Stats: Juan Mata is the most lethal free-kick taker in Premier League history

Juan Mata has scored five goals in 28 attempted free-kicks

The Premier League has always been known for its dead-ball specialists, even history indicates players such as David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo were one of the finest the league has produced. However, neither of them are in the top three clinical free-kick takers in the league’s history.

According to Premier League statistics, another Manchester United player, Juan Mata is the most prolific and accurate dead-ball expert in the league. Mata has converted five out of 28 attempts, taking his conversion rate to 17.9%, almost twice the number of David Beckham.

Second on the list is Sunderland’s Sebastian Larsson, who has scored 11 goals via free-kicks and has a conversion rate of 12.2 %. The Swede also scored against Tottenham in the weekend. In terms of most number of free-kicks scored, Larsson falls just one short of Thierry Henry, who has scored 12 of them.

The former Arsenal man features in sixth position with an 8.3% conversion rate. The 2014/15 Premier League season so far has averaged 1.12 free-kicks per game, which is one of the lowest in its history.

Former Manchester United set-piece taker, David Beckham is in fourth spot with five goals in 53 free-kicks.

PLAYER	FREE KICKS	GOALS	CONVERSION RATE
Juan Mata	28	5	17.9
Sebastian Larsson	90	11	12.2
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink	62	6	9.7
David Beckham	54	5	9.3
Nolberto Solando	78	7	9
Thierry Henry	144	12	8.3
Danny Murphy	67	5	7.5
Ryan Giggs	73	5	6.8
Leighton Baines	76	5	6.6
Laurent Robert	154	10	6.5