Leeds United will be looking to get back to winning ways when they host Crystal Palace on Tuesday evening.
The Whites have not won any of their last three matches and manager Marcelo Bielsa will be eager to see a reaction from his side after their disappointing display in the 0-0 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion.
Meanwhile, opponents Palace will also be searching for a response after they suffered their first defeat in over two months at the hands of Aston Villa.
While particularly in the case of Leeds this will prove to be another huge game, perhaps one of the most interesting sub-plots within the game is the clash between Raphinha and Wilfried Zaha.
Both Raphinha and Zaha are the two sides’ main attacking threat, with the former netting five goals for Leeds so far this season, and the latter scoring four times and providing one assist for Palace.
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The wingers are regarded as two of the most talented players outside of the ‘big six’ and are without doubt both sides’ talisman in the final third.
Although both clearly have a huge volume of importance to their sides, it is in fact Raphinha who excels in the majority of the attacking statistics.
In terms of creativity, Raphinha averages 0.29 expected assists (xA) per 90, which is a metric that measures the likelihood that a given pass will become a goal assist.
That is comfortably more than Zaha, who despite registering one more assist than the Brazilian so far this season, averages 0.1 per 90.
Raphinha also averages 4.22 shot-creating actions per 90, which is again much higher than Zaha’s number of 3.02.
The Leeds man also has a higher expected goals (xG) per 90 with 0.32, just ahead of Zaha’s number of 0.25.
In fact, the only area of attacking metrics where the Ivory Coast international is as good as Raphinha is dribbling.
Both players average 2.34 completed dribbles per match, which highlights the quality both have when they are running at defenders with the ball at their feet.
While Raphinha is clearly excelling in the majority of these stats, there is no doubting the importance both players hold within the two respective sides.
Perhaps the player who enjoys the better game on Tuesday evening could go a long way to deciding which team takes home all three points.
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