Arsenal vs. Sporting Lisbon Betting Tips: Best bets for Europa League clash at The Emirates

Arsenal face Sporting Lisbon in the second leg of their Europa League Round of 16 tie on Thursday and we’ve called upon the services of Anthony Eadson to provide us with two bets for the game. 

The first leg between these two sides finished 2-2 out in Portugal last week and Arsenal still have plenty of work to do if they are to progress to the last eight. The Gunners are the second in the outright market to go on and lift the Europa League trophy this season, priced at 11/4 to do so, behind favourites Manchester United (15/8).

Sporting find themselves fourth in their domestic standings, 15 points behind league leaders Porto. With that in mind, even more emphasis should be put on their Europa League campaign with Ruben Amorim’s side out at 4/1 in the betting to advance to the quarter-finals.

Arsenal can be backed at 1/6 to qualify, while in the match result market, Mikel Arteta’s men are 1/3 to get the win. The draw is on show at 17/4, with a big away win for Sporting priced at 7/1 with bet365.

The main selection we are backing at The Emirates on Thursday is for Arsenal to concede under 10.5 fouls. This is available with Unibet, who at the time of writing are offering odds of 9/10. 

Only two sides in the Premier League are averaging less fouls conceded per game this season than Arsenal (9.3). This bet has landed in all of Arsenal’s last six matches with totals of 4,9,6,5,9. We can see the hosts taking the lead here and managing the game well with plenty of possession and we therefore think this bet holds some value at just below even money.

We are also recommending a small stakes bet on Thomas Partey to score from outside the box, which is on show at 11/1 with either the Betfair Sportsbook or Paddy Power.

In nine home league matches this season, Partey has scored three goals. Two of those have arrived from outside the area. The midfielder averages 0.9 shots per game in 2022/2023, but when looking at just home matches that figure increases to 1.5 shots per game. Bet365 go 15/2 on this same selection, so we’d recommend the double-figure offering from Betfair and Paddy Power.