This incredible passing stat shows how Premier League has changed since 2016 | OneFootball

There’s been a lot of focus on the nature of the Premier League this year but a passing comparison shows just how much English football has changed.

Arsenal are leading the Premier League, but also leading the way for being the team most criticised for how they go about their business.

The Gunners are not alone and a look at one passing statistic in particular shows how the whole league has changed in the last 10 years.

If we take a look at the passing metrics in this season’s Premier League compared to those of a decade ago, it is interesting to see not only which players are the most involved but the positions they play.

Back in the 2015-16 season, four of the top six passers were midfielders with Cesc Fabregas completing the most at 2,829.

Behind the Chelsea man, follows three more central midfielders in Andrew Surman (2,287), Mesut Ozil (2,276) and Aaron Ramsey (2,154) and it takes until position No.5 for a non-CM to make it onto the list.

Compare that to this year and it is a complete reversal with the top four spots all occupied by centre-backs and Elliot Anderson (1,900) being the leading midfielder down in fifth.

Of those, it is Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk (2,205) who tops the list.

It is perhaps easy to pass this off as a coincidence but what it does suggest is a change in where football is being played on the pitch and how.

You could summarise that the active playing area on the pitch has been squished to such an extent that centre-backs are now operating in areas which were formerly meant for midfielders.

This is likely a consequence of teams sitting deep and effectively inviting pressure onto themselves.

The data also suggests the midfield metronome style player that was popular during the 2010s, most notably led by the Spanish national team, has been largely eliminated from the modern Premier League.

Cesc Fabregas averaged 0.98 passes per minute played in 2015-16. Declan Rice – the top passer in the club at the top of league as Fabregas was – meanwhile has made 0.69 passes per minute.

You could argue that Fabregas was an anomaly, but both Mesut Ozil (0.74) and Aaron Ramsey (0.82) averaged more passes per minute than Rice has this year.

The top passer in the league, Van Dijk is at 0.84 passes per minute.

It is not just passes either that suggests this. The player with the most touches in the league so far this season is Elliot Anderson who represents somewhat of an outlier as a very talented player in a relegation-battling team but beyond him, the next four are all centre-backs.

Again, compare this to 2015-16 and the top four players are all midfielders.

In that year, Fabregas touched the ball 3,395 times at an average of 1.17 touches per minute played.

Van Dijk is at 0.99 touches per minute, but Rice is at 0.9. Dominik Szoboszlai is higher at 0.94 but his numbers are skewed by frequent appearances in the defence.

We have all seen the stats of how many goals have come from set pieces this year.

While there has been an undoubted bigger emphasis on them than before, we cannot just blame it on negative tactics from managers.

Instead, we should perhaps realise that scoring open play goals is becoming increasingly difficult when teams are far better set up defensively than they were a decade ago.

Centre-backs being this heavily involved in play suggests exactly that.