Mata a better bet than Van Persie to score against Arsenal

Robin van Persie will generate most of the headlines when making his Emirates return with Manchester United and given that he has scored in all three previous meetings with Arsenal, he will rightly be a popular choice to find the target again.

Van Persie’s odds are 5/1 to score first and 5/4 to net at any time in the 90 minutes against Arsenal and not only has he been on the scoresheet in the last five renewals between these two clubs, he has also scored in all three of his Man Utd appearances in 2014.

However, he is not the only Man Utd player that arrives at the Emirates with a great track record of scoring against Arsenal. Juan Mata is another that can count the Gunners among his favourite opposition.

Man Utd may have only taken four points from the three Premier League games that Mata has started since joining for a club-record fee from Chelsea, but the diminutive Spaniard has contributed an assist in each of these encounters with Cardiff, Stoke and Fulham.

But a trip to the Emirates may prove the stage where Mata promotes himself from supporting cast to headline act, given that he scored in all four of his starts for Chelsea against Arsene Wenger’s men.

Mata does look a big price at 4/1 to score against Arsenal again, while he must be worth a small saver at 11/1 to break the deadlock.

If Mata is to score though, he will surely need to become a more frequent shooter than he has been since joining Man Utd. In his three games, Mata has only fired in seven efforts and only one of these has hit the target.

Looking at the match betting, Arsenal are 23/20 in the Premier League betting to beat Man Utd, with David Moyes’ team 5/2 to condemn the Gunners to back-to-back league defeats for the first time in over 12 months.

New customers can also profit from a special price of 3/1 that both Arsenal and Man Utd score in the clash. See here for more information.