Who are the Premier League’s best attacking midfielders right now?
Who are the best attacking midfielders in the Premier League right now?
Mesut Özil set the bar high during his time at Arsenal, setting the records for the most chances in a single Premier League season (146) and the most chances created in a single Premier League game (12 vs. Sunderland in 2017), while Kevin De Bruyne equalled Thierry Henry’s records for the most assists in a single Premier League season (20). Both these players are just two of the many incredible attacking midfielders that have strutted their stuff in the English top flight, but who are the best attacking players in the Premier League right now?
We’ve used the Twenty3 Sport Discovery Tool to find the best players in each position. For the top five attacking midfielders, the Discovery Tool rates a player’s per 90 output for a number of key stats to produce a percentage score. We have also weighted each stat from 1-5 to highlight the most important aspects of a striker’s play style. This is the Squawka Score.
Each player’s stats are compared to the average output of attacking midfielders across the past three seasons of big-five European league football based on an automatically calculated minutes threshold. The more they rank in the 95th percentile and above for each metric, the higher the Squawka Score.
With 2024/25 well underway, here are the best attacking midfielders in the Premier League ranked by their Squawka Score from the season so far.
To be clear, we are only looking at attacking midfielders in this article, you can find the best central midfielders in the Premier League right now here.
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More Premier League player rankings:
- Who are the Premier League’s best defensive midfielders right now?
- Who are the Premier League’s best wingers right now?
- Who are the Premier League’s best right-backs right now?
- Who are the best Premier League left-backs right now?
5. Emile Smith Rowe
- Club: Fulham
- Squawka Score: 67%
Smith Rowe’s move from Arsenal to Fulham has paid off pretty well so far, with the 23-year-old already notching two goals and an assist in eight Premier League appearances. Smith Rowe is also second only to Alex Iwobi (117) for final third passes completed (88), while all six of his chances created have come from open play.
You get the feeling there is still much more to come from Smith Rowe, but the early signs at Craven Cottage have been promising.
4. Morgan Rogers
- Club: Aston Villa
- Squawka Score: 68%
Aston Villa fans were rather excited about the promise Morgan Rogers showed following his January move from Middlesbrough, ending the season with three goals and an assist in 11 Premier League games. And they’ve been proven right as the 22-year-old has started this campaign with two goals and two assists in eight appearances.
Rogers — who is first among Villa players for take-ons completed (15) and second only to Youri Tielemans (17) for chances created (11) – has been a regular for England at youth level in recent years but if his current form continues, he might well force himself into Thomas Tuchel’s reckoning for the senior team. Perhaps Lee Carsley already has an eye on him for his final squad as interim manager next month.
3. Kevin De Bruyne
- Club: Man City
- Squawka Score: 78%
There’s a big jump to the top three on this list, with Kevin De Bruyne’s Squawka Score 10% higher than that of Rogers. But then, averaging 4.03 chances created per 90 minutes — second only to Bukayo Saka (4.27) among Premier League players with 120+ minutes on the board — and logging a goal and an assist in just 357 minutes of action will do that.
De Bruyne continues to be a creative genius when he plays, but also continues to struggle terribly with injuries. It’s been the caveat to the Belgian’s brilliance for years now, but Pep Guardiola likely still wouldn’t trade him for any other attacking midfielder on the planet.
2. Dwight McNeil
- Club: Everton
- Squawka Score: 84%
Bet you didn’t expect to see Dwight McNeil on this list. Well, the former England youth international has switched to a more central position this season and has, quite frankly, been one of the best players in the league so far.
McNeil already has three goals and three assists in eight Premier League outings, sitting first among Everton players in both metrics, while throughout the entire league, only Saka (27) has created more chances (25).
Everton are on a mini four-game unbeaten run, during which McNeil has scored twice and assisted once, proving crucial to the Toffees clawing themselves out of the early danger they found themselves.
1. Cole Palmer
- Club: Chelsea
- Squawka Score: 87%
Surely, Cole Palmer’s 22-goal, 11-assist return in the Premier League last season was just a one-off, right? There’s no possible way he could replicate those numbers again.
Well, the early signs from this season are suggesting that was just an appetiser for what’s actually to come, with Palmer already on six goals and five assists in eight appearances — sitting second only to Erling Haaland (10) in the former and Saka (7) in the latter.
The 22-year-old is also third in the Premier League for chances created (24) and is, quite simply, a force of nature.
With Palmer in this sort of form and Enzo Maresca seemingly knitting things together around him, there’s surely nothing stopping Chelsea from finally returning to the Champions League this season.
Squawka Score metrics and weighting
Here are the metrics used and weighting given to each metric to come up with the overall Squawka Score:
- 5: Goal Contribution, Open Play Expected Assists, Non-penalty Expected Goals
- 4: Percentage of Open-play Chances Created that are Big Chances, Percentage of Sequences Featured In That End In A Shot, Percentage of Sequences Featured In That End In The Final Third, Big Chances Created, Shots On Target
- 3: Open Play Chances Created, Touches In Opposition Box, Successful Passes Into The Box, Shot Accuracy (%), Conversion Rate (%), Number Of Sequences Ending In A Shot Featured In
- 2: Shots, Take-On Success (%), Take-Ons Completed, Possessions Won In Attacking Third, Through Balls Attempted
- 1: Fouls Won, Dispossessions, Retention Rate
