Matchday 5 of the league season begins with a Friday-night fixture between Sassuolo and Torino (20:45 CEST). The Neroverdi are one of the surprise packages in Serie A this season; still unbeaten, three wins and one draw, second place in the table - two points behind AC Milan. The Granata, meanwhile, a last with no points take so far this season.

Our statistical head-to-head of matchday 5, made possible by consulting our free stats database on our website, pits Francesco Caputo against Andrea Belotti. The two strikers are joint top of the goalscoring charts as it stands - alongside Alejandro ‘Papu’ Gomez, Ibrahimovic, Hirving Lozano and Lukaku.

To date, both players have featured in every game played by their respective clubs and played the maximum minutes: four appearances and 360 minutes played for Caputo, three appearances and 270 minutes for Belotti (Torino are yet to play their matchday 3 fixture with Genoa).

They have each scored four goals (one penalty apiece) but a deeper look at the figures shows that Belotti is statistically better than his opponent. Il Gallo has scored four goals from just five attempts on target (eight for Caputo) and hits the back of the net every 67.5 minutes (every 90 minutes in Caputo’s case). The Granata forward is also ahead when it comes to shot accuracy (83.3% compared to 61.5%), while Caputo is more useful when bringing teammates into the game: two assists from open play for him, none for Belotti.

The Sassuolo striker is also more active in build-up play: 54 completed passes compared to Belotti’s 33 and a pass accuracy of 75% (Belotti: 62.3%). The gulf in class in terms of passing only deepens when we look at distribution in the opposition half: Caputo has an accuracy rating of 73.9%, while Belotti only completes 51.6% of his passes in the opposition half.

Attackers are also on the receiving end of fouls, but in this case, it’s Belotti, who is more targeted: 13 free-kicks one (4.33 per game) compared to Caputo’s five (1.25 per game). Both players do not regularly commit fouls (two by Caputo and five by Belotti) and neither one has been booked so far this season.