Mesut Özil is the second best chance creator in the Premier League this season, but surprisingly it’s not Kevin De Bruyne who pips him to top spot.

With seven or eight games to go before the conclusion of the season, we have a pretty good idea of how things are going to end up. Before the final round of matches, let’s take a look at who the league’s top five creative players have been so far:

5. Christian Eriksen

2.63 chances created per 90 minutes

4. Eden Hazard

3.05 chances created per 90 minutes

3. Kevin De Bruyne

3.31 chances created per 90 minutes

2. Mesut Özil

3.38 chances created per 90 minutes

1. Cesc Fabregas

3.65 chances created per 90 minutes

Fabregas probably isn’t the player most people expect to see at the top of the list this campaign. There’s a good reason for that too, as his assist numbers are significantly lower.

The Spaniard has 0.20 assists per 90 minutes, compared to 0.35 for Özil or 0.49 for De Bruyne. Clearly Chelsea have been a lot worse than the other teams at putting away chances.

That theory holds true for Eden Hazard as well. Despite also making the top five for chances created, his assist numbers are even lower, with only 0.15 per 90.

On the other side of things, it seems Manchester City are much better at putting away chances. Given their heavy investment in signing forwards like Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sané, Gabriel Jesus and so on, that’s not particularly surprising either.

It’s good to see Özil is still so high up the list either way. Hopefully new signing Aubameyang will help turn those chances into goals a bit more often next season.