The Premier League season kicks off on Friday night with a game between two very different sorts of teams in terms of ambition: defending champions Arsenal up against newly promoted Coventry City, for whom avoiding relegation would already be a good outcome. Here are the stats, facts and tip ahead of the big game.
- Starts: Friday, August 21, 20:00 (UK time)
- Venue: Emirates Stadium, London, UK
- TV Channel: Sky Sports Main Event, multiple channels across Europe
- Key Stat: Arsenal are unbeaten in their last 45 home Premier League matches against newly promoted teams
Betting Tip
Arsenal and Coventry are not your usual opponents, as they haven't met in a while; one is a reigning Premier League champion, and the other a returnee to the top-tier league.
It is only the beginning of the new season, but we've already seen Arsenal in action, and we don't expect this match to end any differently.
- Best Bet: Arsenal to win to Nil
- Odds: 1.73 (at the time of writing)
Match Preview
Arsenal finally managed to win the Premier League after so many close calls over the last few years, and a few would argue that they weren’t deserved winners.
And they’ve been busy in the transfer window, buying Bruno Guimarães, Christos Tzolis and Ezri Konsa to strengthen what is already an excellent squad, while the only real player of note they let go was Leandro Trossard.
Proof that they may just be about to hit the ground running when the Premier League gets underway on Friday night is how easily they beat Manchester City 3-0 in last week’s Community Shield.
What we don’t know is who may be in line to start here against Coventry, given the players who returned late from the World Cup, new signings coming in, and minor injuries.
But then again, that almost doesn’t matter. Because what we do know is they’ll put out a strong team here against a promoted side, and the score here could be anything from 1-0 to 4-0.
And maybe that’s the point. However many goals they score, they’re likely to keep a clean sheet in the process. After all, they did so in exactly 50% of their Premier League games last season, and with all due respect, against better sides than Coventry, who, as a newly promoted team, will inevitably take time to find their feet at this level.
The last time Arsenal played them, back in 2014 in the FA Cup, it ended 4-0 to the Gunners, so all in all, we’d expect an early-season win for them with a clean sheet in the process.
Did you know?
Even though 18 different players scored for Arsenal in the Premier League last season, only one reached the 10-goal mark: Viktor Gyökeres scored 14.
Perhaps the number of different goal scorers was actually Arsenal's major strength, as they didn't rely on a couple of players to secure goals and bring them points.
