Jorginho falls just 1 short of Premier League passing record

Chelsea tried passing Newcastle to death on Sunday, and while that did not exactly work — we’ve found ourselves on the other side of that tippy-tappy nonsense before, so that’s probably not surprising — the rather eye-popping passing stats did set a couple club records and came close to a few Premier League marks as well.

Chelsea recorded 913 total pass attempts, the most in a single game for the club since Opta starting tracking in 2003-04. We can probably safely assume no game prior to that season exceeded that number, which is now the club record.

Unsurprising that City would occupy the first five spots, seeing as how they broke the 1000-mark against Swansea City last season (942/1015) and almost did the same against Chelsea (902/975), too.

Coming even closer to a new record was Jorginho, whose 173 attempted passes was just 1 short of the Premier League record, set by Ilkay Gündoğan in that aforementioned Chelsea game (174).

No joy in terms of completed passes either, as Jorginho’s 158 is only good for third all time.

With possession over 80% (81% falling short of City’s record of 83%), and not too many goals, such outrageous totals can be achieved in the future as well.

Jorginho did equal Fernandinho’s record for “most touches” in a Premier League match with 186 however.

Hurray for passing.

(But seriously, we won, so it’s cool.)