First-class delivery: Kings of the crosses in the Premier League... but which England winger is the worst in the top flight?

PUBLISHED: 04:43 EST, 4 April 2013 | UPDATED: 08:56 EST, 4 April 2013

It is one of the most important facets of the game but for fans can also be the most infuriating.

Crossing - the ability to deliver the ball from wide positions to a team-mate. Not as sexy as passing your way through a defence but potentially as effective.

It sounds so simple, in theory, but how many times have we groaned in frustration when the cross strikes the first defender or harmlessly drifts out of play and all momentum is lost?

Best crosser: West Ham United winger Matt Jarvis

Worst crosser: Sunderland's Adam Johnson

The best and worst: West Ham's Matt Jarvis (left) has the most successful crosses in the Premier League this season, while Sunderland's Adam Johnson (right) has the worst percentage of balls that find team-mates

Well it seems this season, fans of Arsenal, Sunderland and Liverpool have the greatest cause for crossing complaint in the Premier League, while West Ham fare the best.

Opta statistics for the 31 rounds of the Barclays Premier League played to date show that the Hammers' wide men are more likely to pick out a team-mate in the middle than any others.

Just under one in four of West Ham's crosses find their target, while Matt Jarvis has honed his crossing skills to top the individual chart.

TABLE: Number of crosses played by each Premier League team this season and the percentage that find a team-mate

TEAM	OPEN PLAY CROSSES	% THAT FIND TEAM-MATE
WEST HAM	633	24.49
NEWCASTLE	594	20.37
READING	578	20.07
MANCHESTER UNITED	573	19.55
ARSENAL	558	15.77
EVERTON	550	20.55
SUNDERLAND	544	16.73
STOKE	542	18.08
SOUTHAMPTON	535	21.12
WIGAN	510	19.22
NORWICH	489	21.88
MANCHESTER CITY	483	20.5
CHELSEA	479	17.54
TOTTENHAM	442	16.97
SWANSEA	437	22.88
FULHAM	432	17.36
LIVERPOOL	420	14.52
QUEENS PARK RANGERS	417	16.55
WEST BROMWICH ALBION	403	20.35
ASTON VILLA	389	19.02

Success: Andy Carroll, who scored twice against West Brom on Saturday, is usually the target of West Ham crosses

Source: Opta

That's unsurprising, however, given that he attempts more crosses than anyone else as part of Sam Allardyce's game plan to supply ammunition to Andy Carroll.

Jarvis, who was brought in from Wolves for this purpose in the summer, and Jean Beausejour at Wigan, are way out in front in the open play crosses chart, which also features Leighton Baines, Antonio Valencia and Gareth Bale.

Beausejour finds a team-mate 21 per cent of the time, Baines 20 per cent and Valencia 21 per cent. But Bale is down on a paltry 12.5 per cent, which may explain why he shoots from range more often nowadays.

The league's best supplier is Rickie Lambert, up on 36 per cent, though he only has four assists for the season, so it doesn't look like his fellow Saints are too good at feeding off him.

Crossing king: Southampton's Rickie Lambert tops the Premier League successful crosses chart

More selfish: Gareth Bale's low crossing ratio is a result of his tendency to run at defenders or shoot from range this season

Source: Opta

By contrast, Sunderland's Adam Johnson is the most likely to raise the blood pressure in the stands, with just nine per cent of his attempts locating anyone in the same coloured shirt.

It may go some way to explain why the Black Cats are having such a torrid time of it this season.

Arsenal too will lament the lack of potency from their wide men - Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Carl Jenkinson and Theo Walcott all feature in the top 10 of worst crossers this season.

Overall, just over 15 per cent of Arsenal's deliveries from wide positions find anyone in the centre, just marginally better than Liverpool's 14.5 per cent.

It's enough to make you want to beat the first man yourself...

TABLE: The best and worst crossers in the Premier League by percentage

Source: Opta

Rampaging: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain takes on the Reading defence, but like Theo Walcott (below), his crossing has been sub-standard

More...

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i bet barca dont cross that much and find messi. bit of an odd stat seeing as not man team play with a "big man" anymore. you'd expect team like west ham stoke etc to do well, but liverpool for example dont play whi pballs in and if they did,they have suarez to aim for, hardly peter crouch esq is he (no teeth comments)

- marco , yorkshire, 04/4/2013 19:11

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I can't believe that people take seriously these never-ending statistics supplied by 'Opta'. They mean absolutely nothing in the context of a football game. The quality of your own team-mates, their ability to create space for themselves thus making them an easy target to cross to, the pace that a player is travelling at when attempting to cross a ball....etc..etc..etc.. all comes into play. Statistics like these are absolute garbage. Bale breaks out at speed, often he will be totally on his own because of the pace he runs at. Should he WAIT for his own players to catch up and all the defenders along with them ???

- T.Carter , London, United Kingdom, 04/4/2013 19:09

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Exactly why Arsenal should of let Walcott go, he can't cross a ball. He hasn't improved this aspect of his game since his arrival years ago.

- tested121 , Birmingham, 04/4/2013 19:05

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emre, southampton do not play 442.

- JamesUKIP , Middle Earth, United Kingdom, 04/4/2013 18:39

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Playing a 4-4-2 and using crosses? Is it 1978 again? Modern teams don't play this way anymore

- emce , Lincoln, 04/4/2013 18:31

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Joey Barton?? Lol im only joking

- MrsOscarEmboaba , Birmingham, United Kingdom, 04/4/2013 18:30

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Walcott didn't go to the World Cup in 2010 because he couldn't cross one accurate ball in a separate training session prior to it. Looks like he hasn't bothered to do anything about it in the last 3 years.

- Ben Elf , The Little Kingdom, 04/4/2013 18:27

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Going on these stats then, West Ham should be top of the league. But they're not. Which would suggest the more succesful teams don't just lump it into the middle, regardless of whether they find a team mate or not.

- Swiss Tonee , England, 04/4/2013 18:27

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Been saying it all season Rickie Lambert definitely deserves a chance with England all aspects of his game are superb the only thing he is lacking is killer pace but he makes up for that with other attributes get him called up also wouldn't mind seeing Jarvis and Lallana getting a chance

- ConnorB , Nowhere Town, 04/4/2013 18:26

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Rickie Lambert is class , product of Rochdale

- ToddyRigg , Manchester, 04/4/2013 18:14

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Your Teams

Teams		P	GD	PTS
1	Manchester United	30	39	77
2	Manchester City	30	29	62
3	Tottenham Hotspur	31	15	57
4	Chelsea	30	27	55
5	Arsenal	30	26	53
6	Everton	30	12	51
7	Liverpool	31	19	48
8	West Bromwich Albion	31	0	44
9	Swansea City	31	1	40
10	Fulham	30	-3	39
11	West Ham United	30	-9	36
12	Southampton	31	-9	34
13	Stoke City	31	-9	34
14	Norwich City	31	-19	34
15	Newcastle United	31	-15	33
16	Sunderland	31	-10	31
17	Wigan Athletic	30	-20	30
18	Aston Villa	31	-26	30
19	Queens Park Rangers	31	-23	23
20	Reading	31	-25	23