Build Ups Tipsheet: Player vs player match-ups to watch out for this weekend | OneFootball

Build Ups

McGinn is an attacking threat down Villa's left

Ste Tudor picks out the best value from hundreds of player duels taking place on Premier League pitches in the coming days.

Football... Only Bettor. Watch the latest episode now.

🔗 Spotify

Betfair's Build Ups tool allows you to pit one player against another and with a full Premier League schedule this weekend that means a whole plethora of duels will come to the fore.

Here's a pick of the bunch, starting in the Midlands where a repositioned midfielder is beginning to trouble goalkeepers...

Aston Villa v Fulham

John McGinn to have more shots on target than Alex Iwobi

The Scottish midfielder's versatility is never properly recognized beyond Villa Park but it's certainly valued in-house. The 30-year-old has been deployed in six different positions this term, putting in solid performances wherever he's played.What especially intrigues about McGinn, however, is that his SOT-count directly correlates to where he is stationed. For instance, he has made 27 appearances this season either as an attacking midfielder, central midfielder, on the right, or as a DM. From this number he has accrued a meagre six shots on target.

When positioned on the left though there is a notable spike. McGinn has played there in three of Villa's last four games and has subsequently averaged 1.4 SOT per 90.

With Marcus Rashford unavailable at the weekend he may very well start there again.

His counterpart will likely be Alex Iwobi, who can chip in with multiple SOT down Fulham's left but alas all-too-rarely. Indeed, in exactly half of his appearances this term he has failed to post a single SOT.

It's telling too that only 29% of Iwobi's shots on target in 2024/25 have been executed away from Craven Cottage.

Leicester v Southampton

Kamaldeen Sulemana to commit more fouls than Wilfred Ndidi

There are certain truths in football we all hold to be self-evident. Liverpool captains should never be likeable. English managers should only win silverware once in a blue moon. And wingers should never out-foul combative midfielders.

That last truth is especially applicable when the midfielder in question is a card-merchant, picking up eight bookings this term.

Yet here we are. In his last six outings, when not flying down Southampton's left flank, Sulemana has committed 11 fouls. In that same period, Ndidi has committed eight.

There is no recency bias here either. In 2025, the Ghanaian winger has committed a foul every 59.1 minutes for the Saints. Ndidi has erred every 64.5 minutes.

Arsenal v Bournemouth

Milos Kerkez to draw more fouls than Myles Lewis-Skelly

Sometimes a theory is persuasive enough to make us look beyond the numbers. Such is the way when backing the Bournemouth defender to win more fouls than his left-back counterpart Lewis-Skelly at the Emirates this Saturday.

The Arsenal teenager has drawn 3.02 fouls per 90 this season which well and truly trumps Kerkez's 1.34. In recent weeks he has twice been impeded on five occasions in a single game.

So far, so comprehensive, but perhaps it's pertinent that both of those games were in the Champions League. And here lies the theory.

When Lewis-Skelly broke through at the tail-end of last year he was immediately targeted by Premier League opposition. He was young and slight. There were attempts to physically intimidate him.

It quickly became apparent that the youngster was made of stern stuff, however; that he had the mentality to succeed at this level as well as the ability. And subsequently his fouls drawn stats have leveled off of late, domestically at least. In his last five league outings, Lewis-Skelly has been fouled 12 times to Kerkez's 10. That's close enough to take a punt on the Cherries man.

Chelsea v Liverpool

Noni Madueke to have more shots than Luis Diaz

After a six-week lay-off with a hamstring problem it took Madueke a couple of games to get back into the swing of things. After taking on 14 shots in his last five appearances it's fair to say he's there again.

That figure is even more impressive when we break it down to minutes, with the England star coming off the bench for one game and withdrawn at the break in two of them. It amounts to a shot undertaken every 19 minutes going back to early April. In the game prior - away to Legia Warsaw - the 23-year-old only took on two efforts. He did score from both, mind.

Madueke should be fancied over the Colombian at the Bridge this weekend despite the fact that Diaz boasts a handful of threes and fours per 90 in recent weeks for attempts on goal.

What counts against the Liverpool man is the extent in which his shot-count dwindles away from home compared to Anfield. That wasn't the case across the first half of his campaign but is certainly relevant now.

In his last 15 appearances in all comps, Diaz has taken on 24 shots. Just seven have left his boot outside of Merseyside.