Zaha and Hazard most fouled players in Premier League

Gill writes in his column for the 'Mail Online'; 'On one side will be Eden Hazard, Chelsea's expert at drawing fouls. On the other will be Wilfried Zaha, the Crystal Palace winger who is never far from hitting the deck.'.

However, the statistics do not lie, and in spite of some of his theatrical attempts in recent years, Zaha  is not far behind Hazard when it comes to fouls received. 

Over the course of the last five seasons, Zaha has been fouled 365 times, whereas Belgian Hazard has been fouled 392 times in the same period. 

Granted they are the danger men for their respective teams, and as such, they may receive rougher treatment than most when in possession of the ball. And so, it is staggering that even so, Hazard is clearly treated worse than Zaha, albeit if the media is not full of stories stating so. 

In fact, in recent weeks the media have been focussed on the treatment handed out to Zaha, because the player has been very vocal in criticisng the challenges he has received as of late. 

And perhaps that is a key difference between the two players. On one side, Zaha is flamboyant for all the wrong reasons, whereas when Hazard receives a good kicking, he simply gets back up, and scores the winning goal in a match. 

As pointed out by Gill in his column: 'Hazard and Zaha have their differences in this department. While one tends to get up and on with it, the other likes to complain. You can guess who is who.'

Gill concluded:'The Palace talisman in particular has been branded someone who goes down too easily, after winning penalties against Everton and Arsenal in back-to-back weeks.Yet he and Hazard do not dive over and over. They win them because of the skills they have when the ball is at their feet. They win them because their pace in an ever-present danger.'

At present, Zaha leads the fouls table, having been brought down 30 times in the 10 matches played in the English top flight  while Hazard is just behind with 26 committed against him so far. 

To end  on a positive note, both players have continued to shine for their respective sides at the start of the current season; Palace seem lost without the presence of Zaha, and Hazard is single-handedly-at-times insuring that Chelsea keep pace with Manchester City at the top of the table