[Statman Dave] Bruno Fernandes Since his PL debut in Feb,2020: Most chances (277) and big chances (74) created in the PL, Most chances created in all Competitions (343)
xA, or expected assists, is the likelihood that a given completed pass will become a goal assist. This statistic developed by Opta assigns a likelihood to all passes based on the type of the pass, the location on the pitch, the phase of play, and the distance covered. Players receive xA for every completed pass regardless of whether a shot occurred or not.
In order to just isolate the xG on passes that assist a shot, there's Expected Assisted Goals (xAG). This indicates a player's ability to set up scoring chances without having to rely on the actual result of the shot or the shooter's luck/ability. Players receive xAG only when a shot is taken after a completed pass.
We use xG+xAG for goal contributions since players' goal contributions are typically Goals + Assists and this better matches that standard.
Previous to October 2022, we used xA to mean expected assisted goals (now xAG). When we switched our data provider to Opta, they provided their version of xA described above. We made the name change to xAG. Opta: What are Expected Assists.