EPL: Gunners gun for Foxes

Arsenal vs. Leicester City
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Kick off: 3PM

Arsenal will aim to begin the 2022-23 Premier League season with back-to-back wins as Leicester City visit the Emirates Stadium for this afternoon’s match.

The Gunners kicked off the new campaign with a 2-0 victory away to Crystal Palace, while the Foxes threw away a two-goal lead against Brentford to draw 2-2.

Arsenal beginning the new Premier League season away from home in a London derby spelled trouble last year, but Mikel Arteta’s reinforced side ensured that lightning would not strike twice in a professional performance against Crystal Palace last Friday.

It would not be an Arsenal win in 2022 without Aaron Ramsdale having to bail his side out on more than one occasion, but a Gabriel Martinelli header from a well-worked corner routine and Marc Guehi’s own goal ultimately got the job done for the Gunners.

From Zinchenko’s assist, Gabriel Jesus’s energetic display and William Saliba’s man-of-the-match performance, the trio of debutants laid down early markers for the months ahead, as Arsenal now aim to kickstart their Emirates endeavours on the front foot.

Arsenal ended the 2021-22 season with three consecutive home wins against Manchester United, Leeds United and Everton – albeit without a single clean sheet from any of those matches – and it has been over 50 years since the Gunners claimed back-to-back wins with back-to-back clean sheets at the start of a top-flight season.

Arteta has affirmed that his side are still hoping to be active in the transfer market before the window closes, but the core of the current Arsenal crop ought to feel confident of getting the job done against a Leicester side whose summer business has been virtually non-existent.

With an almost identical first-team squad taking to the field on the opening weekend, Leicester fans briefly forgot about their side’s failure to bring in a single new signing, as Timothy Castagne and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall struck for the Foxes against Brentford to put them two goals to the good.

Ivan Toney made things interesting just after the hour mark, though, and with only a few minutes left to go to hold on to their slender lead, Leicester allowed former Arsenal youngster Josh Dasilva to curl home a delightful equaliser to leave supporters even more irked.

Brendan Rodgers has hinted that his side’s lack of incomings has been down to those higher up rather than his managerial decisions, and the priority for the next few weeks will likely be warding off interest in James Maddison, Wesley Fofana and Youri Tielemans.

Leicester’s unbeaten run in the Premier League does now stand at five matches, but they only picked up four league wins away from home in the entirety of the 2021-22 season, and their only clean sheet on the road came against relegated Burnley back in March.

That dismal away run includes a 2-0 loss to Arsenal at the Emirates back in March after the Gunners had previously won by the same scoreline at the King Power in October, and the Foxes’ 35 away defeats to Arsenal is the most they have suffered against a single top-flight side.

Arsenal possible XI: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Xhaka, Partey, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Jesus.

Leicester City possible XI: Ward, Fofana, Amartey, Evans, Castagne, Ndidi, Tielemans, Justin, Maddison, Dewsbury-Hall, Vardy.