Burnley top of the long passes table

Chelsea sit top of the long ball league with the highest success rate for longer passes (62%), while Pep Guardiola’s City come second with an impressive 59.3%.

The research by Bet-Bonus-Codes.co.uk, which analysed this season’s Premier League Opta passing data for balls played in excess of 35 yards, found that typical ‘long ball teams’ actually struggle most to find a teammate with their route-one football.

Burnley (980), Huddersfield (929) and Brighton (901) have played the most long passes.

Cardiff (35.5%) have the worst completion rate, followed by Brighton (39.3%).

Both clubs are the only two Premier League sides to possess a worse long ball pass completion rate than the Championship team average (39.6%).

On average, Premier League teams complete 47.3% of their long balls, with the top five teams over 35 yards: Chelsea 62%; Manchester City 59.3%; Manchester United 53.2%; Liverpool 52.9%; Wolves 51.2%.

The bottom five Premier League teams for long ball success are: Cardiff 35.5%; Brighton 39.3%; Newcastle 40.3%; Southampton 42.3%; Watford 42.8%. While Manchester City sit in second place for long ball success rate, Pep Guardiola’s team have the lowest number of attempted long passes at 541 – just 6.5% of their total passes. Long balls account for just 6.6% of Chelsea’s total passes and 8.9% of Liverpool’s total passes.

Cardiff play the most long balls with 22.2 per cent of their overall passes played long, ahead of Brighton (20.3%), Burnley (19.5%) and Newcastle (19.4%).