Arsenal kick off their Premier League campaign this Sunday when they welcome defending Champions Manchester City at the Emirates.
The Gunners appointed a new manager during the summer in the form of Unai Emery and the PSG boss will not be particularly happy with the fact that his first competitive game for the London outfit will be against Pep Guardiola’s side.
But the Spanish boss has managed to make a number of good signings during the summer and a number of them are expected to make their debuts against Manchester City.
Arsenal Team News:
The Gunners signed Bernd Leno during the summer who will most certainly start in goal on Sunday meaning Petr Cech will be pushed to the bench and the former Chelsea shot-stopper is excepted to play second fiddle for most of the season.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles will start in the left-back role as both Sead Kolasinac and Nacho Monreal are out with injuries. With Laurent Koscielny out with a long-term injury, another summer signing Sokratis is also expected to make his debut in central defence alongside Shkodran Mustafi. Hector Bellerin will play at right-back.
Aaron Ramsey is a slight doubt for Sunday’s game and in case the central midfield will see the partnership of Granit Xhaka and new signing Torreira.
A big challenge for Unai Emery will be to accommodate both Aubameyang and Lacazette in the attacking third and the fans can expect to see a number of combinations being tried out by the manager during the first couple of games.
But in this high profile encounter, we do not expect to see any big chance and Aubameyang will play from the left flank while Alexandre Lacazette will be deployed up front.
After having a terrible run at the World Cup, Mesut Ozil will look to prove his critics wrong this season and will play in the hole just behind the striker while Henrikh Mkhitaryan will play down the right flank.
Arsenal vs Man City odds:
Most of the betting companies have put Manchester City as the favourites to win the encounter with the likes of bet365, Ladbrokes and Betfair all have odd of a 19/20 in favour of Pep Guardiola’s side.
PaddyPower have 11/4 odds on an Arsenal win while Skybet have a 13/5 odd on the exact same result.
Arsenal’s predicted line-up:
Goalkeeper: Leno
Defence: Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Maitland-Niles
Midfield: Torreira, Xhaka, Ozil
Attack: Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, Lacazette
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