Why David Silva Is The One To Watch This Season

David Silva’s performances this season that I thought may be of interest to you, showcasing the importance of the Spaniard to Manchester City this season. Sergio Aguero may have been taking the plaudits for Pep Guardiola’s men, but as data from EA SPORTS shows, Silva really has been the lynchpin for the Citizens – creating more chances and assists than any other player in the league.

For this draft article we had a quick chat with Anthony Walker, data and league analyst at FootballPredictions.com, to have some extra insights in today’s data and statistics. His insights gave us some new and very useful data which we would like to present you.

The stats provided by EA SPORTS shows that Silva has created 23 chances this season, 4 more than Manchester United midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan who sits in 2^nd place with 19. Two other Manchester City players feature in the top 10 with Kevin De Bruyne sitting 3^rd (18 chances created) and Sergio Aguero placing 10^th (14 chances).

Of the players who have created the most chances this season, David Silva has created an impressive 26% of his team’s total goal scoring opportunities, a figure matched by Stoke’s Swiss midfielder, Xherdan Shaqiri. However, what may come as a slight shock is that the league’s most valuable creative player is Huddersfield’s Aaron Mooy. The ex Manchester City player has created nearly a third (29%) of all of the Terriers’ chances so far this season;

Player Team Chances Created % of Team’s Chances Created David Silva Manchester City 23 26% Henrikh Mkhitaryan Manchester United 19 25% Kevin De Bruyne Manchester City 18 20% Christian Eriksen Tottenham Hotspur 16 18% Xherdan Shaqiri Stoke City 15 26% Mesut Özil Arsenal 15 19% Cesc Fàbregas Chelsea 15 22% Aaron Mooy Huddersfield Town 14 29% Nathan Redmond Southampton 14 20% Sergio Agüero Manchester City 14 15%

 

When it comes to assists this season, David Silva is also sitting pretty on the top of the pile with 6. This dominance for the Spaniard only further stands to demonstrate just how efficient Manchester City have been in front of goal. EA SPORTS stats place Silva at number 1, with United’s Mkhitaryan a close 2^nd with 5 assists in as many games. Newly promoted Newcastle’s Matt Ritchie sits in joint 3^rd with Chelsea’s César Azpilicueta, both players having laid on 4 goals for team mates this year;

Player	Team	Assists
David Silva	Manchester City	6
Henrikh Mkhitaryan	Manchester United	5
Matt Ritchie	Newcastle United	4
César Azpilicueta	Chelsea	4
Kevin De Bruyne	Manchester City	3
Sergio Agüero	Manchester City	3
Christian Eriksen	Tottenham Hotspur	2
Pascal Groß	Brighton and Hove Albion	2
Roberto Firmino	Liverpool	2
Granit Xhaka	Arsenal	2

Hereby we would like to thank Anthony Walker and the rest of his team for providing his insights with both us and you. If you like to see more of his teams’ work on the Premier League we would highly recommend you to visit their website here.