Which player combinations have been the most lethal in the Premier League so far this season? We look at the duos to cause the most damage in 2024-25.
There have been some memorable duos over the years in the Premier League. Son & Kane, Shearer & Sutton, Cole & Yorke and Pires & Henry are just some of those remembered fondly. But which are the most threatening combinations in the current Premier League season?
Well, so far in 2024-25, it’s the Chelsea pair of Noni Madueke and Cole Palmer that have been the most productive.
Back in August, Palmer assisted all three of Madueke’s goals in the space of 14 minutes during Chelsea’s 6-2 away win at Wolverhampton Wanderers. That goal/assist hat-trick has contributed heavily to the five goals created for one another overall in the Premier League this season, with no pairing having combined more often for goals.
Admittedly, the partnership has been mostly one-way, with Palmer contributing 15 of their 21 chances created and four of the five assists, but it’s clearly a combination that’s worked well for Enzo Maresca’s side. In fact, Palmer’s total of 15 chances created for Madueke makes him the most prolific chance creator for a single teammate across the Premier League this season.
Aston Villa pair Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers have built up a great understanding and trail only Madueke and Palmer for total chances created for one another.
The pair have combined for 20 shots in the competition this season, one more than Man Utd’s Bruno Fernandes and Amad Diallo (19), with Rogers contributing 14 of those chances for Watkins’ shots. That tally is also just behind Palmer for Madueke, and tied with Dwight McNeil who has created 14 of Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s shots for Everton.
At the top of the rankings alongside Palmer and Madueke, the only other Premier League partnership to have combined for five goals this season are Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak and Jacob Murphy.
Murphy’s assist for Isak’s winner at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday was the fifth time that they have assisted a goal for one another in the competition this season, and the fourth that Murphy has created for Isak.
Palmer to Madueke and Murphy to Isak make up two of the three most profitable goal combinations this season in the Premier League, with the only other player to assist as many as four goals this season for a teammate being Savinho for Erling Haaland. Two of those came at the weekend in Manchester City’s 4-1 win over West Ham, as the Brazilian set up both of the Norwegian’s goals at the Etihad Stadium.
Palmer, Savinho and Murphy still need to assist once more for Madueke, Haaland and Isak respectively to match the highest tally of assists by one teammate to another in the Premier League last season. Anthony Elanga created five of Chris Wood’s goals in 2023-24 at Nottingham Forest.
Looking at both assists and chances created is a simple way to assess the most profitable partnerships in the Premier League in 2024-25, but it’s also possible to go deeper and analyse the quality of chances provided.
Using xG assisted (the expected goals value of a shot created by a single player), we can look at which players create the highest quality chances for teammates, and Newcastle fans should be hoping that Murphy and Isak can stay fit in their quest for Champions League qualification.
Murphy may have created only nine shots for Isak in the Premier League this season – six fewer than Palmer for Madueke – but those nine shots have been worth 3.48 xG. That means the average quality of Isak’s shots created by Murphy in the Premier League this season stands at 0.39 xG, and all have come in open play.
Compare that to Palmer’s chances created for Madueke (0.10 xG average per shot), Rogers for Watkins (0.11) and McNeil for Calvert-Lewin (0.14), shows how key Murphy’s chance creation has been for Isak’s goal tally. In fact, no player to have been set up more than three times by a teammate has averaged a higher xG from shots created by that teammate in the Premier League in 2024-25.
Savinho is beginning to show why Man City spent a reported £30.8m to bring him to the club from Girona in the summer, and his chance creation for Haaland has been crucial. This has been even more important given the injuries and lack of form suffered by Kevin De Bruyne.
Last season saw De Bruyne create higher quality chances for Haaland than any other player for a single teammate in the Premier League (4.6 xG assisted), but the pair have played just 824 minutes together this season and that xG assisted total is 1.75.
Spare a thought for Phil Foden, though. Only six players have created higher quality shots for a teammate this season than Foden has for Haaland (1.82 xG assisted), but none of those 12 shots have been converted. Going back to include last season as well, Foden has created 25 chances for Haaland worth 4.59 xG, but just one of those chances has been converted by the Norwegian.
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