Sergio Aguero's Manchester City contract expires in 2021

Stats of the decade: Who has scored the most Premier League goals, got most assists and tackles of the last decade?

By Sporting Life

10:38 · TUE December 31, 2019

Take a look at all the best player statistics from the last decade of the Premier League, with some special must-see facts from our friends at Opta.

There are some eye-opening stats from the last decade in football, and thanks to Opta we can bring you the best of them right here to refresh your memory and even test your knowledge. Impress your friends over the New Year festivities with some of these factoids.

We start with some real golden nuggets of information dropped by Opta, before below we go into the best individual performers of the decade as we run down the top scorers, passers and tacklers in the Premier League over the last ten years.

Premier League specials

In the 2010s, there were 3803 Premier League matches played with 10439 goals scored overall – an average of 2.74 goals per game, which is higher than the 2000s (2.60) and the 1990s (2.61 – from August 1992, when the Premier League began).
Of the top five European Leagues, only the German Bundesliga averaged more goals per game this decade (2.94) than the Premier League (2.74), which was level with La Liga. Serie A averaged 2.68 goals per game, while Ligue 1 lagged behind with 2.52.
726 of those 10439 Premier League goals this decade were penalties (7.0%), with Manchester City netting 8.3% of those (60) and also being awarded the most (75) in the competition this decade.
There were 382 own goals scored in the Premier League in the 2010s, with Martin Skrtel scoring seven of these (two more than any other player).

Martin Skrtel holds an unwanted record of the last decade

There were 101,169 shots attempted in the Premier League this decade overall, which means the shot conversion rate stood at 10.3%. This means Premier League players were less clinical than players in the Bundesliga (11.3%), La Liga (11.0%) and Ligue 1 (10.4%) this decade.
Manchester City won 251 Premier League games in the 2010s; this is more than they managed in the top-flight in the 2000s and 1990’s combined (196).
Only Manchester United (255 in the 2000s) have won more top-flight league matches in England within a single decade than Manchester City did in the 2010s (251).
Both Arsenal and Tottenham won the same proportion of Premier League matches this decade (54%). Only Manchester United (58%), Chelsea (58%) and Manchester City (66%) won more.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have scored as many goals between them as Arsenal

Swansea City completed 24,099 more passes than Stoke City in the Premier League this decade, despite playing 57 games fewer.
1,960 different players made a Premier League appearance over the 2010s, with 108 different nationalities represented. Just 30% of these players were English (588), which was slightly down from the 2000s (647 of 1921 – 33.7%).
Despite only playing in 110 games & three and a half seasons this decade, Luis Suárez scored the third-most hat-tricks in the Premier League in the 2010s (6), only behind Sergio Aguero (11) and Harry Kane (8).
Arsenal scored 704 Premier League goals in the 2010s; the exact same number of league goals that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo scored combined in this decade. That duo scored more than Manchester United (688) and Tottenham (657).
The new decade of Premier League action will begin on January 1st 2020, with Brighton & Hove Albion vs Chelsea. On this date, it’ll be exactly 10,000 days since the Premier League began on 15th August 1992.

Premier League player stats of the decade

Most Goals

Sergio Aguero is out in front for goals this decade

Sergio Agüero 174
Harry Kane 136
Wayne Rooney 114
Romelu Lukaku 113
Robin van Persie 98
Jamie Vardy 97
Eden Hazard 85
Olivier Giroud 78
Raheem Sterling 77
Sadio Mane 76

Chances created

Man City's David Silva has been one of the best players of the decade

David Silva 768
Eden Hazard 595
Christian Eriksen 565
Mesut Özil 546
Leighton Baines 506
Juan Mata 500
Gylfi Sigurdsson 447
James Milner 443
Cesc Fàbregas 433
Willian 426

Successful passes

Yaya Toure enjoyed huge success at Man City, just finishing behind Silva in the passing stakes

David Silva 15730
Yaya Toure 13995
Jordan Henderson 13828
Gareth Barry 12723
Kyle Walker 12448
Fernandinho 12100
César Azpilicueta 12053
Michael Carrick 11530
Mark Noble 11365
Aaron Ramsey 10874

Shots on target

That man Sergio Aguero again

Sergio Agüero 396
Harry Kane 336
Romelu Lukaku 316
Wayne Rooney 299
Robin van Persie 257
Theo Walcott 229
Luis Suárez 224
Eden Hazard 218
Gylfi Sigurdsson 218
Jermain Defoe 213

Successful dribbles

Eden Hazard 909
Wilfried Zaha 724
Raheem Sterling 546
Mousa Dembélé 533
Sergio Agüero 501
Alexis Sánchez 422
Riyad Mahrez 417
Andros Townsend 399
Willian 385
Moussa Sissoko 375

Tackles

Pablo Zabaleta: Not scared of making a tackle

Pablo Zabaleta 799
Lucas Leiva 736
Mohamed Diame 700
César Azpilicueta 680
Mark Noble 668
Gareth Barry 660
James McCarthy 606
Jordan Henderson 603
Kyle Walker 585
James McArthur 559

Cards

Veteran Gareth Barry has more cards than Clintons

Yellows (Y) | Reds (R) | Total (T)

Gareth Barry Y64 | R3 | T67
Pablo Zabaleta Y61 | R2 | T63
Mark Noble Y58 | R3 | T61
Lee Cattermole Y56 | R5 | T61
Vincent Kompany Y51 | R3 | T54
Ryan Shawcross Y49 | R5 | T54
Cheick Tioté Y52 | R1 | T53
Phil Bardsley Y51 | R2 | T53
Branislav Ivanovic Y50 | R2 | T52
Charlie Adam Y48 | R4 | T52

Goalkeeper saves

Ben Foster has been the busiest keeper of the 2010s

Ben Foster 996
David de Gea 825
Petr Cech 763
Lukasz Fabianski 738
Asmir Begovic 714
Joe Hart 703
Simon Mignolet 670
Hugo Lloris 644
Tim Howard 592
Wayne Hennessey 567

Goalkeeper clean sheets

Petr Cech could be the best goalkeeper of the decade

Petr Cech 107
Joe Hart 105
David de Gea 103
Hugo Lloris 87
Simon Mignolet 80
Ben Foster 74
Tim Howard 68
Asmir Begovic 59
Lukasz Fabianski 58
Kasper Schmeichel 54