Bruno Fernandes holds the Premier League season assist record with 21

Bruno Fernandes holds the record for the most assists in a Premier League season, with 21 for Manchester United in 2025/26. He surpassed Thierry Henry’s 20 for Arsenal in 2002/03 and Kevin De Bruyne’s 20 for Manchester City in 2019/20. Those two previously shared the record. The Premier League’s official record report confirms the new mark, which stands as of 10 October 2026.

This is a single-season Premier League record: it excludes cup matches, European competitions and internationals. It is also a total, not an assists-per-match or assists-per-90 rate.

The highest Premier League season assist totals

Source: the Premier League’s single-season assist table. These are all the player-seasons listed with at least 18 assists—not eight different players, because De Bruyne appears twice.

Fernandes broke the record on 24 May 2026, in United’s final league match at Brighton & Hove Albion. His corner supplied Patrick Dorgu’s 33rd-minute opener in a 3–0 win. He finished nine assists ahead of runner-up Rayan Cherki, according to ESPN’s final-day report.

What counts as an assist?

Under Opta’s event definitions, a goal assist is the final touch from a teammate that leads to the recipient scoring. It need not be a conventional pass: a headed touch can qualify too.

A deflected delivery can still count if it was going to the scorer regardless of the defensive touch. But no conventional assist is awarded for an own goal, a directly scored free kick or a directly scored corner. Winning a penalty does not earn one either. If the penalty taker instead passes for a teammate to score, the taker can receive an assist.

Opta separately defines fantasy assists, including contributions such as a saved shot rebounding to a scorer or a foul won before a converted penalty. Those broader categories should not be mixed into this record table.

What 21 assists tells you—and what it misses

Imagine a midfielder sliding the same through-ball into the same striker’s path twice. On the first occasion, the striker scores: the midfielder gets an assist. On the second, the goalkeeper saves: no goal assist, despite an equally useful pass.

That is the main limit of the record. Assists measure successful goal contributions, not every good chance created. The total depends partly on teammates finishing the opportunities. It also gives no credit to the earlier pass that opened the defence if someone else supplied the final touch.

Fernandes’s season illustrates why context helps. The Premier League reports that he created 136 chances, while 11 of his 21 assists came from set-piece situations, matching Steven Gerrard’s 2013/14 set-piece assist record. Both figures appear in the official record report.

In Opta’s definitions, chances created combines assists with key passes—the final passes before teammates’ attempts that do not result in goals. That gives a broader view of creation than assists alone, though it still does not measure the quality of each chance. The set-piece figure explains how a substantial part of Fernandes’s goal supply arrived.

For a player comparison, read assists alongside chances created, the quality of those chances, set-piece responsibility and minutes played. An assists-per-90 figure uses minutes played divided by 90 as its denominator; the season record has no such playing-time adjustment.

For the separate career-record question, see who has the most assists in soccer.