Huddersfield v Spurs: Top of the table clash, of sorts…
Huddersfield and Spurs occupy the 2ndand 3rd spots in the table for Most Fouls committed in the Premier League this season with only Chelsea having more fouls. Our selection this weekend is built around this being a fixture between two teams who enjoy getting stuck in. The deeper you look into the statistics surrounding Mauricio Pochettino’s men the clearer an underlying disciplinary issue becomes. We will take a look at their, Foul and Card stats together with the referee appointment for the game and the impact Huddersfield alongside the likely offenders for Tottenham.
Spurs to have over 1.5 Team Cards @ 4/5
In the Premier League most Away team card markets will open at 2.5 cards and to find one with only 1.5 cards required is definitely something you should look into further. Spurs away to Huddersfield on the face of it looks a straightforward fixture which the visitors should win, so we will focus on the Team Cards market and show why there is a case to be made for our selection.
In games away from home this season, Tottenham currently rank 2nd for fouls committed, averaging 15 per game. With combative defenders like Toby Alderweireld having already picked up 3 bookings this season and combative midfielders such as Dele Alli and Erik Dier it is easy to see how fouls could stack up, especially given the style of play employed by the Argentine manager who encourages his side to hunt in packs and win the ball back as soon as possible. Huddersfield have a classy midfielder in Aaron Mooy who will look to get on the ball as much as possible and is more than capable of drawing fouls throughout the game.
On the card statistics, Spurs sit 7th away from home, picking up 2.33 cards on average per game and the Terriers currently draw 2.00 cards per game from opponents when playing at the John Smith’s Stadium, bearing in mind we only need 1.5 cards per game to win, this is a promising start. The man responsible for dishing out the cards on Saturday is Neil Swarbrick and given that this is the televised early kick off, referee’s tend to stamp their authority on the game as soon as possible which should play in our favour.
Swarbrick himself has taken charge of four Premier League games this season and averages 2.5 yellow cards per game, giving a booking every 8.4 fouls. Last season Swarbrick took charge of 24 games in the Premier League and across the season he handed out 3.71 bookings per game, which would play in our favour here. With Spurs committing 15 fouls per game, as we discussed above, and the referee booking players every 8.4 fouls the Over 1.5 cards for Spurs definitely looks like one to have a punt on or stick it in your accumulator.
Finally we look at who is going to get us the cards we need as a side bet. As discussed in previous articles when the spread is 1.5 cards you want to identify one definite offender for a booking – in this fixture Toby Alderweireld stands out as excellent value and certainly one to consider at a very generous price having already been booked 3 times this season, the Belgian has a nose for getting himself in trouble.
Toby Alderweireld to be booked @ 5/1