TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR and Arsenal will meet at Wembley Stadium on Saturday in the second North London derby of the Premier League season.
As ever, the stakes are high.
The two teams are separated by only four points in fifth and sixth place respectively, and are battling to unseat one of their rivals in the top four positions in order to secure their place in next season’s Champions League.
But there is also plenty of intrigue on an individual basis.
Two-time Golden Boot winner and current Premier League top scorer Harry Kane is set to lead the line for Spurs, while the Gunners’ attack has been bolstered by the club-record £60m arrival of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the final day of the January transfer window.
As these two world-class hitmen prepare to face off, our friends at Football Whispers have taken a look and Kane and Aubameyang’s statistics to see who has the edge.
Initially written off as a one-season wonder following his breakout 2014/15 campaign, there are few doubters left for Kane to silence.
The 24-year-old England star netted his 100th Premier League goal last time out against Liverpool at Anfield, and is now widely regarded as one of the very best No.9s in the world.
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Arsenal thought they had solved their striking issues with the £52m signing of Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon last summer.
But with nine goals from 27 appearances in his first season at the Emirates, Arsene Wenger decided the France international wasn’t offering enough fire power, moving to bring in Aubameyang last month.
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The Gabonese striker bagged on his debut for the Gunners against Everton last week, taking his combined Premier League and Bundesliga tally for the season so far to 14.
That still leaves Aubameyang some way short of Kane, though, who is on course to claim the Premier League Golden Boot for the third season in a row, with his 22 strikes one more than Liverpool’s Egyptian magician Mohamed Salah in the scoring charts.
Former Manchester City transfer target Aubameyang does, however, lead Kane when it comes to assists, creating three goals for colleagues in Germany, while the Spurs No.10 has only provided one Premier League assist this season.
And although Kane has played more league minutes than Aubameyang so far this term, he is proving a more regular scorer, finding the net every 97.18 minutes on average – a phenomenally prolific return.
Aubameyang’s average of 107.6 minutes per goal is impressive in its own right, but still leaves the former AC Milan man tailing in Kane’s wake.
The ex-Dortmund star is proving to be a more clinical finisher than Kane though, ruthlessly dispatching the chances he receives with a conversion rate of 23 per cent, significantly better than Kane’s 15.07 per cent conversion rate.
Between them, the pair have scored a staggering 146 league goals since the start of the 2015/16 season. Kane is currently leading the way with 76 goals to Aubameyang’s 70 in that period.
There is never any shortage of quality on show in the North London derby. But with two of Europe’s best strikers lining up on opposite sides, in Kane and Aubameyang, Spurs and Arsenal both possesses frightening firepower.
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