Santi Cazorla leads Arsenal team-mate Mesut Ozil and Chelsea's Cesc Fabregas as league's best passer

Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla has been rated as the best passer in the Premier League, and his teammates are not far behind.

The Spaniard is ranked the most incisive passer in the division by the EA Sports Player Performance Index, which examined the players who have completed the most passes in the opposition half this season.

Cazorla leads the way by some distance on 413 completed passes, with Mesut Ozil (302) and Aaron Ramsey (286) also ranked in the top ten.

However despite three representatives from Arsene Wenger’s side in the rankings it is Manchester City who lead the way. The four players from the league leaders include Aleksandar Kolarov, Yaya Toure and David Silva, but it is Fernandinho that is their highest ranked with 339 completed passes in the opponent’s half of the pitch.

Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas may have had a disappointing start to the season by his own lofty standards, registering just one assist compared to his remarkable tally at this stage last season. However he is ranked second in the standings behind Cazorla.

Fabregas’ colleague Eden Hazard is another to dominate the pass statistics despite stuttering in his early games, suggesting that teams are still sitting back against the champions and picking them off on the counter attack.

There is just one representative on the list who doesn’t play for City, Arsenal and Chelsea – Bournemouth’s Andrew Surman. He can now claim that after eight games in the Premier League season he completed more passes than Silva, though he cannot compete with the Spaniard’s league-leading six assists.

Data courtesy of the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index, the Official Player Rating Index of the Barclays Premier League