Top 10 greatest Premier League midfielders of all time

With 177 goals, Frank Lampard is the highest-scoring midfielder in Premier League history, outscoring many even above forwards like Henry and Drogba. However, more astonishing is his record of double-digit goals in ten Premier League seasons, which has never been replicated by a midfielder to this day.

Thanks to his cold-blooded efficiency, the Chelsea legend transformed the role of a midfielder. With 22 goals and 16 assists in 09/10, Lampard became the first Premier League midfielder to reach a "double 15+" in a single season, with his tally even rivalling peak Ronaldo.

In the 2005-06 season, Lampard became the ultimate weapon in Mourinho's system. Thanks to his obsession with self-improvement, Frank's timing for late runs into the box was as precise as artificial intelligence, and he had a penchant for slotting low shots into the far corner from the edge of the six-yard box.

Additionally, Lampard is the calmest 12-yard killer in Premier League history, with his penalty shooting accuracy exceeding 87% (43 out of 49). He also has the most goals from outside the penalty box (41) in Premier League history.

From 2001 to 2005, Lampard made 164 straight Premier League starts, setting the record for the longest continuous appearances in league history. Of all his records, this quality is the best definition of his legacy in the Premier League.

Behind Lampard's accolades of three Premier League titles (2004-05, 2005-06, and 2009-10), three PFA Team of the Year choices, and four Chelsea Player of the Season awards is a midfielder blueprint that has refined the mix of discipline and knowledge.

Lampard's reaction at Stamford Bridge in 2014, when he, sporting a Manchester City jersey, scored against Chelsea and covered his face in tears, demonstrated that he had long transcended the idea of winning or losing to become an enduring insignia of Premier League efficiency.

Steven Gerrard is surely the best candidate if the Premier League requires a "tragic hero" as its spiritual emblem. Between 1998 and 2015, he turned out 504 times for Liverpool in the Premier League, scoring 120 goals and 92 assists, but he was always just one step away from the championship trophy. Still, it is exactly this flaw that has made his commitment and bravery the most poignant story in Premier League history.

Gerrard's career in the Premier League is a masterwork of "one man against the world". He almost single-handedly drove Liverpool to the brink of title in the 2008–09 season with 16 goals and 13 assists and also led the club to a second-place finish with a then club record 86 points in the 2013–14 season after scoring 13 goals and providing 13 assists. But that infamous stumble and mistake in a pivotal game against Chelsea, technically delivered Manchester City the title.

These moments might have tarnished his "King Without a Crown" title, but they also highlight his value as the most flexible midfielder in Premier League history. Gerrard's long-range ability, passing accuracy and ability to cover both offensive and defensive duties have defined the ultimate form of a B2B midfielder. No player has yet broken his record of eight times selection in the PFA Premier League Team of the Season.

Though he never took home a Premier League trophy, he was awarded PFA Player of the Month three times, the leading assist provider twice, in 2005 he won the PFA Player of the Year award, and in 2009 the FWA Player of the Year.

Though Paul Scholes Premier League stats seem modest: 107 goals in 499 appearances – true students of the game will tremble at his brilliance: 11 Premier League titles (second all-time) and an unprecedented inclusion in the best XI of both the public and the official panel of judges at the Premier League 20 Seasons Awards; a feat that even Lampard or Gerrard could not manage. 

Scholes's career shows that a midfield maestro can rule an era away from the limelight. Like quantum physics, the Manchester United youth academy treasure broke convention in football.

Scholes's long-range shots were like precision-guided missiles, and he had amazing control over the arc and landing point of long passes. He could scan the whole pitch before receiving the ball using a single touch to instantly shift the action to the blind spots of the opponent's defence.

Paul Scholes recorded 9 assists from the central midfield in the 2002–03 season, a career-high, helping Manchester United to win the championship, and following his comeback in the 2011–12 season, at the age of 37, he maintained an 86.4% passing accuracy, demonstrating that technical ability never goes out of style.

Ferguson was effusive in his compliments of the player, and Wenger acknowledged his unease facing him.

Scholes never won the PFA Player of the Year, one of the most egregious injustices in Premier League history, but his retirement in 2013 meant the Premier League lost its final classical maestro. For midfielders today, his 11 Premier League medals remain the Everest to aim for.

Vieira, standing at 191 cm, was the most stifling midfield barrier in Premier League history and the incredible reality behind Wenger's "beautiful football". He guided Arsenal to three Premier League championships between 1996 and 2005, of which the 2003–04 season was an outstanding undefeated campaign.

Being not only a destroyer but also the main attack initiator, Vieira fundamentally changed the Premier League's view of the "defensive midfielder".

Vieira's supremacy in the Premier League resulted from his contempt for the laws of physics. His interception numbers (2.5+ per game in his prime) rendered the opponent's midfielders ineffective, and his legs, as long as those of railway switchers, were able to span the distance from his own penalty area to the centre circle in three steps.

Still, it was his "century duel" with Roy Keane that really helped him become legendary. Vieira's quiet confrontation with his Manchester United foe in the players' tunnel during the 2005 Highbury game became the height of the artistic metaphor for Premier League rivalry.

Vieira's technical grace is greatly underappreciated. He set a record for defensive midfielders by providing 5+ assists in two consecutive Premier League seasons.

Arsenal's first foreign captain, behind Vieira's honours of a three-time Premier League title and six-time PFA Team of the Year selection, lies a midfield behemoth who transformed power and wisdom into the most precisely balanced player in Premier League history.

If the Premier League were a gangster film, Keane would be the godfather arriving at the feast carrying a crowbar. Although he captained Manchester United to seven Premier League medals between 1993 and 2005, his real legacy is "psychological terrorism".

