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N'Golo Kante v Robert Snodgrass will be the key battle in Chelsea v Hull City

N'Golo Kante and Robert Snodgrass go head-to-head this weekend
Image: N'Golo Kante and Robert Snodgrass go head-to-head this weekend

Can Hull City's top attacker Robert Snodgrass find a way past Chelsea tackler N'Golo Kante? We check the stats...

This weekend the Premier League leaders Chelsea host relegation favourites Hull. One potential match-up pits together the Premier League's highest tackler and interceptor, N'Golo Kante against Hull's talisman Robert Snodgrass.

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Kante's non-stop efforts of breaking up opposition play have been a major factor in Chelsea's current run of 14 wins from their last 15 Premier League games, which includes 11 clean sheets.

Tottenham Hotspur's Dele Alli is challenged by Chelsea's N'Golo Kante
Image: Kante has played a key role for Premier League leaders Chelsea

In fact, since the start of last season no player has made more tackles, interceptions or won more league games than the 25-year-old Frenchman.

Top tacklers and interceptors in Premier League

Most tackles Tackles won Most interceptions
N'Golo Kante 237 Idrissa Gueye 179 N'Golo Kante 205
Idrissa Gueye 237 N'Golo Kante 164 Idrissa Gueye 185
Erik Pieters 180 Erik Pieters 137 Laurent Koscielny 183
Claudio Yacob 168 Cesar Azpilicueta 121 Yohan Cabaye 173

Should Chelsea go on to win the league this season, Kante would become the first out-field player in Premier League history to win back-to-back Premier League titles with two different sides. Mark Schwarzer won back-to-back titles with Chelsea and Leicester in the last two seasons, however, he did not make a league appearance for either side in those two seasons.

Premier League wins since August 2015

Player Premier League wins
N'Golo Kante 39
Dele Alli 32
Nacho Monreal 32
Petr Cech, Eric Dier, Laurent Koscielny, Hugo Lloris, Mesut Ozil 31

Stats below show how Leicester have been missing Kante and how Chelsea have profited from having him in the side.

Importance of Kante

Win % Points/game Goals conceded/game
Leicester with Kante last season 62% 2.2 0.9
Leicester without Kante this season 24% 1 1.6
Chelsea with Kante this season 80% 2.45 0.75
Chelsea without Kante last season 32% 1.3 1.4

On a more personal level, Kante is getting on the ball more with Chelsea this season compared to at Leicester last season but is having to make fewer tackles and interceptions.

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Kante's changing role

Passes/90mins Touches/90mins Tackles/90 mins Interceptions/90mins
Last season at Leicester 43 65 5.2 4.7
This season at Chelsea 63 78 3.1 2.5

Kante's next task will be to stop Hull's most influential player this season in Snodgrass. The in-form and in demand Scotsman is enjoying his best scoring season in the Premier League with seven goals already this term. Snodgrass has been involved in 50 per cent of Hull's Premier League goals this season and has created 45 chances, 30 more than any of his team-mates.

HULL, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 10:  Robert Snodgrass of Hull City celebrates as he scores the first goal from a penalty during the Premier League match between H
Image: Snodgrass has seven Premier League goals this season

Tables below show just how important he is to Hull's quest for survival.

Hull's reliant Robert

Total Club rank
Goals 7 1st
Assists 3 1st
Chances created 45 1st
Total shots 39 1st
Crosses/corners 137 1st
Dribbles 39 1st
Touches in opp. box 45 1st

Goal reliance in Premier League

Player and team Goals Assists Team goals % involved
Jermain Defoe - Sunderland 12 2 20 70%
Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Man Utd 14 3 32 53.1%
Alvaro Negredo - Boro 5 4 17 52.9%
Robert Snodgrass - Hull 7 3 20 50%
Romelu Lukaku - Everton 12 4 32 50%

Reliance on chance creators

Player and team Chances created Team chances % of team's chances created
Dimitri Payet - West Ham 74 216 34.2%
Robert Snodgrass - Hull 45 153 29.4%
Gylfi Sigurdsson - Swansea 42 180 23.3%
Alexis Sanchez - Arsenal 56 243 23%
Kevin de Bruyne - Man City 61 267 22.8%

Who will come out on top? Watch Sky Sports 1 HD from 4.15pm on Sunday to see Chelsea v Hull to find out.

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