Arsenal favourites for Spurs clash
Arsenal have been labelled favourites to claim a vital win in Wednesday evening's North London Derby against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.
The match has big ramifications for both teams, with Spurs seeking a win to close the gap on Manchester City in the race for fourth place, and Arsenal knowing a win would take them above Manchester United into second place in the Premier League.
With so much at stake this could be the most explosive match between these two in years... either that or it will end up as a low-scoring draw as it usually does at The Lane.
The last time Spurs beat Arsenal in the league was in 1999, since then there have been seven draws from the nine games so is 9/4 on another draw the most sensible bet?
FourFourTwo's betting partner Paddy Power make Spurs 11/5 to get the home win whilst the Gunners are 5/4 favourites.
11/5 Spurs Win
9/4 Draw
5/4 Arsenal Win
While Aaron Lennon is still sidelined, Theo Walcott has another window of opportunity to impress England manager Fabio Capello.
After an FA Cup semi final defeat on that energy-sapping Wembley pitch, the one thing Spurs defenders do not want to be doing is chasing Walcott up and down their left flank.
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So Paddy Power could potentially come to the rescue of hordes of disappointed punters on Wednesday night because if Walcott scores the last goal they will refund all losing first goalscorer, correct score and scorecast bets on the match.
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How much the Portsmouth defeat will affect Spurs remains to be seen, but the games don’t get any easier for Spurs after Arsenal; its Chelsea on Saturday and then a trip to Old Trafford next week.
They have plenty of striking options to take advantage of the uncertainty in the Arsenal backline.
Sol Campbell could be back in defence for the Gunners and can expect a deluge of abuse from the Spurs fans, and Peter Crouch might just be the man to get ahead of Sol in the box for the first goal. 13/2 says he does that.
Jermain Defoe leads the market for Spurs at 9/2 but doesn’t have a good record against Arsenal, so you might be better advised looking at one of the midfielders if you don’t fancy Crouch. How about David Bentley against his old club at 12/1?
Robin van Persie is in the squad for this match although he’ll most likely start from the bench, but it’s 'Big Game Bendtner' that the Spurs defenders will have to contest with.
He might not be as technically gifted as Van Persie but his work rate is unquestionable and has scored plenty of important goals for Arsenal recently.
The two Arsenal strikers are both 9/2 chances for the opening goal but in Van Persie’s case you might be better advised backing him for the last goal at 9/2 as well.
First Scorers
9/2 Defoe
9/2 Bendtner
9/2 Van Persie
5/1 Eduardo
6/1 Walcott
13/2 Crouch
11/1 Nasri
12/1 Bentley
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So with a d
Gary Parkinson is a freelance writer, editor, trainer, muso, singer, actor and coach. He spent 14 years at FourFourTwo as the Global Digital Editor and continues to regularly contribute to the magazine and website, including major features on Euro 96, Subbuteo, Robert Maxwell and the inside story of Liverpool's 1990 title win. He is also a Bolton Wanderers fan.