 | Cody Gakpo | Liverpool | 3 | 11 | 1.71 |
| 3 | Antoine Semenyo | Manchester City | 3 | 10 | 1.16 |
| 4 | João Pedro | Chelsea | 3 | 7 | 0.19 |
| 5 | Daichi Kamada | Crystal Palace | 3 | 6 | 0.38 |
| 6 | Evanilson | AFC Bournemouth | 3 | 6 | 0.52 |
| 7 | Josko Gvardiol | Manchester City | 3 | 3 | 0.74 |
| 8 | Morgan Gibbs-White | Nottingham Forest | 2 | 14 | 1.42 |
| 9 | Rayan Cherki | Manchester City | 2 | 12 | 1.54 |
| 10 | Maxim De Cuyper | Brighton & Hove Albion | 2 | 12 | 0.67 |
The list is a good illustration of the problem. Pascal Groß is there on merit - fifteen chances created is the most in the division. Josko Gvardiol is there on three chances created, from centre-back, with all three finding a finisher.
João Pedro has three assists against an expected-assists figure of 0.19, the widest gap of any player in the league. That is not a criticism - somebody has to be the beneficiary of good finishing - but it is not a rate anybody sustains.
Rank the same five games by chances created instead and four of the top ten have no assists to show for it.
The steadier measure
| # | Player | Team | Chances | Big chances | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pascal Groß | Brighton & Hove Albion | 15 | 4 | 3 |
| 2 | Morgan Gibbs-White | Nottingham Forest | 14 | 5 | 2 |
| 3 | Marcus Rashford | Manchester United | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Granit Xhaka | Sunderland | 13 | 5 | 0 |
| 5 | Bruno Fernandes | Manchester United | 13 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | Martin Ødegaard | Arsenal | 12 | 3 | 0 |
| 7 | Rayan Cherki | Manchester City | 12 | 3 | 2 |
| 8 | Maxim De Cuyper | Brighton & Hove Albion | 12 | 3 | 2 |
| 9 | James McAtee | Nottingham Forest | 12 | 2 | 0 |
| 10 | Cody Gakpo | Liverpool | 11 | 1 | 3 |
Nine players
| Player | Team | Chances | Big chances | xA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marcus Rashford | Manchester United | 13 | 0 | 0.43 |
| Granit Xhaka | Sunderland | 13 | 5 | 1.32 |
| Martin Ødegaard | Arsenal | 12 | 3 | 1.32 |
| James McAtee | Nottingham Forest | 12 | 2 | 0.96 |
| Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall | Everton | 11 | 2 | 0.83 |
| Dominik Szoboszlai | Liverpool | 11 | 3 | 0.82 |
| Alex Scott | AFC Bournemouth | 11 | 0 | 0.42 |
| Alex Iwobi | Fulham | 10 | 3 | 1.22 |
| Bryan Mbeumo | Manchester United | 10 | 2 | 0.8 |
Marcus Rashford has thirteen chances created and none of them big; Granit Xhaka has thirteen with five big ones and an expected-assists figure of 1.32. Those are two different kinds of nothing. Xhaka is creating the sort of chance that normally gets converted and has been unlucky; Rashford is creating volume of a lower grade.
Martin Ødegaard, Dominik Szoboszlai and Bryan Mbeumo are all on the same list. None of them will finish the season there.
The practical use is knowing which chart to read for which question.
For an assists market, chances created is the better predictor than assists. Five games is roughly fifteen chances for a first-choice creative midfielder and three assists at the very top - one is a sample, the other is barely a number. A player priced on a three-assist start from six chances created is priced on his finishers.
The caution runs the same way it does for strikers. Our own testing across 1,245 fixtures found that fading the over-performers has been the reliable half of this and backing the under-performers to bounce has not - sides running ahead of their numbers then win 3.2 percentage points less often than rated, while those running behind beat their rating by 0.8, which is noise. Read it as a reason to be careful about João Pedro's price rather than a reason to back Xhaka.
Full season leaderboards, updated as each round settles, are on our Premier League player leaders page, and the goals version of this piece is here.
Who has the most assists in the Premier League in 2026/27? Seven players share the lead on three after five games: Pascal Gross, Cody Gakpo, Antoine Semenyo, Joao Pedro, Daichi Kamada, Evanilson and Josko Gvardiol.
Who creates the most chances in the Premier League? Pascal Gross of Brighton with fifteen, ahead of Morgan Gibbs-White on fourteen and Marcus Rashford, Granit Xhaka and Bruno Fernandes on thirteen.
Which Premier League players are unlucky not to have an assist? Nine players have created ten or more chances without an assist. Granit Xhaka is the clearest case with thirteen chances, five of them big ones, and an expected-assists figure of 1.32.
Is assists or chances created the better guide? Chances created, at this stage of a season. An assist depends on someone else finishing, so after five games the assist chart is largely a record of who has had the better finishers, while chances created measures what the player himself did.
18+. Please gamble responsibly - begambleaware.org. Assist, chances-created and expected-assists data from our own import, updated as each round settles.