Iliman Ndiaye and Jack Grealish put Liverpool pair to shame as Premier League best duo’s revealed
Iliman Ndiaye and Jack Grealish have been in extraordinarily good form for Everton this season.
Grealish scored the winner as Everton beat Crystal Palace 2-1 on Sunday, to mark his latest big moment in what has been a superb season so far for the Englishman.
The 30-year-old, who is on loan from Manchester City, was awarded the Premier League‘s player of the month award for August.
Grealish is breaking Everton creative records at a seemingly week-by-week rate, but his wing partner cannot be ignored, either.
Here, Goodison News takes a look at Everton‘s wing pairing compared against the Premier League’s very best.
Iliman Ndiaye and Jack Grealish perform well in front of goal
Ndiaye is overperforming his expected goals in the Premier League this season, and the winger is the more direct from himself and Grealish.
Among all wingers in the league, only Antoine Semenyo has a higher value of expected goals (xG), 3.6, this season, with both Jaidon Anthony and Ndiaye just behind the Bournemouth man, 2.2.
What is expected goals (xG)?
- Expected goals is a statistic that registers how likely the average player would be to score from a shot.
- Position, stance, defenders, even the pace of the ball, are all factors that come into consideration when judging the xG of a shot.
- A high xG tally represents a player who repeatedly takes shots in strong positions, but a low goal tally following it can suggest a poor finisher.
Combined, the Senegal international and Grealish offer an expected goals tally of 3.1, slightly less than Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo, who boast a combined tally of 3.3.
With few other teams boasting a wing partnership as settled as Everton’s is, it is a fairer comparison to look at xG per game.
Ndiaye and Grealish offer a combined xG tally of 0.48 per game, just below the 0.50 recorded by Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard.
Brennan Johnson has been Thomas Frank’s most commonly selected partner for £45million signing Mohammed Kudus this season.
The two combined are registering 0.49 xG per game, slightly bettering the Everton pair.
Interestingly, Newcastle United’s Anthony Gordon and Jacob Murphy offer the best tally, combining to offer a massive 0.79 xG per game, although both players are yet to score this season.
Grealish and Ndiaye among the Premier League’s best creatively
Whilst Grealish and Ndiaye are producing great numbers in front of goal, where they really thrive is when providing the final pass before the shot.
To that tune, we turn to expected assists (xA), where the Everton duo provide a combined 2.9.
Grealish, who leads the Premier League in assists, also leads the league in xA, offering 1.9 this season so far.
| Premier League wing partnerships – 2025-26 | Goals + Assists (combined) |
| Ndiaye + Grealish | 9 |
| Saka + Trossard | 7 |
| Gakpo + Salah | 8 |
| Gordon + Murphy | 1 |
| Johnson + Kudus | 8 |
Turning to xA per game, the duo offer a combined tally of 0.47 every 90 minutes.
Gakpo and Salah, in comparison, offer just 0.36, whereas Saka and Trossard can boast 0.55 – mainly carried by the huge 0.38 carried by the former.
Kudus and Johnson offer a measly 0.21 xA per game, and Gordon and Murphy’s 0.24 cannot stand up against the Everton men.
Ndiaye and Grealish offer third-best league form
Both stats bring us nicely onto xA plus xG per 90, a stat in which Ndiaye and Grealish offer the third-best combined score in all of the Premier League this season.
The Everton duo’s massive 0.94 expected assist or goal per game stands above all but two winger duos, Arsenal’s Saka and Trossard, with 1.05, and Newcastle’s Gordon and Murphy, with 1.03.
Liverpool’s duo offer 0.85, whilst Tottenham’s boast just 0.7 per game.
Of course, a good winger is made by more than just goals and assists. Dribbling, taking on your man and crossing are all key parts of the equation.
But Everton fans can be satisfied that their two wingers, who cost the club a combined £15million, are well and truly performing among the Premier League’s very best this season.
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