Trent, Neville, Baines: Which defenders have the most assists in PL history?

Liverpool’s 1-0 win over West Ham on Saturday saw Reds right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold bag his 11th Premier League assist of the season.

Alexander-Arnold set up Sadio Mane for the only goal at Anfield, with what his Liverpool teammate Andy Robertson jokingly described after the match as a “mishit shot”.

Intended or not, the ball to Mane took the 23-year-old past colleague Mo Salah at the top of this season’s Premier League assists chart.

Not bad going for a defender!

Granted, many modern-day full-backs are more auxiliary wingers than they are defenders in the traditional sense of the word – and the Liverpool man certainly falls into this bracket.

Saturday marked Alexander-Arnold’s 16th assist across all competitions this term – a personal best for the England international – and he’s rapidly closing in on his own slice of English top-flight history.

The player now sits just 10 assists away from breaking the all time Premier League record for most assists by a defender.

Averaging close to one assist for every three Premier League games played across his career, Alexander-Arnold could well set his own record mark in the near future.

Below, using data from both the Premier League and Squawka, we’ve ranked the top 10 defenders in the competition’s history in terms of their assists – and Alexander-Arnold has already surpassed a number of notable names.

10. Kyle Walker (333 Appearances | Career PL assists – 32)

9. Dan Petrescu (215 Appearances | Career PL assists – 33)

8. Gary Neville (400 Appearances | Career PL assists – 35)

7. César Azpilicueta (305 Appearances | Career PL assists – 35)

6. Andy Hinchcliffe (219 Appearances | Career PL assists – 36)

5. Ian Harte (237 Appearances | Career PL assists – 36)

4. Graeme Le Saux