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Chelsea's Eden Hazard, Arsenal's Mesut Ozil and Manchester City's Jesus Navas are the three best attacking midfielders in Europe in 2015

Statistics from the CIES Football Observatory show English trio at the top

Tuesday 31 March 2015 12:48 BST

Eden Hazard celebrates after scoring from the spot in extra-time (GETTY IMAGES)

Premier League trio Eden Hazard, Mesut Ozil and Jesus Navas have been found to be the three top performing attacking midfielders in Europe since the turn of the year.

Chelsea's Hazard and Arsenal's Ozil have both scored 100 in the CIES Football Obervatory's latest performance rankings, while Manchester City winger Navas scored 86.

He is slightly ahead of Premier League flops Kevin De Bruyne (Wolfsburg) and Shinji Kagawa (Borussia Dortmund) who round out the top five.

Navas' team-mate David Silva also makes the top 10, while Arsenal's Santi Cazorla is joint-11th.

The rankings are decided by six 'key performance indicators' - rigour, recovery, distribution, take on, chance creation and shooting.

According to the Football Observatory, Gael Clichy is the top full-back in Europe since the turn of the year - also scoring 100 - while Pablo Zabaleta has been fifth. City team-mate Martin Demichelis has been the second best centre-back after Emir Spahic of Bayer Leverkusen.

Manchester United's Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo are also in the top 10 centre-backs, but there is not much English representation elsewhere.

Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

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1/11Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

Petr Cech - 6.83

The only real surprise in the Chelsea team, the deposed No 1 has benefited from only playing five matches in the Premier League compared to Thibaut Courtois, who has played 25. Courtois is only 0.01 behind Cech, so we're splitting hairs. Cech has kept a clean sheet in every game, however.

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Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

Branislav Ivanovic - 7.35

The powerful Serbian has arguably proved himself as the best right-back in the country this season. He's a threat when going forward and a superb defender, although he has looked tired and sluggish in recent weeks.

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Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

Gary Cahill - 6.94

The England vice-captain edges slightly in front of young centre-back Kurt Zouma who has also impressed. Cahill's form has been up and down this season but he has been better in recent weeks.

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Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

John Terry - 7.04

John Terry has played every minute of every Premier League game this season. You won't find a better centre-back in the division.

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Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

Cesar Azpilicueta - 7.23

Has been shaky recently but has had a great year playing on the left, despite being right-footed. Has seen off the challenge of £16m Filipe Luis, who wants to return to Spain.

Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

Cesc Fabregas - 7.73

Took the Premier League by storm at the start of the season but has really slowed down in the last couple of months. Got an assist against Hull but that was his first since January. The third highest rated player in the Premier League, according to WhoScored.

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Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

Nemanja Matic - 7.51

Has formed a dominant partnership with Cesc Fabregas that has been one of the major differences between this season and last. A brilliant shield for the defence and fantastic on the ball.

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Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

Willian - 7.00

Works extremely hard and a valuable outlet for Chelsea on the counter. But he doesn't quite provide enough threat in the final third and has just four goals and five assists all season. Juan Cuadrado was bought in January for big money but is yet to make an impact in England.

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Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

Oscar - 7.31

Another who has suffered with poor form recently, he hasn't scored for Chelsea since 17 January, a run of 11 matches. Needs to find some form in the closing stages of the season, although the Blues lack suitable replacements.

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Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

Eden Hazard - 8.02

The highest rated player in the Premier League according to WhoScored, Hazard has enjoyed another brilliant season as Chelsea's main attacking threat. Despite often facing two markers and being the most fouled player in the division he is still Chelsea's best performer

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Chelsea's best XI of the season so far

Diego Costa - 7.60

The Premier League's tormentor-in-chief is just about clinging on at the top of the goalscoring charts, with two in his last two after a long (for him) dry spell. Loic Remy and Didier Drogba have proved useful in parts for Chelsea but Costa is top dog - the Blues will be hoping the injury he picked up against Hull was none too serious.

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Chelsea's Diego Costa and Tottenham's Harry Kane are rated as the fifth-best strikers, behind Lionel Messi, Arjen Robben, Wolfsburg's Bas Dost and Luis Suarez.

Cristiano Ronaldo ranks way down in 29th in the list of best strikers.

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