Where Mesut Ozil matches Kevin de Bruyne and other Premier League statistics

Winning football matches tends to be about scoring goals.

For a goal to be scored, someone has usually done the hard yards beforehand. The creator. The common consensus is Kevin de Bruyne is the Premier League's king of creating chances, but there is a pretender to the throne.

To hit the back of the net, you're probably going to make an attempt on goal. Someone needs to tell Swansea City.

All this and more is revealed in the best of the statistics from the weekend's Premier League action.

Ozil v De Bruyne

One is apparently such a shoo-in for PFA Player of the Year award that the wife of a former player at his club has felt confident enough to bet a naked conga around a Stockport car park on the result of the poll.

In contrast, the other has been roundly criticised by his club's old boys in the media.

But how much difference is there between Manchester City's De Bruyne and Arsenal's Ozil?

Both have created a league-leading 30 chances, despite Ozil having spent considerably less time on the pitch.

Fewer of the chances Ozil has created have been converted by his Arsenal team-mates, but otherwise the Germany playmaker stacks up well against De Bruyne in the attacking stats.

But Ozil's work without the ball does not stand up as well to comparison.

Even considering the longer time De Bruyne has spent on the pitch, the City attacker has got more involved in defensive duties.

Fox in the box

Javier Hernandez doesn't bother with scoring from long range.

In fact, his opening goal in West Ham's 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace was his 41st in the Premier League, all of which have been scored inside the 18-yard box.

In maintaining that close-range record, Hernandez remains alongside two other players who scored all of their goals inside the penalty area - Tim Cahill (56) and John Terry (41).

In the cases of Cahill and Terry, the slim chance of them playing in the Premier League again suggests their records will remain intact.

Not much further down the list, two of Hernandez's fellow former Manchester United strikers feature.

Of Ruud van Nistelrooy's 95 Premier League goals, 99% came inside the 18-yard box, while 98% of Dwight Yorke's 123 strikes came from similar range.

Paying the penalty

When Mohamed Salah had his penalty saved by Huddersfield keeper Jonas Lossl, he joined a long line of Liverpool players to have wasted opportunities from the spot in the Premier League.

In fact, a 34th failure from 12 yards put Liverpool joint top with Arsenal as the most wasteful penalty takers.

Unsurprisingly, the top of that list is dominated by the clubs who have spent most time in the Premier League - Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham, Everton and Aston Villa.

With that in mind, Chelsea's record of only 18 failed penalties from 125 attempts is pretty impressive.

Less so are the numbers of Sheffield United, West Bromwich Albion, Queens Park Rangers, Norwich City, Ipswich Town and Wimbledon.

Of clubs to have been awarded at least 10 penalties, these six have the highest percentage of spot-kicks missed or saved.

Near-perfect 10

The greatest team in Premier League history?

Ten games into the season, it is too soon to say that about Manchester City. But it is also too early to say they aren't.

Their 3-2 victory over West Brom on Saturday means they have made the best start to a Premier League season after 10 games.

The only other two teams to match their record of nine wins and a draw from the opening 10 games were Roberto Mancini's City side of 2011-12 and Chelsea in 2005-06, the second season of Jose Mourinho's first stint in charge.

Both went on to win the title, although the City class of 2012 required Sergio Aguero's 95th-minute winner against QPR on the final day to hold off Manchester United.

The eventual champions are not always the early frontrunners though.

En route to their first Premier League title in the 1992-93 season, Manchester United had collected only 18 points and were fourth in the table.

In the 2002-03 season, Sir Alex Ferguson's side had the same total and were fourth again.

On each occasion they collected the title in May.

(Whisper it but) football did exist pre-Premier League, and Manchester United won their opening 10 games in 1985-86, holding a nine-point lead over Liverpool.

And it was Liverpool who won the title in May 1986, as they pipped Everton to a league and FA Cup Double. United were only fourth.

Finishing champions after taking only 18 points from the first 10 games might give hope to Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal - all of whom have exceeded that tally.

However, given City's flying start, only local rivals United are within the record six-point deficit at this stage of the season that has been reeled in.

A two-horse one-city race already?

Hardest-working man in showbusiness

Monday's game at Turf Moor was more about graft than glamour, so it is fitting that Burnley's midfield is host to the hardest-working man in the Premier League.

Jack Cork, who played a key part in the game's only goal as the Clarets marked Sean Dyche's fifth anniversary with a win at home to Newcastle, has covered 121.13km in the league so far this season, more than any other player.

If you were wondering, that's just shy of the distance between Turf Moor and Stoke City's bet365 Stadium.

Watford midfielder Abdoulaye Doucore is next in the list while, perhaps surprisingly, Manchester City playmaker David Silva is well up there.

His combined distance of 111.47km would see him dribble from the Etihad to York city centre.

Shot-shy Swans sinking

If you don't buy a ticket, you can't win the raffle.

In footballing terms, it's difficult - almost impossible - to win matches without having attempts on goal. Ideally, those attempts would be on target.

For Swansea City, a tally of only seven goals is explained by a place at the bottom of the pile in terms of both total shots and shots on target.

Even the teams that have scored fewer goals than the Swans - Bournemouth (six) and Crystal Palace (four) - have done so by having plenty more attempts on goal.

Bournemouth's 92 attempts is the 14th highest in the top flight, while bottom club Palace are incredibly placed seventh with 133 attempts - they only managed to score in the eighth game of the season.

Swansea? Of their 76 shots on goal, only 20 have been on target. Even if they had all gone in, the Swans would still not have scored as many as Manchester City and Manchester United.

Creative defenders

Ozil is not Arsenal's most creative player this season.

Instead that is a full-back they picked up on a free transfer in July.

With three goals and three assists, Sead Kolasinac has had a hand in more goals in all competitions for Arsenal this season than any other player.

And he is faring well in the Premier League stats too...

But all those players have a long way to go to catch up with the defenders who have been most effective at the opposite end of the pitch in the Premier League era.