Jonathan Cooper: The model Cityzen serving up a storm

ONE of the most popularly used football quiz questions is typically: which player scored the first ever Premier League goal? Even casual observers can usually correctly name that Brian Deane scored that goal for Sheffield United, heading in a long throw that had been flicked on by Man Utd’s Clayton Blackmore.

That goal, therefore, was unassisted, as opponents cannot claim assists by Opta definition. So, who was the first player to claim a Premier League assist? That player was Stewart Robson of Coventry City, in the ninth minute of their 2-1 win over Middlesbrough, assisting a goal scored by John Williams (presumably a composed finish).

Robson is one of 2,643 players to have assisted a Premier League goal. 21,626 of the goals scored in Premier League history have been assisted, with 99 of those coming via the creative skills of Kevin De Bruyne. Another assist for the Belgian will take him into the exclusive club of players with treble-figures for assists – Ryan Giggs (162), Cesc Fàbregas (111), Wayne Rooney (103) and Frank Lampard (102). What perhaps stands De Bruyne apart from the rest is the volume he’s accumulated at this stage of his career – he’s played 236 games in the Premier League and has 14 more assists than any other player after this number of games. Incredibly, it’s 79 more than Lampard had after 236 games.

De Bruyne’s first Premier League assist was the first league goal of the second era of José Mourinho at Chelsea, a goal scored by Oscar in a win over Hull in August 2013, one of only three league appearances he made at Chelsea. After his return to the Premier League in 2015-16 with Man City, he continued his excellent assist record, reaching 10 Premier League assists in just 21 appearances. That wasn’t the record however – Brett Emerton of Blackburn Rovers assisted 10 goals in his first 19 games in 2003-04 (his next 10 assists came over a period of 118 games). Quickest to 20 and 25 assists was Eric Cantona, who was the Premier League’s most prolific assister in the five seasons he featured in the competition between 1992-93 and 1996-97 with 56, only failing to reach double figures in 1994-95, when he was banned after January. From there, De Bruyne takes over the milestone assists, quickest to 50 (123 games) and 75 (170 games) and will be quickest to 100 if he assists a goal in any of his next 56 appearances.

De Bruyne is one of 179 players to assist on their Premier League debut, but only four players have multiple assists on their first appearance and three of those were in the first month of the competition in August 1992 (Mike Newell, Jeremy Goss and Ray Parlour). Since then, only Chris Holland for Newcastle in March 1994 has two assists on debut – 3,691 outfield players have debuted since Holland, but none have set up two goals in their first game.

Although De Bruyne has the joint record for assists in a Premier League season (20 in 2019-20, level with Thierry Henry in 2002-03), he’s only assisted three goals in one Premier League game, against Leicester in February 2018. However, records would pertain that assisting four goals in a game is harder to do than score four, which has happened 39 times. Only seven players have assisted four in a game – six have been for north London sides Arsenal and Spurs, with Paul Pogba the other, getting four against Leeds on the opening day in 2021-22 for Man Utd. Fàbregas, Adebayor and Kane also scored in their games.

De Bruyne’s longest run of consecutive Premier League appearances with an assist stands at four, which he has managed on three separate occasions (other players to have assisted in four games in a row include Marian Pahars, Gervinho and Jimmy Bullard). The record for most consecutive appearances assisted in is seven, achieved by Mesut Özil between September and November 2015 for Arsenal. In the first five months of the 2015-16 season, Özil assisted 16 goals in 18 appearances and looked well on course to break Thierry Henry’s record of 20 from 2002-03. But between January and May, Özil got only three assists despite creating the third-most chances in that time (66), to leave him on 19 for the campaign. Although he didn’t achieve the assist record, he remains the player with the most chances created in a Premier League season that Opta has on record since 2003-04 (146).

30 – As the Premier League turns 30 today, we look back on how the top-10 players for goal assists has changed over the 30 years, up to the end of the 2021-22 campaign. Creators. #PL30 pic.twitter.com/RvRAZFyQbz

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 15, 2022

Although De Bruyne and Erling Haaland only started playing alongside one another this season, De Bruyne’s six assists for Haaland in the Premier League are the fifth-most he’s assisted any player, while it’s the most assists from one player to another in the Premier League this season. The most assists from one player to a teammate in a Premier League season stands at nine – Mike Newell to Alan Shearer in 1994-95, Stan Collymore to Robbie Fowler in 1995-96 and Harry Kane to Son Heung-Min in 2020-21. With 10 games still to go, and injuries permitting, it’s hard to rule out the possibility that De Bruyne, with Haaland’s help, will become the record holders. Upon equalling Henry’s seasonal record in 2020, the Belgian said “I’m very grateful to my teammates for the way they finish off the chances. Without them I wouldn’t have got that many assists.”

With English football’s most clinical striker to aim at, I suspect De Bruyne will be feeling a lot of gratitude as the season draws to a close.