His gaze could make the opponent cower before the conflict had even started, and his tackles were of surgical accuracy, except they killed the fighting spirit of opponents.

Keane's approach to the Premier League is "to dominate the game through pain". He purposefully kicked Haaland in the 2001 Manchester Derby and was sent off with a red card, but he left the whole Manchester City midfield reeling in fear in the derbies that followed.

Though his stats (39 Premier League goals, 33 assists) rarely match his value, his presence stretched Manchester United's midfield radius by 10%, and his long pass accuracy made Beckham's crosses seem pointless.

A four-time PFA Team of the Year inductee and seven-time Premier League champion, each bearing the anxiety of his opponent etched on them, are fragments that fit the darkest yet most intriguing antihero portrait in Premier League history. 

All of this combined to form the most dominant skipper in Premier League history, whose wrath was the petrol for United's domination of the old Premier League order.

When Guardiola said, "De Bruyne is one of the best players I have ever trained," he was describing how the Belgian converted the Premier League into a first-person shooter game. Since joining Manchester City in 2015, De Bruyne has broken into the top two of the Premier League's all-time assist record with 114 assists, accomplishing this in over 150 fewer games than Giggs.

His Premier League career marks a "parameter-breaking legacy", having matched Henry's 20 assists single-season record in the 2019–20 season in fewer appearances.

De Bruyne's long-range shots are like GPS-guided rockets, and his right-footed outside-of-the-foot passes are like rainbows that defy the laws of physics.

These numbers—five Premier League trophies, two PFA Player of the Years, and the highest single-season average of key passes (3.9) in Premier League history—are only byproducts of his wizardry.

Thsr Belgian is not only a player but also the source code for the future of football, and his absence leaves the Premier League devoid of the last geek who could code with his feet.

If the Premier League were compared to an oil painting, Silva would be the silver needle highlighting the invisible contours. With his left foot, the 173 cm tall Spaniard spun Manchester City's legacy from 2010 until 2020.

Though his Premier League stats (60 goals and 93 assists) seem ordinary, opening the tactical manual unveils a treatise on "spatial anatomy", as he always managed to uncover the fatal gaps in the opponent's defence, locations that even GPS would fail to identify.

Silva's magic resides in simplifying the complex into something deadly. His "ghost turn"—using the tip of his foot to gently flick the ball to evade a tackle—has even evolved into the "Silva Zone": opponents know he's about to cut inside, but they're always 0.3 seconds too slow.

Among the easy exploits of the wizard were his four Premier League medals, five best XI inclusions, and record of 7+ assists in all ten of his Premier League seasona, which Guardiola routinely lauded.

Having the body of a centre-back (191 cm/90 kg) yet carrying the soul of a winger, Yaya Touré is the most contradictory creation in Premier League history. From 2010 to 2018, Touré, the only non-European midfielder on this list, broke and transformed Manchester City's midfield rules.

His Premier League career (62 goals, 32 assists) is a showcase of violent aesthetics that defies physics—for example, in the 2013-14 season, at least 5 of his 20 goals that season were long-range strikes from outside the box.

The foundation of Yaya Toure's supremacy is a total subversion of the "midfield role". Even his accolades of three Premier League medals, and four African Footballer of the Year honours, and being the first midfielder in Premier League history to score 20+ goals while providing 9+ assists, a feat only matched by Kevin De Bruyne, are insufficient to explain his wild brilliance.

“70% of the world is covered in water; the other 30% is covered by Kanté.” N’Golo Kanté demonstrated that when done right, defence can be the most alluring art in football.

With his height of 1.68 meters, Kanté—who joined the Premier League in 2015—became the most unorthodox barrier in Premier League history.

His well-anticipated tackles were quantum entanglement, as he always managed to stick the ball to his foot before the opponent even considered the passing direction.

During the Leicester City miracle in the 2015-16 season, Kante averaged 4.7 tackles (first in the Premier League) and 4.2 interceptions (first in the Premier League) to guarantee that the side with the third-lowest possession average could triumph in the league.

After joining Chelsea in 2016, Kanté turned Conte's three-centre-back system into an unbeatable mecha by posting aggressive defensive numbers that reduced the opponent midfield to puppets on a string.

But what truly crowned him a hero was his tenacious spirit, as exemplified by the UCL game against Real Madrid, where he covered a distance of 11.38km and was crowned MOTM despite fasting due to Ramadan.

Two Premier League trophies, three Premier League Team of the Season picks, and PFA Player of the Year (2017)—behind these accolades is a genius who thrives on destroying space.

Conte explicitly revealed that Kanté was like playing with a 12th player, underlining that occasionally the best midfielder may be one who makes the opponent "disappear".

Fàbregas is the youngest midfield maestro in Premier League annals. When he made his debut at 16 years and 177 days in 2003, he was already the "brain transplant" at Highbury.

At 19, he became the assist king for the Premier League in the 2006-07 season with eleven assists. At age 20, he became the youngest player to record 17 assists in a Premier League season. And by age 22, his stats of 15 goals and 13 assists already set him out as an all-timer.

Fàbregas, alongside Ryan Giggs, remains the only player to record double-digit assists in 7 Premier League seasons, and he did this in nine fewer seasons than the English legend.

Fabregas's Premier League legacy is a "chronological mismatch". He was the youngest Arsenal captain in history (21 years old) before Odegaard, guiding the 40-year-old Lehmann with long passes at Arsenal, and at Chelsea he became the "perpetual assist machine".

With 18 assists in the 2014–15 season—many of which were identical clones for Diego Costa—he set the Premier League single-season record since Opta started collating data. Two Premier League medals, the third-highest assist provider in Premier League history (111 times), and seven seasons with double-digit assists—behind these stats is a paradoxical talent who combined an old soul with the heart of a child.