Xavi tops Europe's passing stats (video)

A look across the five major leagues within Europe this season perhaps unsurprising sees Barcelona's Xavi lead the passing statistics leaderboard once more. Xavi tops the stats for highest average number of passes per game and has the highest passing accuracy on the continent, but who are the contenders for the mercurial Spaniard's throne?

Xavi has made an average of 98.9 passes per game, achieving an accuracy percentage of 95.1%.

In terms of number of passes per game, fellow Spaniard and Arsenal playmaker Mikel Arteta is Xavi's closest competitor although he averages 13 passes less per game than Barcelona's number 6. Closely following Arteta is Juventus' midfield fulcrum Andrea Pirlo, who is consistently Serie A's best passer. Manchester City's Yaya Toure is Europe's fouth highest passer, marginally ahead of Xavi's Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets and Manchester United's Michael Carrick.

In terms of passing accuracy, Bayern Munich's Luis Gustavo is second in the leaderboard, having successfully completed 93.3% of the passes he has made this season, although the Brazilian regularly plays in defence for Bundesliga giants and therefore often resorts to shorter, more risk-averse passes from the back. In third position is another of Xavi's team-mates Thiago Alcantara, however the youngster has only started on 10 occasions for the Catalans this season. Mikel Arteta once again finds himself in the mix in fourth position, followed by Swansea's Korean midfielder Ki Sung Yeung who has completed 92.3% of passes made in first Premier League season.

Source: whoscored.com

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