Tottenham travel to their North London rivals on Saturday looking to kick-start their season under new Coach Mauricio Pochettino, against an Arsenal side that appear to be experiencing familiar problems themselves.
Tottenham have begun to stutter in recent matches – since their 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool, they went a further three games without victory, ended only by a midweek win over Nottingham Forest in the League Cup.
The Gunners sit two points above their rivals, but have had far from a successful recent spell, themselves winning only one of their last five matches, away to Aston Villa, and being knocked-out of the League Cup at the hands of Southampton.
So both teams will be looking to the derby to build confidence upon which to challenge for the top four.
Who will be able to provide that spark on Saturday afternoon? Let’s look at the main points scorers for both sides heading into this clash.
Aaron Ramsey, thanks to some early season good form, currently heads the EFL points list for Arsenal with 55, closely followed on 45 by both new signing Alexis Sanchez, and centre-back Laurent Koscielny. Despite some early season criticism, Mesut Ozil has 40 points, making him the fourth best performing Gunner. Striker Danny Welbeck comes in with 30 points, level with Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs.
For Spurs, early season goals have made some higher points scorers at the top of table. Defender Eric Dier leads with 80 points, on the back of two goals, whilst Nacer Chadli has 70 points, scoring three times thus far. In third position on 50 points is Hugo Lloris, closely followed on 45 by club captain Younis Kaboul, and on 40 attacking midfielders Christian Eriksen and Erik Lamela.
Can these statistics tell us anything about how the game will go? The lack of points for strikers (30 a piece for Adebayor and Welbeck), suggest goals might come from midfield, and looking at the quality on offer in the centre of the park, this might be a good indication of where the points will be won.
To leave a comment, you must be logged into www.eurofantasyleague.com