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Statisticians Opta have conjured up their Premier League team of the season based on data collected throughout the 2025-26 Premier League campaign.
Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has made the cut after playing a key role as the Red Devils improved markedly under Michael Carrick to comfortably secure third place and a return to the Champions League.
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[BBC]
On Fernandes, Opta said: Without doubt the easiest inclusion for this season's best team, Bruno Fernandes broke the Premier League record for assists in a season with 21, overtaking Thierry Henry in 2002-03 and De Bruyne in 2019-20 (both 20) as the most creative player in a season in the history of the competition. The underlying numbers behind it were even more extraordinary.
Fernandes created 136 chances, which was far and away more than the next best (Dominik Szoboszlai, 78). That is a record gap between the two most creative players in a Premier League season Opta has on record since 2003-04.
And in that time, only Mesut Ozil for Arsenal in 2015-16 has created more chances in one season (146), with Fernandes' 136 the most in any of Europe's big-five leagues since De Bruyne also created 136 in 2019-20.
He led the way for open-play chances created (98), big chances created (33), expected assists (12.3), open-play expected assists (9.1), passes into the box (326), through balls (39), successful final third passes (662) and line-breaking passes in the final third (210). He also ended the season fourth for shots attempted (85).
From Michael Carrick's first game on 17 January until the end of the season, Fernandes created 37 more chances than any other player (80) and his per 90 minutes total of 4.7 chances created under Carrick is the best ratio of any player under one manager on record since 2003-04.
- Read about the rest of Opta's picks here - and cross-reference it with Troy Deeney's team of the season here
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