Raheem Sterling is in his first campaign with Chelsea, having joined the club from Manchester City in the summer, but has plenty of Premier League experience from his time at the Etihad Stadium and with Liverpool before coming to Stamford Bridge.

Similarly, Son Heung-Min is an experienced Premier League campaigner, although all of it is with Tottenham Hotspur, where he has been since moving from German side Bayer Leverkusen in 2015.

They have had similar seasons in 2022/23 too, being regulars in their sides before injuries disrupted their start to the year, and have featured in a variety of attacking roles. Sterling has appeared across the board for the Blues, most often in various wide positions, but has occasionally been used as a central striker, while Son has alternated between a left-winger’s role and that of a second striker, behind Harry Kane.

Son’s slightly better luck with injuries means he has appeared in more games, with 20 starts to Sterling’s 14, but the minutes played in the Premier League this season (1,757 to 1,197) are close enough to make a comparison between the roles they play for their teams.

Finding the target

Both Sterling and Son are their teams’ second-highest scorers in the Premier League this season - behind Kane and Kai Havertz - although the Tottenham man has just edged ahead of his Chelsea rival by scoring his fifth goal of the competition in his most recent match, a 2-0 win at home against West Ham United last Sunday. That gives him one more than Sterling’s tally of four.

However, Sterling’s record of a goal every 299 minutes this season is superior to Son’s one every 351 minutes, due to the difference in playing time.

Both players' goal tallies are helped by impressive performances against Leicester City earlier in the season, with Son hitting a hat-trick against the Foxes in September, a month after Sterling had netted his first two goals for Chelsea against the same opponents.

The South Korea international remains ahead by both measures of shooting accuracy, though, with his 27 shots on target significantly more than the Englishman’s 11, and he remains ahead by a smaller margin in the percentage of his shots finding the target, 71 to 69.

Making chances

Things are fairly even between the two players when it comes to creating opportunities for others as well, with some of the statistical differences likely down to the wider role Sterling has sometimes played for Chelsea.

Son just edges the number of assists, with three to his name compared to Sterling’s two, and has managed an impressive 32 key passes, while the Blues winger has 21 so far, although that gap is much closer when considering playing time, with Son averaging one key pass every 54 minutes and Sterling one every 57 minutes.

However, when it comes to crossing, Sterling is clearly ahead, finding a team-mate with six of his balls into the box for a 26 per cent success rate, rather than Son’s 13 per cent with three successful crosses.

They are very similar when it comes to their accuracy in possession more generally, as Son’s 81 per cent passing accuracy is narrowly ahead of Sterling’s 78 per cent, but it is the England forward who does slightly better in the opposition’s half of the pitch, where he has 72 per cent passing accuracy to Son’s 68 per cent.

Defending from the front

Although very much attack-minded players, Sterling and Son both play their part for their teams out of possession too, with very similar defensive statistics.

Again, with the extra 560 Premier League minutes to his name, Son has made slightly more successful tackles than Sterling – eight to five – but they have an identical tackle success rate of exactly 50 per cent.

The pair are also level on two clearances each, although Son is comfortably ahead with seven interceptions to Sterling’s one, reflecting the fact most of his defensive work is done in the more congested central areas of the pitch, rather than Sterling’s role out on the flank.