Arsenal v Tottenham Betting: Get behind the usual suspects in the North London derby

The North London derby is the stand out Premier League fixture on Sunday with Spurs making the short trip to the Emirates. Arsenal have avoided defeat in 24 of their last 26 games against Tottenham on home soil and with both sides desperate to pick up the win to keep hopes of finishing in a European qualification place alive, we’re hopeful of a good game.

Last weekend at BettingOdds.com we took a dive into disciplinary data in recent Manchester derbies and provided you with a 3/1 winner on Harry Maguire to be carded. That’s nine yellows in 14 games for the Manchester United captain against City in his career now, however this week we’ve analysed the recent meetings between Arsenal and Spurs.

Both yellow cards and shots on target are on the menu this weekend and off the back of our findings we’ve provided a selection for the game that the good folk over at Paddy Power have boosted to 7/1. You can also find a full preview for the game along with three football tips for the game from the insightful @TipsterWizard.

Usual Suspects

North London derbies can often be fiery affairs and there have been 36 yellows and two red cards shown in the last six meetings between these two sides in all competitions. Obviously neither Spurs or Arsenal will have played exactly the same players in these six fixtures but by looking at the names below of the players to pick up the most yellow cards, there’s one name that jumps out.

Most Yellow Cards in the last six North London derbies

• Granit Xhaka: 5
• Alexandre Lacazette: 3
• Dele Alli: 2
• Erik Lamela: 2
• Harry Winks: 2
• Serge Aurier: 2

It’s common knowledge to the average armchair fan that Granit Xhaka has a tendency to pick up a large amount of yellow cards. The Swiss International received ten during last season's league campaign with only three players collecting more in Jefferson Lerma, Luka Milivojevic and Romain Saiss.

With five yellows and a red in this season’s Premier League campaign, Granit has been picking up cards at a steady rate. However his prices are often rather short with bookmakers and he can often be around the 6/4 mark to find his way into the notebook. When it comes to recent North London derbies however, Xhaka’s record is remarkable, with five bookings in his last six against Spurs he’s been a prolific offender of the last couple of years and it would be no surprise to see him extend that run on Sunday.

King Kane tops of the pile in the shots stats

All six of the last North London derbies have included over 1.5 goals and with Sunday in mind we’ve taken a look at the players in the Premier League to have the most shots per game this season to see if any names crop up from either Spurs or Arsenal. We’ve kept this to players who have played a minimum of ten games.

As we can see Harry Kane has the highest shots per game average of any player in the league so far this term, but how does he fare when it comes to hitting the target? Again we’ve only included players to have played over ten games in our findings.

Most shots on target per game - Premier League 2020/2021

• Harry Kane: 1.44
• Dominic Calvert-Lewin: 1.43
• Mohamed Salah: 1.38
• Patrick Bamford: 1.37
• Bruno Fernandes: 1.33
• Anwar El Ghazi: 1.25
• Ollie Watkins: 1.20

In a season where he is supposedly playing in a deeper, more creative role, Harry Kane is still having the most shots per game of any player this season and is also hitting the target more than anyone else. His stats are remarkable when you also consider that the England International has 13 assists and 16 goals to his name, with eleven matches still remaining this season.

The Bet

We supplied you with a winner on Sunday’s big game last week we’re hoping to do the same this time round with a 7/1 double on Granit Xhaka to be carded and Harry Kane to have two or more shots on target. At the time of writing, 7/1 looks by far the best out there although not all firms offer the ability to combine selections from the shots and cards markets so we’d be recommending Paddy Power with this one.

The referee for the game on Sunday will be Michael Oliver who currently ranks ninth of 19 officials when it comes to yellow cards per game shown this season, with an average of 2.9 per game. We think that more cards will be shown than Oliver’s average of 2.9 on Sunday due to local bragging rights being at stake and the need for both teams to pick up vital points. Granit Xhaka can hopefully be at the forefront of any action and land himself in the book for the sixth time in seven games against Spurs

Michael Oliver has also awarded more penalties than any other official this season and that may well be an advantage for us with Harry Kane being on penalty duty for Spurs and our bet needing the 27-year-old to have two or more shots on target. Kane is in good form at the moment and has landed two shots on target in all four of his last games. No player in the league is letting off more shots per game at the moment and with all things considered, we’re more than happy to get behind this double at 7/1.

If having a bet on the game, please remember to do so responsibly.