SAINTS pair Sofiane Boufal and Mario Lemina are in the top ten of Europe's dribblers, according to CIES Football Observatory.

The research group have compiled, using OptaPro data, a dribbling index to analyse statistics from the continent's big-5 leagues.

Boufal is placed in eighth in the rankings, trying 4.6 dribbles per 90 minutes of play with 53 per cent of those successful.

The Moroccan's St Mary's team-mate Lemina enters the index in ninth position, recording three dribbles per 90 minutes, of which 79 per cent were successful.

"The dribbling index is calculated by multiplying the average number of dribbles achieved per 90 minutes with the percentage of successful ones," the football observatory says.

Chelsea's Eden Hazard tops the index with 6.4 dribbles per game and 75 per cent success rate and is followed by PSG's Neymar (7.3 and 62 per cent), Barcelona's Lionel Messi (5.5 62 per cent), Lyon's Tanguy Ndombele (3.7 and 74 per cent) and Tottenham's Mousa Dembele (3 and 88 per cent) to make up the top five.

After that,  Atalanta's Papu Gomez (3.7 and 71 per cent) and West Ham's Arthur Masuaku (4.3 and 59 per cent) follow before Boufal and Lemina in eighth and ninth.

Lyon's Nabil Fekir completes the top ten having recorded 3.4 dribbles with a 70 per cent success rate.

Another St Mary's man, Dusan Tadic, also features on the index, coming in at 63rd with 1.9 attempted dribbles with a 78 per cent success rate.