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Harry Kane v Alvaro Morata: The key battle in Tottenham v Chelsea

Harry Kane and Alvaro Morata go head to head at Wembley on Sunday

Harry Kane and Alvaro Morata go head to head when Tottenham face Chelsea at Wembley Stadium on Nissan Super Sunday, but how do the two strikers compare?

Mauricio Pochettino's men will be hoping to improve their recent poor record at the national stadium, and with derby games generally tight affairs, the performances of the strikers could prove to be crucial.

Kane and Morata have a lot in common, they are both 24 and had very similar records in their respective leagues last season.

Despite playing second fiddle to Karim Benzema at Real Madrid and making only 14 La Liga starts, Morata managed to find the net 15 times over the course of the campaign.

He averaged a goal every 89 mins in La Liga which was two minutes higher than Kane's 87 mins per Premier League goal. In fact, only Lionel Messi, Edinson Cavani and Arsenal's new No 9 Alexandre Lacazette had better minutes-per-goal records in Europe's top five leagues in 2016-17.

Best minutes per goal ratios in top European leagues 2016/17

Player Goals Mins per goal
Lionel Messi 37 77
Edinson Cavani 35 85
Alexandre Lacazette 28 86
Harry Kane 19 87
Alvaro Morata 15 89

It was just their minutes-per-goal records that were similar. Bother Morata and Kane averaged 70 minutes per goal or assist and also averaged the same number of shots and shots on target.

Harry Kane v Alvaro Morata

2016/17 Kane Morata
Mins/goal 87 89
Mins/goal or assist 70 70
Shots per 90 4 4
On target per 90 2 2
Touches per 90 40 42
Touches in opp box per 90 5 8

Morata became the most expensive Spanish player in history when Chelsea paid £70m for his signature last month.

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But despite playing for two of the biggest clubs in Europe in Real Madrid and Juventus, Morata is still fairly inexperienced and has never previously been the No 1 striker at his club for an entire season.

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The chance to be the main man is one of the reasons that Morata turned down a move to Tottenham in the past, according to their head coach Mauricio Pochettino.

He has never started more than 16 league games in a season and only once scored 15 league goals in a single campaign.

Alvaro Morata's league record

Season Team Apps Starts Goals Assists
2010/11 Real Madrid 1 - - -
2011/12 Real Madrid 1 - - -
2012/13 Real Madrid 12 5 2 1
2013/14 Real Madrid 23 3 8 -
2014/15 Juventus 29 11 8 5
2015/16 Juventus 34 16 7 7
2016/17 Real Madrid 26 14 15 4
2017/18 Chelsea 1 - 1 -
127 49 41 18

While Morata is starting the season as a No 1 striker for the first time, the same cannot be said of Tottenham's Kane, whose form in recent years has impressed many including Antonio Conte, who was quoted last month as saying he would love to sign the Tottenham number 10.

He has finished as Tottenham's top scorer in each of the last three seasons and won the Premier League Golden Boot in each of the last two. His total of 35 goals last season made it his highest scoring season and he is only one goal shy of bringing up 100 for Spurs in all competitions.

Harry Kane's Tottenham record

Competition Apps Starts Goals
Premier League 114 102 78
Europa League 26 12 8
FA Cup 9 5 5
League Cup 9 7 4
EL qualifiers 5 3 2
Champions League 3 3 2
166 132 99

Despite his scintillating form since becoming Tottenham's leading forward, Kane's least productive spells in front of goal have been in the opening three months of the season.

He has a record of just 15 goals in 42 appearances for Tottenham in all competitions in the months of August through to October. His record in August itself is even leaner, having failed to score in 11 Premier League appearances in the opening month of the season.

Harry Kane's month-by-month record in all competitions

Month Apps Goals
August 16 2
September 15 4
October 11 9
November 19 13
December 19 12
January 21 13
February 20 14
March 15 12
April 17 10
May 13 10

If Kane can end that run on Sunday, Pochettino's men will have a great chance of winning their opening two games for the first time since the start of 2014-15.

If Morata can continue where he left off against Burnley last Saturday, Tottenham could once again suffer Wembley heartache.