Suarez lethal, Kante relentless, Ozil inventive: The best player stats from Europe´s top five league

It was a season to remember for Luis Suarez and N’Golo Kante, while Cristiano Ronaldo broke the 50-goal mark in all competitions once again in another prolific season for Real Madrid.

A thrilling campaign is now at an end with Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Leicester City and Paris Saint-Germain crowned champions in Europe’s top five leagues.

With the dust settling on the 2015-16 season across Europe’s major leagues, we take a look at the best player stats with the help of data provided by Opta.

GOALS AND ASSISTS: SUPREME SUAREZ ON TOP

For perhaps the first time in a decade, Barcelona’s most important player this season was not a man named Lionel.

Suarez outshone Messi, whose season was disrupted by a knee injury before Christmas, with a quite stunning level of consistent brilliance, contributing more combined goals and assists
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than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues.

In his own words, Zlatan Ibrahimovic bows out from Paris Saint-Germain “a legend” – and the Swede’s stats back up his typically brash statement – while Gonzalo Higuain was the driving force behind Napoli’s doomed challenge to usurp Juventus as Serie A champions.

56 (40 goals + 16 assists) – Luis Suarez (Barcelona)
51 (38 + 13) – Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG)
46 (35 + 11) – Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
42 (26 + 16) – Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
38 (36 + 2) – Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli)

SHOTS ON TARGET: RAMPANT RONALDO

Suarez and Ibrahimovic may have beaten him when it came to goals and assists this season, but Cristiano Ronaldo kept the goalkeepers the most busy with 98 attempts on target.

98 – Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
83 – Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli)
81 – Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG)
75 – Harry Kane (Tottenham)
75 – Lionel Messi (Barcelona)

CHANCES CREATED: OZIL A CLASS APART

While Arsenal once again fell short in the race to win the Premier League, Mesut Ozil enjoyed his most productive season to date at Emirates Stadium, creating 146 chances (including assists) for his team-mates.

West Ham’s Dimitri Payet took the Premier League by storm in his first season in England and Montpellier’s Ryad Boudebouz announced himself as a creative force to be reckoned with.

146 – Mesut Ozil (Arsenal)
119 – Ryad Boudebouz (Montpellier)
119 – Dimiri Payet (West Ham)
115 – Christian Eriksen (Tottenham)
102 – Neymar (Barcelona)

DRIBBLES COMPLETED: BEN ARFA IS BACK

Hatem Ben Arfa has reignited his seemingly ailing career with a superb season for Nice in Ligue 1. He completed 152 dribbles this season, beating the continent’s top attacking stars in that category.

Meanwhile, Neymar and Riyad Mahrez were both influential in the title-winning successes of Barcelona and Leicester.

152 – Hatem Ben Arfa (Nice)
143 – Neymar (Barcelona)
131 – Riyad Mahrez (Leicester)
127 – Sofiane Boufal (Lille)
127 – Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace)

TACKLES: KANTE KEY FOR LEICESTER

While Mahrez and Jamie Vardy often stole the headlines during Leicester’s remarkable season, Kante was just as crucial to their title victory and topped the tackling stats with 175 to his name.

Aston Villa endured a miserable season, finishing bottom of the Premier League with a meagre total of 17 points, but Idrissa Gueye refused to go down without a fight.

175 – N’Golo Kante (Leicester)
143 – Idrissa Gueye (Aston Villa)
141 – Dennis Appiah (Caen)
134 – Jean-Daniel Akpa-Akpro (Toulouse)
126 – Filipe Luis (Atletico Madrid)

SAVES: BUSY BAUMANN

Unsurprisingly given the dominance their clubs enjoy in most of their league games, the likes of Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer and Barcelona’s Claudio Bravo are nowhere to be seen at the top of the goalkeepers’ saves category.

However, three Bundesliga shot stoppers did make the top five for number of saves across the season, despite their league being four matches shorter than the others.

152 – Oliver Baumann (Hoffenheim)
148 – Ron-Robert Zieler (Hannover)
144 – Emiliano Viviano (Sampdoria)
129 – Antonio Adan (Real Betis)
127 – Lukas Hradecky (Eintracht Frankfurt)