The North London derby always brings with it rivalries all over the pitch, but the most closely contested battle this season is probably between the two teams’ strikers.

Right now, thanks partly to an injury to Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Harry Kane are the starting strikers for Arsenal and Tottenham respectively. Let’s have a look at how the two compare:

Firstly, if we look at the Premier League top scorers, Aubameyang currently has the lead. The Arsenal man has eight goals to Kane’s seven, and both have one assist. However, in all competitions, Kane has 11 goals to Aubameyang’s 10.

That’s largely thanks to the fact that there’s no competition for places at Tottenham. Kane is their only option every week, so he rarely misses a minute of football. He’s up to 1,614 minutes already this season. Meanwhile, Aubameyang has to fight for his spot with Lacazette, so he’s only played 1,164.

If we look at goals per minute, Aubameyang has one every 116 minutes, whilst Kane was one every 147.

How did they match up in previous seasons?

It doesn’t make much sense to compare the two before the 2014/15 season. Aubameyang often played as a winger, and Kane wasn’t a regular for the Tottenham first team until then.

Looking at the last four full seasons, Kane scored 135 goals and assisted 20 (including penalties won). Aubameyang also scored 135, but he assisted 35. The two made a very similar number of appearances, with Kane making 187 and Aubameyang making 179.

It’s clear that the two are almost identical in their goalscoring rate, with Aubameyang just about edging ahead. However, the Gabonese striker has clearly been much better at making goals for his teammates in the past. Let’s hope that’s the case again on Sunday.