Nottingham Forest are the next visitors to Stamford Bridge and like Chelsea they have a new signing from the winter transfer window who has been starring in their midfield recently.

Danilo signed for Forest from Palmeiras in his homeland Brazil in January and the 22-year-old has made 11 Premier League appearances for them since, including starting their last eight and impressing by scoring in their last three in a row.

Enzo Fernandez, the elder of the two players by a few months, also came to England in January, although he was already in Europe, making the switch from Benfica to Chelsea shortly after winning the World Cup with Argentina. He has started all 14 Premier League games since arriving at the Bridge.

Hunting the ball

Enzo is the more defensively minded of the two, usually operating at the base of Chelsea’s midfield. However, the statistics show both players make a significant contribution to their team off the ball, although in different ways.

It is clear that Enzo is the more proactive in the way he goes about winning back possession, and the stronger in the tackle. His 24 successful tackles dwarfs the seven managed by Danilo and his tackle success rate of 63 per cent is significantly higher than the Brazilian’s 39 per cent. Our man’s 13 interceptions is also five more than the Forest midfielder.

However, Danilo has made his mark in other areas of the defensive game, with 18 clearances and five blocks to his name in the Premier League, both higher than Enzo’s 11 clearances and two blocks.

Dictating the play

It is clear from the figures which of these two players is the more traditional playmaker, controlling possession and influencing the tempo from midfield. From his central pivot role, Enzo has been far more involved in Chelsea’s spells of possession, successfully completing 952 passes, compared to just 142 by Danilo.

The World Cup winner is ahead when it comes to quality as well as quantity, with 89 per cent of his passes finding a team-mate and 85 per cent of his passes in the opposition half also doing so, notably more than Danilo’s 68 per cent and 60 per cent success rates.

Enzo has also contributed more than double the number of key passes, with 11 to five, although they are level on two assists each in the Premier League, the Blues midfielder setting up Joao Felix’s opener at West Ham United and Kai Havertz’s outrageous goal in the 3-1 win over Leicester City.

Hitting the net

There is one area where Danilo clearly has the edge, though, and that is goalscoring. Enzo is still awaiting his first goal for Chelsea, but the Brazilian has already scored three times for Nottingham Forest, netting in each of their last three Premier League matches against Brighton, Brentford and Southampton.

That is partly a result of Danilo being more accurate in front of goal, having tested the goalkeeper with 36 per cent of his efforts compared to 20 per cent for Enzo, registering four shots on target so far compared to our man’s two.