Off the Charts is a series highlighting players whose output in a specific area has been outstanding. For Matchday 4 of the 2025-26 Premier League season, we look at dribblers.
Matchday 4 of the Premier League marked the action’s return after the first international break of the season, and it was a busy weekend for dribblers – so napkins, towels and mops at the ready.
If there’s any sight in football that gets bums off seats in stadiums (you know, aside from goals), it’s your winger running at the opposition’s full-back and skipping beyond them with a perfectly timed drop of the shoulder or jink.
At Opta Analyst, we’ve already reviewed the MD4 action on a team level with our weekly Knee-Jerk Reactions, but we also want to shine a light on some players who stood out.
MD4 saw several tricky attackers catch the eye, so this week in Off the Charts, we’ve decided to focus on dribblers and carriers, using charts (so, data viz) to spotlight those who were notable for their on-ball impact.
Who Dribbled the Most?
The weekend’s action got started at the Emirates Stadium as Arsenal and Nottingham Forest tussled on Saturday. That match ultimately saw the most eye-catching performance of the weekend when it comes to dribbling.
As part of a new-look Arsenal front three, Noni Madueke played a starring role for the Gunners as they ran out 3-0 victors in Ange Postecoglou’s first game in charge of Forest.
While Madueke may not have had a tangible impact on the scoreline, his general play was important in ensuring Arsenal dominated Forest practically from start to finish, with the visitors struggling to keep him quiet.
Madueke registered eight dribble attempts in that match, more than any other player over the weekend, causing the out-of-position Morato trouble in particular before his withdrawal in the second half. That was the third most dribbles Madueke has recorded in a Premier League match; he actually managed nine against Forest for Chelsea in May, also doing so versus Bournemouth in May 2023.
Noni Madueke dribbles
But he wasn’t the only member of Arsenal’s new-look attack to be busy in that respect. Eberechi Eze tallied seven dribble attempts on the opposite flank, even though his success rate (42.9%) was some way short of his teammate’s (62.5%).
Mohammed Kudus was lively later that day. He was returning to London Stadium and West Ham, where he’d played for two years before his summer move to Tottenham, who were 3-0 winners on the day.
Although West Ham left-back El Hadji Diouf Malick certainly didn’t disgrace himself up against Kudus, the Ghana international was a livewire with his seven dribble attempts, completing four.
Mohammed Kudus dribbles
When it comes to dribble completion, however, two players stood out over the weekend.
Among players to attempt at least two dribbles, Liverpool forward Hugo Ekitiké (4/4) and Brentford right-back Michael Kayode (3/4) were the only ones to complete at least 75%.
In fact, Kayode boasts the best completion rate (72.7%) of the 35 Premier League players to attempt at least 10 dribbles this season.
Michael Kayode dribbles
But while there were some players who impressed when running with the ball, others were less effective. Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva and Newcastle’s Tino Livramento each attempted five dribbles in their respective MD4 matches, though neither managed to complete a single one.
Who Carried the Furthest?
Running with the ball isn’t all about squaring up the full-back and attempting to jink past them, however. Carrying the ball effectively over long stretches can be an important facet even if defenders aren’t directly engaging you.
Being an effective carrier can lend itself progressing the ball, which has arguably taken on greater importance since the explosion of data analytics in football.
Now, carries as a metric can be dominated by centre-backs, predominantly because they generally have the ball in less congested areas of the pitch and have more space to move into. So for this section, we are going to ignore defenders entirely.
By the same token, you could probably exclude defensive midfielders too, but we wanted to at least mention Ryan Gravenberch.
The Liverpool midfielder carried the ball 346 metres against Burnley on Sunday, the furthest of any player (excluding centre-backs) in a single match this season – it wasn’t just lots of horizontal runs ending with simple passes, either, but more on that shortly.
Ryan Gravenberch carries
Aside from Gravenberch, the player to carry the ball furthest on MD4 was Everton’s Jack Grealish, against his former club Aston Villa. He moved 307 metres while carrying the ball, which is also the second furthest this season among non-centre-backs.
Grealish rises to the top of the pile when it comes to the total distance of progressive carries; he moved the ball 230m upfield via carries over the course of Everton’s draw with Villa, which is also the furthest any player has travelled via progressive carries in the Premier League this term.
Jack Grealish progressive carries
Nottingham Forest’s Dan Ndoye (214m) wasn’t far behind, though, and his output was notable in another way.
We can take a player’s carry progress distance as a percentage of their overall carry distance to get an idea of how direct they were: 84.4% of Ndoye’s total distance covered per carry was upfield.
That made him the most direct player in the Premier League over the weekend – not that it did Forest any good.
Who Had the Most Impact with Their Carries?
It’s all well and good being able to carry the ball, but it becomes a different kind of weapon when a player can use this ability in – or to create – potentially decisive situations.
Here, we’re talking about carries either ending in a shot or a chance created, and on MD4, two Liverpool players led the way.
By this point, you may have deduced that one of them was Gravenberch. He probably wouldn’t be most people’s first guess when it comes to attacking influence, but he tallied four chance-creating carries (two ending in a shot, two ending with a chance created).
Ryan Gravenberch attacking carries
No player in the Premier League managed more over the weekend, though his colleague and compatriot Cody Gakpo did at least match his total. The only difference was his tally included three shot-ending carries, which was the most by any Premier League player on MD4 – either way, Liverpool still needed a last-gasp Mohamed Salah penalty to see off Burnley on Sunday.
Gakpo’s output helped maintain his record of having the most chance-creating carries in the Premier League this term with 12 (7 shot-ending, 5 with a chance created), five more than anyone else.
Cody Gakpo attacking carries
Meanwhile, Gravenberch was one of six players in total to lay on two chances following a carry over the weekend, including Reds teammate Florian Wirtz, alongside Madueke, Antoine Semenyo, Pedro Neto and Iliman Ndiaye.
Semenyo was one of just two players to record a goal involvement following a carry, with both occurring in the same game.
First, Semenyo teed up Alex Scott for Bournemouth’s opener, before Brighton‘s Yankuba Minteh was careful to bide his time prior to clipping a fine cross in for Kaoru Mitoma to head home.
Premier League Stats Opta
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