Off the Charts is a series highlighting players whose output in a specific area has been outstanding. For Matchday 1 of the 2025-26 Premier League season, we look at those who set the bar physically.
A new Premier League season is under way, already providing us with thrills and spills that will hopefully continue for the next 37 matchdays.
While there were plenty of familiar teams and faces in action, Leeds United, Burnley and Sunderland were welcomed back to the top flight, and we got to start familiarising ourselves with some new arrivals.
At Opta Analyst, we’ve already reviewed the MD1 action on a team level with the return of our Knee-Jerk Reactions, but we also wanted to shine a light on some of the players.
This week in Off the Charts, we’ve decided to utilise our wealth of Opta Vision tracking data and some charts (well, data viz) to spotlight players who stood out for their physical exertions – these guys certainly don’t still have their heads at the beach…
Who Covered the Most Distance?
Whether you’ve played football to a good standard or not, many of us are familiar with that feeling of getting back out on the pitch after a few weeks relaxing on holiday. Suddenly, you’re regretting every moment of overindulgence and every time you said “well, I’m on my holiday!” as a means of justifying that additional pastry or glistening pint.
We think it’s fair to expect professional footballers to be less impacted, particularly after a pre-season schedule as well, but MD 1 of a Premier League can’t be easy. The intensity ramps up compared to friendlies, and the pressure is far greater as well.
So, if you’re blasting through the kilometres on MD 1, then fair play to you.
The player who swallowed up ground like no one else on MD 1 was Brighton midfielder Yasin Ayari. The young Swede was on the pitch for just shy of 99 minutes in the Seagulls’ 1-1 draw with Fulham, and he covered 11.64 kilometres.
That was about 42 metres more than Wolves forward Marshall Munetsi, though he did play about four and a half minutes extra.
So, in the long-distance running stakes of 2025-26, Ayari is the early leader – Opta Analyst, bringing you the essential football insights since 2020…
Who Reached the Highest Speed?
Right, so we know who ran really, really far on MD 1. It only makes sense to now look at who ran really, really fast.
Sadly, with the searingly quick Anthony Elanga no longer playing for Nottingham Forest, the potential for Forrest Gump (“run Forrest, run!”) gags has pretty much gone out the window. It really is a shame.
But the good news – and some will suggest this is far more interesting than stupid jokes – for Newcastle fans is the frightening pace they now possess in attack.
While Elanga – clocking a top speed of 22.3 miles per hour (35.9 kilometres per hour) – wasn’t the fastest player to feature in the Premier League at the weekend, he was second. And the only player quicker than him was his new teammate, Anthony Gordon.
The jet-heeled scouser was clocked by the Opta Radar Speed Gun (disclaimer: not an actual thing) doing 22.99 mph (37.01 km/h). If someone was spotted doing that speed through a school zone on Tyneside then police would be able to issue them a speeding fine – though we aren’t suggesting Gordon would do that…
Anyway, Gordon’s top speed was only marginally lower than the quickest speed registered by anyone in the Premier League last term (Micky van de Ven – 23.07 mph, 37.12 km/h) – no one else sprinted faster than Gordon’s 22.99 mph in 2024-25, however.
The bar has been set for 2025-26.
Who Carried the Ball the Furthest?
Distance run and highest top speed may be interesting metrics to explore, but neither involve a football. Gordon ran quickly, sure, but he wasn’t in possession at the time. Similarly, Ayari will have only travelled a fraction of his 11.6km with the ball at his feet.
But we can look at ball carries to see who covered the most ground with the ball in possession – and we can look generally as well as focusing on who progressed the ball furthest up the pitch.
Unsurprisingly, defenders rank highest for these metrics. That’s because they generally have the ball in less congested areas, so for this section, we’re actually going to exclude defenders.
That leaves us with Callum Hudson-Odoi as the player who covered the most distance in possession of the ball (excluding defenders). He travelled 265.3 metres while carrying the ball, which was almost 25m further than any other non-defender.
In second was Manchester United new boy Bryan Mbeumo (240.8m). In fact, the Red Devils had two players in the top four, as Matheus Cunha (236.7m) also saw a lot of the ball.
Cunha comes into his own when you look at non-defenders who progressed the ball towards the opposition’s goal. He moved the ball 201.3m upfield via carries, more than 15m more than anyone else (Mbeumo – 185.5m).
Cunha’s 201.3m worth of progressive carries accounts for 85% of his total carry distance, which was the second-greatest proportion of all non-defenders (6+ carries) over the weekend.
But it would be remiss of us not to mention Antoine Semenyo.
The Ghana international’s second goal against Liverpool on Friday followed a ball carry of 52m, making it one of the longest goal-ending ball carries on record in the Premier League.
Who Made the Most Off-Ball Runs?
According to some researchers and scientists, the human eye can only see about 0.0035% of what is actually in front of them.
Some analysts might even suggest something similar about football. Sure, we can see the ball fly into the top corner or a defender pull off an inch-perfect tackle, but there’s so much of the game that’s much more difficult to perceive with the naked eye.
Good job we’ve got Opta Vision, then, right?
Opta Vision is a collection of metrics that combine tracking and event data, therefore telling us more about player habits and behaviours than ever before; and for the first time, this data is available for Premier League matches in 2025-26.
One of the most notable and innovative Opta Vision metrics is off-ball runs, which are high-intensity movements lasting at least two seconds by a player not in possession of the ball. These can be in possession or out of possession, and they can provide new insights into the less obvious work players get through.
For instance, on MD 1 of the 2025-26 season, Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz might have come in for some criticism from people for struggling to truly affect play during the Reds’ 4-2 win over Bournemouth. Whether that’s true or not isn’t for us to say, but we do know he was incredibly active on the pitch.
Firstly, his 35 off-ball runs while his team were in possession was the most of any player on MD1; he also covered more distance (1,054m) with his off-ball runs than anyone else, with Enzo Fernández closest to him on just 734m.
It probably won’t be too surprising, then, to learn his 429 intensive runs (that’s running at least 10.5mph or 17km/h) was comfortably more than any other player on MD 1. Tyler Adams (402) was next.
As such, Liverpool fans needn’t worry about Wirtz’s work rate or his desire to be visible to teammates in attack. When he finds his groove and combines this side of his game with his undeniable technical quality, he could be an absolute menace.
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Off the Charts: Which Premier League Players Set the Bar for Distance Covered, Top Speed and Intensity on MD1? Opta Analyst.
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