Hang on, Bruno Fernandes might NOT have tied the Premier League assists record – here’s why | OneFootball

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes might not have tied the Premier League assist record, at least according to one source.

The major talking point of Manchester United’s 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest was Fernandes notching his 20th assist of the season, and in doing so tying the record set by Premier League legends Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry.

Fernandes set up Bryan Mbeumo for United’s third goal in their victory, while he created multiple further chances taht weren’t converted in the closing stages of the match.

“Everyone knew that it was important that I could get another assist at least,” Fernandes told Sky Sports after the match.

“They’ve been trying everything they can to score from my passes.

“There were probably moments today when I should have passed instead of shot.

“I’m very happy for the assist, but more than that, I’m happy for the win and to finish the season on a high.”

The recently-crowned FWA Footballer Of The Year could claim the assists record outright – at least according to the likes of Sky Sports and the official Premier League database – if he sets up one more goal in the Red Devils’ final outing of the 2025-26 campaign, away to Brighton next Sunday.

But what’s this? The record is disputed – at least in the eyes of one football data nerd.

Back in 2012, statistician Aaron Nielsen published a painstakingly compiled PDF celebrating the first 20 years of the Premier League.

Nielsen asserted that Anderton notched 21 assists for Tottenham back in the 42-game 1994-95 campaign.

If that’s the case, Anderton’s record remains unmatched.

We’ve not yet had the time to corroborate Nielsen’s claim that the former England international directly assisted 21 goals that season, but if anyone fancies trawling through the newly-launched Premier League archives to watch all 66 goals Spurs scored that season – making a note of how many Anderton assisted – be our guest.

Is it possible that this somehow slipped through the cracks and the ‘official’ records aren’t actually correct?

We’ve done a bit of social media sleuthing and found a few references to Anderton’s 21 assists, including one exchange involving The Athletic‘s Duncan Alexander, who used to work at OPTA and had a role in logging the Premier League’s historical Premier League stats.

It’s not yet clear why there’s a discrepancy – quite possibly due to differing criteria – or whether someone’s simply got their numbers wrong,

The Premier League officially states that Fernandes now jointly holds the record for the most Premier League assists record, but is it possible they’re mistaken?

Be right back. Down the rabbit hole we go. We’re starting to feel a bit like Matt Le Tissier.