9 players we can’t believe have fewer Premier League assists than Ederson

Ciaran McCarthy • 23 Feb 2025

Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson will go down as one of the best distributors of a ball in the history of football goalkeepers – his skills with his feet sometimes outshining his saves.

In his Premier League career, the Brazilian has laid on six assists, a figure which, incredibly, looms larger than some playmakers and forwards.

Here, we have looked into nine players who have assisted fewer goals than the City goalkeeper during their Premier League careers.

Josko Gvardiol

In a day and age where full-backs are expected to bomb up the field, one would expect Gvardiol, who has played primarily as a left-back in Pep Guardiola’s City system, would have surpassed his goalkeeper’s assists tally after 52 Premier League games.

Indeed, he clearly finds himself in good positions, having netted nine goals in the league to this point.

However, Gvardiol currently has just ONE assist in the Premier League, five fewer than City team-mate Ederson.

Tammy Abraham

A striker who has played in two different systems in the Premier League, at Chelsea and Swansea, Abraham has had 89 games in the competition to bolster his assists tally.

In terms of goals, he’s not done bad for himself, scoring 26 times in his English top-flight career, but the assists are lacking behind, with the forward chipping in five times on that front before he headed to AC Milan.

Three of those assists came in one campaign for Chelsea, along with 15 goals, so it’s a surprise his other two Premier League seasons did not bear as much fruit.

Thomas Partey

Arsenal midfielder Partey has been directly involved in 58 goals in club football to this point in his career.

That tally includes 21 assists, including seven in La Liga. If that was what this list was, he’d be ahead of Ederson, but in the Premier League, Partey has just five assists from 119 games, playing either as a midfielder or a full-back.

Morgan Rogers

Rogers is in just his second season of Premier League football, but is clearly one of the most creative players in the division, drawing comparisons at Aston Villa to former local star Jack Grealish for his style of play.

Rogers has had no problems finding the net, with the 22-year-old now on 14 goals for Villa in all competitions, including eight in 2024/25.

But in terms of assists, though he has the quality to get in great positions and potentially set up team-mates, Rogers’ Premier League tally currently sits at just five. That four of them have come this season suggests he will soon pass the Ederson Test™️.

Casemiro

In only one of his seasons at Real Madrid did Casemiro fail to lay on at least two assists in the league. If that was the case at Manchester United, now in his third season, he’d be on at least six assists, level with cross-city rival Ederson.

But after three Premier League assists in his first campaign, and two last season, the midfielder’s tallies have continued to drop.

In 15 games in the English top flight this season, Casemiro is yet to register an assist, and in fact, that’s the case across the 25 games he’s played across all competitions this term.

Scott McTominay

Since leaving United in the summer of 2024, McTominay has racked up four assists for Napoli, finding himself in scintillating form for the Serie A leaders.

He was not nearly as proficient a provider at United, as in 178 games in the Premier League, he laid on just four assists.

Indeed, he did often play as a defensive-midfielder, but he was also sometimes thrown on to get something in attack at the end of games, and that usually resulted in a goal rather than an assist.

McTominay played in nine separate Premier League seasons, and never assisted more than once in a single campaign, most of the time blanking on that front.

Thiago Alcantara

With a range of passing as good as most of the elite providers the Premier League has seen, it’s a wonder Thiago struggled to shoot up the assist rankings.

Perhaps injury layoffs did not help his progress in that capacity, but the Spaniard ended his Liverpool career with just four assists in 68 Premier League games.

Thiago had two seasons at Bayern Munich and one at Barcelona in which he set up team-mates more often in league football than he did across his entire English top-flight career.

Hwang hee-Chan

In a sensational 2019/20 season for RB Salzburg, Hwang assisted team-mates on 12 occasions in the Austrian Bundesliga.

That single-season tally speaks of a very capable provider, as does the fact he ended his time at the club with 29 assists in all competitions after 126 games.

But after surpassing 100 Premier League games, Hwang’s qualities seem different.

Now in his fourth season at Wolves in the English top flight, the South Korean attacker – who has had chances both through the middle and out wide – is on just five Premier League assists.

Giovani Lo Celso

Before arriving in the Premier League with Tottenham in 2019, Lo Celso had 29 assists to his name in club football.

As an attacking midfielder, one of his primary responsibilities is to provide for his side, but it took him to the very end of his first season in north London to register his first assist, which came with only two games to go.

When his time at Tottenham came to an end in the summer of 2024, Lo Celso had played 77 times in the Premier League, and managed just five assists.

That he has 16 assists in international football for Argentina suggests maybe the quality of players around him at Tottenham might have hindered him.

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