Tottenham vs Arsenal Betting 03/03/13

• March 02, 2013
• Jack Teague

Tottenham vs Arsenal Betting Preview

The North London derby has produced some exciting fixtures over recent years and Sunday's clash between Tottenham and Arsenal should be no different. With both sides fighting for Champions League places, victory for either side would provide a massive boost to their confidence. Tottenham have had a superb season and find themselves in third place, moving ahead of Chelsea after Monday's last minute 3-2 win over West Ham. Meanwhile, Arsenal's fortunes have been very different, currently sat in 5 th place but with four wins and a draw from their last five Premier League matches.

Tottenham's Recent Results:

West Ham 2-3 Tottenham ( Bale (x2), Sigurdsson ) Lyon 1-1 Tottenham ( Dembele ) Tottenham 2-1 Lyon ( Bale (x2) ) Tottenham 2-1 Newcastle ( Bale (x2) )

After an indecisive start following his takeover from Harry Redknapp, Andre Villas Boas has settled in at Tottenham and has propelled them to 15 wins from 27 Premier League matches and booked a place in the last 16 of the Europa League.

Even without star striker Jermaine Defoe and a lacklustre season from Emmanuel Adebayor, Spurs have managed to produce solid team performances and do just enough necessary for victory. This is proven by their knack for winning by just a single goal, having done so on ten occasions this season.

The stand out player for Tottenham has been Gareth Bale, who over the past few months has established himself as one of the greatest midfielders in the world, drawing comparisons to Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo. From Tottenham's last 10 goals Bale has scored 8 of them, making him one of the most prolific goal scorers in England and earning him Premier League player of the month in February. Stan James offer a generous 11/8 for Bale to score on Sunday.

Arsenal's Recent Results:

Arsenal 2-1 Aston Villa ( Cazorla (x2) ) Arsenal 1-3 Bayern Munich ( Podolski ) Arsenal 0-1 Blackburn Sunderland 0-1 Arsenal ( Cazorla )

Despite failures in the cup, Arsenal have begun to climb back up the Premier League table and find themselves just two points off fourth placed Chelsea heading into the weekend's matches. Similarly to their rivals, Arsenal managed to do just enough in must win games against Aston Villa, Sunderland and Stoke in February.

Santi Cazorla's 85 th minute winner against struggling Aston Villa last weekend has put them within touching distance of Tottenham, and would reduce the gap to just one point with victory on Sunday. With constant talk of Arsene Wenger's job being on the line after 16 seasons in charge, a much needed win this weekend would go a long way to securing Champions League football for a club that haven't finished outside the top four since 1996.

Lukas Podolski has made a subtle impact at Arsenal since his move from FC Koln in the summer, scoring 13 goals and 11 assists from 33 appearances. In the first meeting between the two clubs in November, he scored one and set up another and is best priced at 10/3 with William Hill to score in the return fixture this weekend.

Last time the sides met Arsenal came out 5-2 winners over a 10-man Tottenham side who saw the brilliance and stupidity of Adebayor within 20 minutes of football. From a total of 163 matches between the two teams, Arsenal have won 68 and Tottenham just 51. However, at White Hart Lane Tottenham have won 39% of their matches, grabbing victory 31 times to Arsenal's 25.

The last eight games between Tottenham and Arsenal have seen a total of 39 goals, averaging almost 5 goals a game. With extra incentive to win this match there are bound to be goals and Bet Victor price over 3.5 goals at 9/5 .

As with all derby matches the likelihood of fouls and yellow cards increase dramatically, as do the possibility of rash tackles, shown by Adebayor's recklessness in November. William Hill price a red card at some point during the 90 minutes at 5/2 , whilst Tottenham are 17/10 to receive the most booking points with Ladbrokes at 17/10 .

Although history shows that matches between these two teams often end with a winner, the importance of this match and the match up of the two teams could well cancel each other out. A draw would leave both sides battling it out week in week out until the last game of the season, with the possibility of a final day showdown for 3 rd and 4 th place.

Prediction: Tottenham 2-2 Arsenal - Best priced at 14/1 with Betfred

• Jack Teague Jack is a sports writer covering football, cricket and NFL, and provides readers of Free Bet Finder with regular winning tips. Follow me