It turns out that the best offence is actually a good defence.
If you were to run through a list of who you may think would be the most influential attacking players in Premier League history, it would probably include names like Henry, Cantona, Suarez, Bosko Balaban, you know, all the big hitters.
However, none of these world class sharp-shooters could hold a candle to a certain current Premier League defensive midfielder, in terms of influencing the attack.
OptaJoe have rather kindly crunched all the numbers, and come up with an astounding stat which shows that Man City’s holding midfielder Fernandinho may be the greatest attacking catalyst the Premier League has ever seen.
Mental.
2.5 – Man City average 2.5 goals/game when Fernandinho plays; the most for any side in PL history with a single player (50+ games). Catalyst
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 2, 2015
