Using EA SPORTS data, we have taken a look at one man who has been in and out of the side in recent times, but who has proven that when on the pitch, will make a huge impact to the side; Cesc Fabregas.
Below we highlight a variety of areas within Fabregas’ passing game that show him to be head and shoulders above the rest of the Premier League, in particular his assists, passes completed and his pass accuracy.
| Player | Mins played | Assists | Mins per assist |
| Gylfi Sigurdsson | 2428 | 11 | 221 |
| Christian Eriksen | 2272 | 10 | 227 |
| Kevin De Bruyne | 2002 | 9 | 222 |
| Alexis Sánchez | 2191 | 9 | 243 |
| Matt Phillips | 1996 | 8 | 250 |
| Cesc Fàbregas | 729 | 7 | 104 |
| Pedro | 1426 | 7 | 204 |
| Adam Lallana | 1982 | 7 | 283 |
| Ross Barkley | 2097 | 7 | 300 |
| Nemanja Matic | 1995 | 6 | 333 |
The above shows that Fabregas has the sixth most assists in the Premier League, despite playing far less minutes than those around him. Fabregas also boasts an 81.1% pass completion rate, only bettered by Adam Lallana from the top 10 assist-makers.
This is extremely impressive when taking into account that the percentage of his long passes is considerably higher than the one of others around him in the charts.
This has resulted in Fabregas having the best ‘minutes per assist’ record in the Premier League of anyone who has played over 180 minutes of football, at nearly an hour better than anyone else in the Premier League, as shown below:
| Player | Mins played | Assists | Mins per assist |
| CescFàbregas | 729 | 7 | 104 |
| Kelechi Iheanacho | 484 | 3 | 161 |
| Ezekiel Fryers | 182 | 1 | 182 |
| Hal Robson-Kanu | 374 | 2 | 187 |
| Wayne Rooney | 995 | 5 | 199 |
| Gabriel Jesus | 203 | 1 | 203 |
| Pedro | 1426 | 7 | 204 |
| Viktor Fischer | 408 | 2 | 204 |
| Nathan Dyer | 211 | 1 | 211 |
| Shaun Maloney | 215 | 1 | 215 |
*Must have played 180+ mins
Fabregas has also completes more passes on average than any other Premier League player. Whilst Jordan Henderson has completed the most passes in the League, Fabregas completes more passes per 90mins, completing an average of 75.56 passes per 90mins.
| Player | Team | Age | Mins Played | Assists | Passes Completed | Passes Completed per 90mins |
| Cesc Fàbregas | Chelsea | 29 | 729 | 7 | 612 | 75.56 |
| Jordan Henderson | Liverpool | 26 | 2118 | 4 | 1767 | 75.08 |
| Santiago Cazorla | Arsenal | 32 | 619 | 2 | 511 | 74.29 |
| Mohamed Elneny | Arsenal | 24 | 554 | 1 | 451 | 73.27 |
| Ander Herrera | Manchester United | 27 | 1817 | 3 | 1447 | 71.67 |
| Granit Xhaka | Arsenal | 24 | 1473 | 1 | 1146 | 70.02 |
| Yaya Touré | Manchester City | 33 | 1259 | 0 | 947 | 67.69 |
| Michael Carrick | Manchester United | 35 | 892 | 0 | 661 | 66.69 |
| Aaron Ramsey | Arsenal | 26 | 552 | 1 | 393 | 64.07 |
| Paul Pogba | Manchester United | 23 | 2249 | 3 | 1600 | 64.03 |
*Must have played 180+ mins
To prove that these aren’t just sideways passes in front of the defence, he also completes the second most passes on average in the opposition half in the League, with only Cazorla completing more than the 48.77 passes that Fabregas completes on average per 90mins.
| Player | Team | Mins Played | Assists | Passes Complete (Opp Half) | Passes per 90mins (Opp Half) |
| Santiago Cazorla | Arsenal | 619 | 2 | 382 | 55.54 |
| Cesc Fàbregas | Chelsea | 729 | 7 | 395 | 48.77 |
| Mesut Özil | Arsenal | 1866 | 4 | 954 | 46.01 |
| Mohamed Elneny | Arsenal | 554 | 1 | 282 | 45.81 |
| Granit Xhaka | Arsenal | 1473 | 1 | 732 | 44.73 |
| David Silva | Manchester City | 2033 | 5 | 1000 | 44.27 |
| Ander Herrera | Manchester United | 1817 | 3 | 871 | 43.14 |
| Paul Pogba | Manchester United | 2249 | 3 | 1074 | 42.98 |
| Jordan Henderson | Liverpool | 2118 | 4 | 987 | 41.94 |
| Ilkay Gündogan | Manchester City | 709 | 1 | 313 | 39.73 |
*Must have played 180+ mins
Further compounding Fabregas’ importance to Chelsea, the Spaniard has a better chances created record than any other player in the Premier League, when taking minutes played into account:
| Player | Mins played | Chances created | Mins per chance created |
| Cesc Fàbregas | 729 | 30 | 24 |
| Kevin De Bruyne | 2002 | 72 | 28 |
| Christian Eriksen | 2272 | 78 | 29 |
| Evandro | 268 | 9 | 30 |
| Mesut Özil | 1866 | 61 | 31 |
| Willian | 1156 | 36 | 32 |
| Ross Barkley | 2097 | 64 | 33 |
| Kieran Gibbs | 295 | 9 | 33 |
| Erik Lamela | 592 | 18 | 33 |
| Dusan Tadic | 1502 | 45 | 33 |
Lastly, Fabregas also has the fifth best minutes per goal involvement record (goal or assist) in the division, contributing to a goal every 73 minutes of football he has played on average:*Must have played 180+ mins
| Player | Mins played | Goals | Assists | Mins per goal/assist |
| Gabriel Jesus | 203 | 3 | 1 | 51 |
| Manolo Gabbiadini | 248 | 4 | 0 | 62 |
| Olivier Giroud | 730 | 8 | 3 | 66 |
| Kelechi Iheanacho | 484 | 4 | 3 | 69 |
| Cesc Fàbregas | 729 | 3 | 7 | 73 |
| Harry Kane | 1894 | 19 | 4 | 82 |
| Alexis Sánchez | 2191 | 17 | 9 | 84 |
| Romelu Lukaku | 2367 | 19 | 5 | 99 |
| Diego Costa | 2217 | 17 | 5 | 101 |
Data Courtesy of EA SPORTS, the Lead Partner of the Premier League.
*Must have played 180+ mins