Football

Opta Stats Crown Dimitri Payet As ‘King Of The Barclaysmen’ During West Ham Era

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louisfargher
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louisfargher Sports Editor

Louis is a Sports Editor specialising in football news and features. He graduated from the University of Derby in 2023 with a Bachelors Degree in Football Journalism and has produced content for Burton Albion and Chesterfield.

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Published11 Sep 2024

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Dimitri Payet Barclaysmen

Dimitri Payet has been crowned ‘king of the Barclaysmen’ by Opta, with the Frenchman creating the most chances during the Barclays Premier League era.

Opta Stats Crown Dimitri Payet As ‘King Of Barclaysmen’

A new trend has swept across social media, as football fans, clubs and twitter accounts are now posting old clips from the Barclays Premier League era and questioning if it was better than the current Premier League.

People on Twitter have been finding posts from football clubs and quote tweeting them with videos of the goals/moment from the original tweet.

For example, this Chelsea fan account took a trip down memory lane and found a tweet from Liverpool about Eden Hazard’s wonder-goal at Stamford Bridge in 2015.

Thousands of tweets that are in a similar fashion to the one above how been posted daily and has begged the question of who is the ultimate ‘Barclaysman’?

Barclays Bank became the title sponsor of the Premier League at the beginning of 2001/02 and took a backseat in 2016.

During this time, several players rose to stardom, made special cameos or were part of a major moment in England’s top-flight.

With that in mind, Opta, the leading statistics company for the Premier League, has looked into who was the ultimate Barclaysman – focusing on the biggest chance creator.

This crown has fell on the head of Dimitri Payet, who became a cult hero at West Ham between 2015 and 2017 after scoring some sensational performances.

According to Opta, Payet leads the way for chances created per 90 (for players who played over 1000 mins) during the 12-year reign of Barclays, creating 4.2 chances per game.

This tally is superior to the likes of Mesut Ozil, Kevin De Bruyne, Ryan Giggs, Dusan Tadic, Florent Malouda and Christian Eriksen.

During his spell in East London, the Frenchman made 60 appearances and contributed to 37 goals in the process (15G+22A).

However, his time in the Premier League was cut short as he wanted to return to Marseille, who he re-signed for at the start of the 2016/17 season.

West Ham fans have mixed feelings towards the former French international, as he contributed with a multitude of memorable moments but also left the club rather abruptly.

When looking into his time at the Hammers there are some standout moments, the unbelievable free-kicks against Crystal Palace and Manchester United, a rabona assist against Watford and the silky solo goal vs Middlesbrough.