Arsenal v Tottenham: Entertaining North London Derby expected

Arsenal sweep Brentford aside

Arsenal sit top of the Premier League table after the Gunners swept Brentford aside in an impressive 3-0 success before the international break. William Saliba set Mikel Arteta's men on their way to a sixth win in seven top-flight games after climbing high to head Bukayo Saka's corner in off the post and Gabriel Jesus made it two inside the opening half an hour.

Portuguese midfielder Fabio Vieira capped a dominant Arsenal display by marking his first Premier League start since joining from Porto with a goal from 25 yards. And the Gunners were comfortable enough for Arteta to be able to field debutant Ethan Nwaneri from the bench, the 15-year-old schoolboy becoming the youngest ever Premier League player.

Despite the absence of influential captain Martin Odegaard, Arteta's outfit impressed and the Arsenal chief was understandably delighted with his team's efforts. However, the hosts are sweating on the fitness of a number of players ahead of Saturday's North London derby following the latest round of international fixtures.

Mohamed Elneny and Emile Smith Rowe had already been ruled out of the fixture, but early returns from international duty for injury prone stars Thomas Partey, Kieran Tierney and Takerhiro Tomiyasu leaves the Gunners squad stretched. There are also question marks surrounding Oleksandr Zinchenko, Odegaard and Cedric Soares' involvement.

Son turns on the style for Tottenham

Tottenham maintained their unbeaten start to the new Premier League campaign as they climbed level on points with Manchester City in second following a 6-2 thrashing of Leicester before the international break. Son Heung-min ended his goal drought with a scintillating 13-minute hat-trick as Spurs ruthlessly punished the Foxes' latest horror show.

The South Korean responded to Antonio Conte's decision to drop him to the bench after a barren start to the season by coming on to curl home two fantastic strikes and slot home a late third. Tottenham had trailed to an early penalty but took advantage of the Foxes' set-piece failings as Harry Kane and Eric Dier nodded home from corners to turn the tide.

Rodrigo Bentancur was also on-target before substitute Son stole the show. And Conte was keen to emphasise the importance of rotation of his squad post-match, saying: "To have a player of this level on the bench, it means in one moment I can change the game. Today the rotation was for Son, and he's made a massive impact for us and won us the game."

Spurs make the short journey across the capital with a largely fully fit squad. Hugo Lloris and Ben Davies are expected to shake-off knocks to be involved, whilst Lucas Moura should also be available if required. Cristiano Romero is likely to be recalled in the heart of defence.

Gunners fair favourites

Arsenal have won two of the last three Premier League meetings with Tottenham (W2-D0-L1) and taken top honours in each of their most recent two head-to-heads at The Emirates. The Gunners boast a super strong long-term return when hosting Spurs, suffering a solitary league defeat in the duos past 29 encounters here (W17-D11-L1), last losing back in 2010.

Arsenal 2.111/10 are a point clear at the summit of the embryonic league standings following an almost flawless start (W6-D0-L1). The Gunners are joint-second on Expected Points (xP) and Expected Goals (xG) ratio, suggesting the hosts are flying high on merit. However, their home record against top-six finishers reads just W6-D2-L7 under Mikel Arteta's watch

Tottenham 3.8014/5 are one of two sides still unbeaten in the Premier League this term (W5-D2-L0), with only Manchester City (23) netting more goals than Antonio Conte's side (18). Spurs are aiming to remain unbeaten in their opening eight EPL outings for just the second occasion, whilst the visitors have W8-D6-L3 in road trips under the Italian's stewardship.

Goals forecast for NLD showdown

The goal expectancy for Saturday afternoon's shootout has been set at 2.90 with the market favouring the Over 2.5 Goals option at 1.748/11. A hefty 18 of the last 22 North London derby dust-ups in the Premier League have produced profitable Both Teams To Score 1.654/6 selections with 14 of those fixtures going on to feature a minimum of three strikes.

Arsenal haven't kept a clean sheet in any of their last eight Premier League home games, and considering Tottenham have notched at least once in each of their past 10 meetings with the Gunners in all competitions, backing another goal-heavy game appeals. Combining Over 2.5 Goals and Both Teams To Score returns a reasonable 1.824/5 on the Bet Builder.

Betfair are giving punters the opportunity to earn a £2 free bet when placing a £2 Bet Builder on Saturday's showdown. With that in mind, backing Both Teams To Score, Over 2.5 Goals and Gabriel Jesus to score or assist comes in at an eye-catching 2.942/1; Jesus has seven goal involvements already, as well as a 0.78 xG + xA output per-90 minutes this season.

Xhaka of old?

Granit Xhaka has been deployed in more of an advaned role this season, though we all know his live for all things cards.

The Betfair Superboost for this match is for the Swiss midfielder to commit 1+ fouls, boosed to EVS.