With Liverpool having dragged Manchester City back into a title scrap, one of Pep Guardiola’s most effective weapons has yet to get his hands dirty.
But that might all be about to change – Kevin De Bruyne may not yet be at the point where he is passing his team to the title, but his underlying stats suggest crucial assists could be right around the corner.
Creativity is a metric which assesses the quality of chance a player provides for a team-mate, with a score of around 100 traditionally translating to an assist’s worth of chances.
In their last 10 appearances in the Premier League (taken before gameweek 28) City’s Belgian pass master has outscored the most creative players in the league.
Return of the king?
This campaign has been one of the bleakest for De Bruyne – he has managed just two FPL assists this term, compared to 12 last season and 23 the year before that.
An ankle injury and a spell out with Covid-19 have not helped, with the 30-year-old managing to feature in around half of City’s league minutes this season.
However, the Belgian’s 433.7 Threat from his last 10 appearances is bettered by nobody on our list of top creators and hints at a player who is still very much making chances for others – both of his assists have come in his last seven games.
After City face Manchester United on Sunday they will face just one of the traditional top six until the end of the season (Liverpool) in a spell which could be defined by De Bruyne’s personal form.
The £11.8m man ranks sixth for Creativity among midfielders despite a poor season – he could put it all behind him if his output starts to match the numbers behind his recent performances.
Full-back attack
On the other side of the title race, chasers Liverpool can boast two assist machines in the form of their full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson.
Alexander-Arnold has been this season’s must-have defender – his consistent minutes, relentless assists and occasional goals make him more than worth his £8.5m price tag.
One of only two players to have crossed the 1000 Creativity mark this season – along with Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes – the right-back has managed four FPL assists in his last 10 games.
His team-mate however comes in more than £1m cheaper, and has raised his own game just when Liverpool needed it.
Robertson registered 385.8 Creativity points in his 10 appearances leading up to GW28, clocking in an average score of 38.58 compared with 27.1 during the rest of the season.
The Scot bagged eight FPL assists in that 10-game run as well as three double figures points returns, offering bosses a cheaper creative alternative to his premium-price colleague.
