Off the Charts is a series highlighting players whose output in a specific area has been outstanding. For Matchday 3 of the 2025-26 Premier League season, we look at those who were busy in attack.
Matchday 3 of the 2025-26 Premier League season was the last before the first international break of the campaign, meaning the English top flight has a couple of weeks off before the rollercoaster gets moving again.
The action on Saturday and Sunday saw a much-needed late win for Manchester United, a narrow victory for Liverpool in their heavyweight duel with Arsenal, while Manchester City dropped points again.
At Opta Analyst, we’ve already reviewed the MD 3 action on a team level with our weekly Knee-Jerk Reactions, but we also want to shine a light on some players who stood out in a few different ways.
This week in Off the Charts, we’ve decided to focus on the players who had particularly significant attacking influence, using charts (well, data viz) to spotlight those who stood out for their offensive productivity.
Who Had the Most Shots?
On MD 3, there wasn’t a single player who scored more than once – though that wasn’t for a lack of trying.
Erling Haaland was among those who did get among the goals, netting in Man City’s 2-1 defeat to Brighton. That was one of seven attempts from him in that game, a tally bettered by no other player in the Premier League this weekend. Incredibly, five of his first six touches in the game were shots.
Curiously, though, he wasn’t the only player to register seven attempts, and you’d do well to guess who the other was…
Full marks to those of you who said Joshua Zirkzee.
The Man Utd forward, who made his first appearance of the Premier League season on Saturday, managed seven shots off the bench in the topsy-turvy 3-2 win over Burnley.
Zirkzee came on for the injured Matheus Cunha in the first half and clearly wanted to make an impression; his total was more than double the amount he’d attempted in a single Premier League game (3 vs Southampton and Liverpool in September 2024) before.
The Dutchman’s shots came in a 59-minute outing. There have only been two prior instances on record in the Premier League (since 2003-04) of players recording more than seven attempts in under an hour on the pitch: Ross Barkley for Everton vs Sunderland in December 2013 (8 shots in 45 minutes) and Mohamed Salah for Liverpool vs Wolves in May 2022 (8 shots in 32 minutes).
Nevertheless, Zirkzee was fairly wasteful, spurning a particularly good chance when just a few yards out.
Who Created the Most Chances?
On MD 3, seven players led the way for chances created in open play, with all of them laying on three each.
Leeds United’s Anton Stach continued his encouraging start to the campaign, with his three open-play chances created taking his output for the season in that metric to seven – only Bruno Fernandes (8) is ahead of him there.
Speaking of Fernandes, United’s captain – and matchwinner – set up three chances in open play, accounting for half of his MD 3 total when also considering set-pieces. Bryan Mbeumo was the other United player to create three such opportunities.
Fernandes’ six chances created when including set-pieces was the most of all players on MD 3, marginally ahead of Mbeumo (5); no one else got more than three. As you can probably tell if you didn’t watch the match at Old Trafford, United were very productive but wasteful against Burnley.
Another player who deserves a special mention in this section is Everton’s Jack Grealish.
His two chances created against Wolves on Saturday were also both assists, which means two things: his four assists in the Premier League this season is more than anyone else and double what he managed across the past two top-flight campaigns combined.
After a difficult end to his time at Manchester City, there are finally promising signs once again for Grealish, who also played a vital pass in the build-up to the one Everton goal he didn’t set up in the 3-2 win.
Is Jack back?
Who Tallied the Most Shot-Creating Actions?
Now we move on to shot-creating actions, so a combination of shots and chances created. Unsurprisingly, there are a few familiar names here with Fernandes (9 non-penalty shot-creating actions), Zirkzee, Mbeumo (both 8) and Haaland (7) all in the top four for the personal contributions we’ve already highlighted.
But it was also a busy weekend for Bournemouth’s Evanilson, who, with five shots and two chances created against Tottenham, led the Cherries’ line to good effect. He even got the crucial goal in their commendable 1-0 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, albeit with a pretty hefty deflection.
His Bournemouth teammate David Brooks was also productive, registering six shot-creating actions; four were attempts and the other two saw him tee up colleagues for shots.
Stach was the other player on six shot-creating actions, split evenly between shots and chances created. The German midfielder might not be the most obviously offensive-minded player, but he’s been involved a fair amount since his summer move from Hoffenheim.
His 17 shot-creating actions (10 chances created, 7 shots) put him joint second with Mbeumo and behind only Fernandes (20) across the opening three matchdays, suggesting Leeds could have found themselves a bargain with Stach.
Who Was Influential Beyond Shots and Creativity?
Of course, you don’t necessarily need to be peppering the goal with shots or creating chances to be quietly influential.
A metric called open-play sequence involvements can give us an idea of a player’s influence or importance to a team’s attack even if they’re not necessarily taking shots or creating chances themselves.
When looking at all open-play sequences, it won’t be too surprising to see that Fernandes (65) and Rodri (63) were the two players involved in the most sequences (excluding shots/chances created), which tallies with how crucial they are in their respective teams.
We can also look at this data in relation to build-ups that actually led to a shot, giving us an idea of who was influential in the creation of chances, even if they weren’t playing the decisive pass.
Fernandes (yes, him again) was up there with six from Saturday’s win over Burnley; sharing first place with him was a teammate, but no, it wasn’t Mbeumo. Luke Shaw has been tipped as having an important role as the left-sided centre-back at Man Utd if Ruben Amorim stays on, and Saturday provided more evidence of that.
He played a part in six build-up sequences (excluding chance-creating actions by him) that ended in a shot, the most of any defender (and anyone not named Bruno Fernandes).
Next, however, was someone other than a Man Utd player. Bournemouth defender Marcos Senesi played a part in five build-ups leading to a shot during the Cherries’ win at Spurs, including playing the long ball that initially put their visitors under pressure for the decisive goal.
The Argentinian’s use of the ball was frequently purposeful and positive, helping Bournemouth slice through their hosts in a well-earned victory.
Aston Villa’s John McGinn was also an influential figure for Aston Villa, recording three instances of playing the pass before a chance was created a figure bettered only by…
You probably get the idea by now.
Bruno Fernandes was practically everywhere for Man Utd on Saturday. Following a difficult prior week that saw him blaze a penalty over against Fulham and generally have his performance questioned, not to mention the shock EFL Cup elimination by Grimsby Town, Fernandes was back to being United’s talisman and saviour.
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Off the Charts: Which Premier League Players Were the Most Influential in Attack on MD3? Opta Analyst.
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