The Notable and Historic Stats in North London Derbies

DATE_FORMAT_LC5 1572

The first north London derby of the season is upon us this weekend, as Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur battle at the Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

Let’s take a look back at important and notable stats down the years of this famous derby.

Arsenal the Overall Leaders

Unsurprisingly given the history of the two teams on the domestic front, it is Arsenal who boast of the most wins in this intense derby. From a total of 195 competitive meetings, the Gunners have won 82 games compared to Spurs' 61 and the other 52 draws.

Arsenal also won the most recent derby, which was also at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, as Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka scored a goal each alongside an own goal from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.

Harry Kane the Top Marksman

A man who needs no introduction to north London and the Premier League is the legendary goalscorer, Harry Kane. England and Spurs’ all-time top scorer has managed to rack up 14 goals for Tottenham against Arsenal, some of which have been absolutely incredible to watch.

As for Arsenal, their record is at eight goals by one individual player with Emmanuel Adebayor, Alan Sunderland and Robert Pires all scoring that amount. Adebayor, ironically, would later go on to play for Spurs and actually score four times against the Gunners in the white of Tottenham.

David O'Leary Leads the Way With Most Appearances

David O'Leary spent most of his 20-year playing career at Arsenal and collected 722 appearances, meaning no other player has played more for the north London side than he has.

During this lengthy stay at Highbury, O’Leary managed to play in 35 north London derbies, while Gary Mabbutt and Steve Perryman played in the most for Tottenham with 31 derbies each.

Over 2.5 Goals is a Common Feature

In the past 40 north London derbies (20 at Arsenal, 20 at Tottenham) an incredible array of goals have come in.

In fact, there have been over 2.5 goals in 26 of the past 40 fixtures between Arsenal and Tottenham, with 20 of those fixtures taking place at Tottenham and the other 20 at Arsenal, making it one of England’s highest-scoring derbies in recent times.

This has seen ridiculous scorelines like a 5-4, 5-2, 5-2 and 4-2 win for Arsenal and high-scoring draws, such as a 3-3 draw back in 2011.

This means the north London derby has seen more goals than the Merseyside derby and the Manchester derby in this time.