Friday night presents a clash between two West Midlands sides looking to clinch a crucial three points at the top end of the Sky Bet Championship table, as West Bromwich Albion prepare to host Aston Villa at The Hawthorns.

It's bound to be a cracker in front of the Sky Sports cameras - not only are both sides on decent runs of form, but both the Baggies and the Villans score freely and concede their fair share of goals too.

Darren Moore's men are the top scorers in the league having scored 42 goals, as well as conceding 28 times, whereas Dean Smith's Villa have scored 17 goals in their last five games, adding to their tally of 39 for the season, conceding 30 goals in the process.

You get the feeling that if both teams can sort their defences out, they can be real forces to be reckoned with in the second-half of the league campaign.

Two players whose performances have dramatically improved since the earlier stages of the campaign are Albion's Ahmed Hegazi, and Villa's James Chester, and here, we take a look at their season stats so far...

After impressing for Egypt at the World Cup, Baggies fans were hoping that Hegazi could banish his blues from last season and be an integral player for Albion this term, after pledging his future to the club at the start of the season.

And, after a disappointing start to the season by his standards, the 27-year old has considerably improved under Moore - he may not have helped keep as many clean sheets as he would have liked to initially, but he contributes in other areas of the pitch.

Hegazi averages 1.9 tackles per game, which is 0.8 higher than his Villa counterparts, and also comes out on top in aerial duels too, averaging 4.6 per game.

Going forward, the Egyptian is dangerous - he's assisted one and scored one in 18 games this season - not a bad contribution from a centre-half, however Villa captain Chester comes out on top in this department.

The Welsh international may not have assisted this term, but with four goals to his name in 19 matches, it's clear that he is a huge threat aerially.

Chester, like Hegazi, endured a very tough start to the season, partnering midfielder Mile Jedinak in a makeshift back-line under former Villa chief Steve Bruce, keeping just one clean sheet in 12 league games.

But having gone onto win 6.5 average clearances per game, as well as 3.9 average aerial duels and 1.1 average tackles per game, it's evident that Chester has flourished under Dean Smith, next to Axel Tuanzebe.

It's bound to be a cracker between two revitalised units on Friday night...