Key Battle: Ibrahimovic Vs Van Dijk

Can Zlatan Ibrahimovic score on his home debut? He'll have to get past Virgil van Dijk first. We check the stats and assess the battle...

Having already scored on his Man Utd and Premier League debuts, Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be looking to complete an early season hat-trick by scoring on his official home debut against Southampton on Friday night.

The summer arrival from PSG would become the 20th player to score on his Old Trafford debut for Man Utd in the PL era, and he'll be hopeful his legacy is more closely associated to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Dwight Yorke and Ruud van Nistelrooy than to Jordi Cruyff, Federico Macheda and Nick Powell, all of whom are among the previous 19 players to have achieved the feat.

In the major five European leagues last season, only Barcelona's Luis Suarez hit the net more often than Ibrahimovic, who managed to outscore the other famous names in the list below in terms of minutes-per-goal, despite being three years older than any of those direct rivals.

Incidentally, five of Ibrahimović's 38 goals last season came in two Ligue 1 meetings against Nice and Claude Puel, the Frenchman who is now in charge of Southampton.

With his 35th birthday only seven weeks away, whether age begins to catch up with Ibrahimovic remains to be seen, but there is precedent for players in their 30s having prolific Premier League seasons.

Seven different players, including Alan Shearer (twice), have scored 20 or more Premier League goals having started a season in their 30s, although it should be noted that the oldest of that group - Shearer at 33 in 2003/04 - was still a year younger than Ibrahimovic is now.

The man leading the Southampton defence looking to stifle Ibrahimovic on Friday will be Virgil van Dijk. At 6ft 4in, the Dutchman is well placed to cope with any aerial threat posed by Ibrahimovic - who is 6ft 5in and marked his Manchester United debut with a headed goal in the Community Shield.
Since joining Southampton 11 months ago, Van Dijk leads the way for both headed clearances and aerial duels won by defenders in the Premier League.

He has also maintained an impressive ever-present record, one of only five players yet to miss a minute of Premier League action since September last year. With only 29 fouls and three yellow cards in 35 appearances, suspension has certainly never been a concern for Van Dijk.

Van Dijk's move to Southampton last year was swiftly followed by his first international cap for Netherlands in October 2015. Since then, he has become a mainstay of the Dutch defence, starting seven of their last eight internationals.
At 25 years old, he still has time on his side to close the gap on the most-capped Dutch defenders to play in the PL era, and to enhance his steadily growing reputation, starting by snuffing out Ibrahimovic on Friday night.

Credit: Skysports.com