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NB: Player appearances are based on a player starting and completing at least 60 minutes. The sample is based on a team’s home and away league matches since the start of last season unless otherwise stated.

Real Madrid v Real Zaragoza

Real Madrid can close the gap on Barcelona to two points with a win over promoted Zaragoza but will have to do so without Pepe – whose season is over – and Kaka who will be out until the New Year. The Brazilian has missed four games for Madrid since his big-money move in the summer and Los Blancos have won all four games while scoring three or more goals every time with three of the four games seeing at least five goals. Meanwhile eight of the 18 games that Pepe has missed since the start of last season have featured at least five goals.

Stuttgart v Hoffenheim

Hoffenheim have won only one of their last five matches and will be keen to get a win over struggling Stuttgart as they head into the winter break. However, they will have to do so without first team regulars; defender Marvin Compper and striker Demba Ba, who are both suffering from swine flu.

Ba has missed only nine of 50 games since the start of last season while Compper has missed just six and while Hoffe have averaged three or more goals in just over 60% of the games that both players have played, only a third of the matches that either has missed have seen more than a brace of scores.

West Ham v Chelsea

Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola will be boosted by the likely absence of Didier Drogba from the Chelsea line-up as the Ivorian continues his recovery from a back injury.

However the struggling Hammers still look likely to be up against it, as while the Blues have kept clean sheets in half the 30 games that Drogba has played since the start of last season, this rate climbs to 64% in the 25 he has missed.  Moreover, there hasn’t been much of a drop-off in their results without Drogba, as their PPG has fallen by only 6% from 2.30 to 2.16.

More impressively, Chelsea have won nine of their 11 away games without Drogba (W9-D1-L1) while keeping nine clean sheets and recording eight wins to nil. In contrast, the Blues have won only 10 of 16 with him, while losing five times and keeping just six clean sheets.

Wolves v Burnley

Wolves will be missing midfielder David Edwards after the Welsh international was ruled out with an ankle injury. However, since the start of last season Wolves have scored 1.86 goals per game in the 29 matches that Edwards has missed, while they have managed only 1.21 goals per game in the 34 matches he has played. While this has resulted in improved results without the Welshman the biggest difference has been in the number of over-goals games with 41% featuring three or more goals with him compared to 69% without him.

Wigan v Bolton

These two unpredictable teams meet on Monday evening and Bolton will be without Gavin McCann. The former Aston Villa midfielder has been one of Bolton’s best performers in the past few seasons and his dogged presence has been severely missed when he has been absent, as the Wanderers have conceded 2.10 goals per game in the 21 matches he has missed since the start of last season compared to just 1.27 gpg conceded in the 33 matches he has played. Probably as a result of having to chase games following conceding more often, they have seen the number of goals they have scored increase from 1.03 to 1.43 per game when McCann has been out of the team. As a result there has been a very significant increase in matches with +2.5 goals – up from 33% with McCann to 76% without.