Just about every fantasy football team has at least one big name, high price midfielder with some managers even opting for two or three.
Chelsea's Eden Hazard was a mainstay throughout most fantasy teams last season, although at £8.1m he could leave you short of cash to spend elsewhere in your squad.
And with Angel Di Maria set to move to Paris St Germain, fans up and down the country will be looking for a new marquee midfielder to fill the void.
In anticipation of his departure, and to help those fantasy pundits still scrambling a team together on the eve of the new season, we take a look at the best scoring midfielders in terms of goals, assists and gametime.
Goalscoring ability
Eden Hazard scored the most league goals of any of Mirror Fantasy iTeam's most expensive midfielders last season, 14, which puts him ahead of David Silva (12), Yaya Toure (10), Christian Eriksen (also 10) and Juan Mata (nine).
However, Hazard featured more often than the others, playing 3,372 Premier League minutes last season as opposed to Silva's 2,659 for example. That's the equivalent of almost eight matches.
If we actually look at the players' minutes per goal ratios Hazard only comes out as having the fourth best, meaning that other players may be able to outscore the Belgian should they get more game time this time round.
Top of the pile is Arsenal's Theo Walcott who scored five goals in just 441 minutes of play last season, equivalent to a goal every 88 minutes.
David Silva had the next best ratio at the equivalent of a goal every 222 minutes while Yaya Toure averaged one every 236 minutes.
Hazard comes next on 241 minutes followed by Mata with one every 256 minutes and Eriksen with one every 314 minutes.
Cesc Fabregas comes out bottom of the pile with a goal every 962 minutes followed by Philippe Coutinho (560 minutes), Angel Di Maria (547), Mesut Ozil (465), Raheem Sterling (427), Santi Cazorla (427) and Aaron Ramsey (335).
Game time
While Silva may have a better goals per minute ratio than Hazard he also has one of the worst records of the top midfielders in terms of getting subbed.
The Spaniard made 32 league appearances last season but was subbed off in almost half of them, 15 in total, a ratio of 47 per cent.
Only Angel Di Maria was brought off in a higher proportion of games, 48%.
Mata was brought off in 36% of his matches, for Hazard it was 32%, and 31% for both Coutinho and Ramsey.
Cazorla stayed on the pitch most often , having been subbed off in just 14% of his league appearances.
Yaya Toure was brought off in 17% of games while Ozil was brought off in 23%, Fabregas in 24% and Sterling in 26%.
Assists
The undisputed king of assists last season was Cesc Fabregas.
The Chelsea midfielder set up 18 Premier League goals last season, seven more than the next best assister of the most expensive midfielders, Santi Cazorla, who made 11.
Di Maria set up 10 goals, Eden Hazard made nine, both Silva and Sterling made seven each, and Ramsey made six.
Walcott didn't manage to make an assist in his 14 games last season, while Toure made just one for his Manchester City teammates.
Eriksen made two assists, Mata four and both Ozil and Coutinho made five.
It's perhaps no surprise that Fabregas also has the best record in terms of minutes per assist, which came at the rate of one every 160 minutes.
That's only slightly better than Di Maria though who made one every 164 minutes.
Cazorla made an assist once every 272 minutes while Ramsey made one every 335 minutes, Ozil one every 372, Hazard one every 375 and Silva one every 380.
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