Sheffield United have only managed one clean sheet so far this season, coming in a narrow 1-0 home victory against Brentford. However, The Bees’ were missing key players such as Ivan Toney and Bryan Mbeumo in attack, and Rico Henry and Kristoffer Ajer in defence.

The Gunners are expected to capitalise on Sheffield United’s poor defensive record. They currently have the second-highest average goals scored per game (2.38) in the Premier League, having scored just one goal less than Liverpool. Further, Arsenal have also been solid at the back, conceding the lowest amount of goals in the league (23).

Mikel Arteta has acknowledged that, given how close the top of the table is, Arsenal may have to rely on goal difference to win the Premier League. Another high-scoring victory will be desirable for The Gunners on Monday evening, and this seems to be Arteta’s aim:

“First of all you have to earn the right to win the games and then we want to be ruthless and efficient in front of goal. Lately I think we’ve been really good”.

This narrative opens up some interesting angles in the handicap betting markets, especially given the low odds of simply backing an Arsenal win. These markets require Arsenal to win by a certain margin, e.g. Arsenal (-2.0) would mean they effectively start two goals down and would need to win by three or more goals.

Bukayo Saka has been Arsenal’s golden boy this season, seeing 20 goal involvements in the Premier League so far, the most of any Arsenal player and the fourth-highest in the league. He is also on red-hot form, scoring in each of his last five appearances, with two of these five seeing him net a brace.

With such high goal contributions, Saka naturally records high shots and shots on target. He has seen averages of 3.00 shots and 1.02 shots on target so far this season and has recorded at least two shots on target in four of his last five games.

Another player to watch is Gabriel Jesus, who is due to return from injury for this clash. Jesus has seen high averages of 3.38 shots and 1.32 shots on target in the Premier League, the most of any player in Arsenal’s starting XI. In his last league match before injury, playing away at Forest, he showed his talent: winning man of the match with a goal and an assist – as well as six shots (two on target).

The Gunners have scored the most goals from headers in the Premier League (14), regularly using their height advantage. The centre-back pairing of William Saliba and Gabriel already have six goals between them, and have been averaging 0.3 and 0.9 shots per game respectively.

Arsenal have taken the second most corners in the Premier League, averaging 7.54 per game. Away from home they have been seeing similar numbers, averaging 7.15. Sheffield United rank top in terms of corners conceded per match, averaging 7.23. It looks likely for Arsenal to continue using their aerial advantage to score goals, and given the stats, Arsenal are likely to see plenty of corners here.

Sheffield United have received the second most yellow cards in the Premier League (73), averaging 3.12 per match. They’ve also accumulated the second-highest red cards (4) and an average 11.5 fouls per game. Last time out against Arsenal they met their average and received three bookings with 13 fouls committed. The Gunners have been winning lots of fouls recently, averaging 10.88 per match. This has also seen their opponents average 2.42 bookings per game.

No Blades player has picked up more bookings than Anel Ahmedhozic, who has eight bookings and an average of 1.3 fouls per match. He’s been on high fouling form recently too, going in the book four times across his last seven Premier League appearances.

Another Sheffield United player likely to foul on Monday night is Oliver Norwood, who received one of his six bookings so far this season in his last game against Arsenal. He will again be up against a technical Arsenal midfield who are likely to draw plenty of fouls, especially Kai Havertz who draws an average of 1.56 fouls per match.