Arsenal Wenger's men finished outside the top four in the Premier League for the first time since 1996 last season.
The Premier League will kick-off on a Friday night for the first time when Arsenal and Leicester meet, live on the Sky Sports Premier League channel.
However, Wenger salvaged the season by winning the FA Cup at
Wembley and he starts this campaign having signed a new two-year contract extension
in the summer.
Installed as fifth favourites to win the Premier League, Arsenal will be
looking to end a poor run of opening day results in recent years. The Gunners
have won only one of their last seven opening day Premier League fixtures,
losing three of the last four.
Meanwhile, Leicester, who start a campaign for the first time
under Craig Shakespeare, are on a 21-game winless run against Arsenal in the
Premier League (D7 L14), with their only win against the Gunners coming in
their first ever Premier League encounter in November 1994.
Team news
Arsenal will be without Alexis Sanchez for Friday's season opener
after the Chilean sustained an abdominal strain in training, while speculation
over his future continues.
Aside from Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Per Mertesacker and
Shkodran Mustafi are all doubts while Gabriel Paulista and Santi Cazorla are
longer-term absentees.
However, an injury to Leicester summer signing Vicente Iborra will
prevent him from making his maiden league appearance for the Foxes.
The Spanish midfielder, a £12.75m buy from Sevilla, sustained a
groin problem in training this week and the club are waiting for the results of
a scan to determine the length of his absence. His absence is a blow with Danny
Drinkwater (thigh) also out.
Ways to
watch
This
is the biggest Premier League season yet on Sky Sports -
and there are more ways than ever to follow the action from The Emirates
You
can watch the game live on Sky Sports Premier
League and Sky Sports
Main Event, with our TV build-up kicking-off at 7pm where Gary
Neville and Jamie Carragher will join host Kelly Cates pitch-side.
There
are a whole range of options to complement and enhance your viewing experience
with Sky Sports. You can watch the game on the move with Sky Go or follow our
live match blog, where Sky Sports customers will be able to watch all the major
incidents via our mobile clips service.
Opta stats
Arsenal have won each of their last 10 Premier League home
encounters with Leicester City; their joint longest winning streak at home
against a single opponent.
Jamie Vardy has scored Leicester City's last three goals against
Arsenal in the Premier League, scoring the opening goal twice. However, he is
yet to end up on the winning side.
Arsenal haven't lost three consecutive opening day fixtures since
1960.
Leicester have won just one of their last eight Premier League
games to start the season (4-2 over Sunderland in 2015, D4 L3).
Arsenal have never lost a Premier League game contested on a
Friday (W6 D1) while Leicester have never won one on this weekday (D1 L2).
Alexandre Lacazette scored 91 goals in the French Ligue 1 over the
last four seasons; more than any other player in the competition in that
period.
Alexis Sanchez was involved in the build up sequence of 38 Premier
League open-play goals last season; more than any other player in the
competition.
This game will see the English top-flight season begin on a Friday
for the first time in its 129 year history.
No comments:
Post a Comment