Benteke v Lukaku: Which Towering Belgian Will Decide Villa – Everton?

Big, powerful, bustling, clinical Belgians. This may be a tongue twister to say but it is even harder for Premier League defences to cope with the sheer ferocity that Christian Benteke andRomelu Lukaku bring to a game of football.

This weekend marks the meeting of the two men fighting for the chance to lead the line for Belgium at next summer’s World Cup, and Aston Villa face Everton too.

But joking aside, it is an extremely difficult call for Belgium manager Marc Wilmots, to choose between the two strikers. They have both been prolific in front of goal for the past year-and-a-bit but they deliver in such different ways. Benteke is predominantly a target man, an expert at bringing others into play and attacking crosses delivered into the box. Meanwhile, Lukaku loves to bully defenders, run in behind opponents’ backline and is slightly better at linking play with his feet.

But who will come out on top at the weekend? It’s time to take a look using Squawka’s extensively brilliant statistics.

First of all, a look at the pair’s goalscoring tallies shows that it is impossible to split them. Both have appeared six times and scored four goals, with Benteke scoring two headers and Lukaku, perhaps surprisingly, scoring with his weaker right foot twice.

In terms of shooting they are still difficult to separate with Lukaku’s shot accuracy (70%) trumping Benteke’s (67%) by just 3%, which is very minimal. The Villa striker has managed two more shots on goal than his rival though.

Benteke’s greater aerial threat has seen him win 66 duels compared to Lukaku’s 18; this is down to Villa using their main man as the focal point of their attacks whereas Roberto Martinez has Everton playing possession football with a limited number of long balls. Both teams play to their front-man’s strengths which is understandable and Benteke is a much bigger threat in the air than Lukaku.

Lukaku has proven that his link-up play trumps Benteke’s, with his passing accuracy standing at 70% whilst his counterparts languishes on 58%. However, Benteke has completed 12 key passes compared to the Everton man’s two. This proves that the Toffees would find it easier to replace their striker than Villa as Benteke makes most of his key passes through winning aerial battles. His physicality is vital to the way they play both creatively and in front of goal.

Lukaku’s blistering start to the season at Goodison Park has seen him record a higher Squawka Performance Score (144) than Benteke (124).  Furthermore, the on-loan Chelsea forward has been a constant threat going forward and he backed that up with his two goals in Belgium’s 2-1 victory over Croatia to qualify for the World Cup.

On Saturday afternoon, the two forwards go head-to-head for the first time this season, with whoever gets the upper hand likely to fire their club to victory. There may be a very Super Sunday this weekend but don’t let it make you underestimate the entertainment on offer at Villa Park.