Tomorrow morning in Malaysia (Friday night in the UK) the wait for the new English Premier League season will be over as Arsenal travel to South London to take on Crystal Palace.
The Gunners have been having a good pre-season, winning all five official matches including a 4-0 win over Chelsea and trashing Sevilla 6-0 in the Emirates Cup.
New signing Gabriel Jesus has been on fire since switching from the light blue of Manchester to the red and white of North London, scoring seven times in the process including a hat-trick against Sevilla.
The results have put many Gooners in a buoyant mood, many would be thinking that this season could see their team going back into challenging for the league title or the very least qualifying forthe Champions’ League.
History wise it could be difficult for Mikel Arteta’s side as they have not done well at Selhusrt Park in recent seasons. Last season they was at the wrong end of a 3-0 result which contributed to their failure in qualifying for the Champions’ League.
One also could not help but to think about the Friday opening fixture to last season when Arsenal travelled to West London against newly promoted side, Brentford which they lost 2-0 and triggering the worst start to the season for The Gunners for quite some time.
However, one could say recent acquisitions by Arteta seemed to have gelled well in their matches so far including Oleg Zinchenko who rejoined his City team-mate, Jesus in North London.
Another positive point for Arsenal is the presence of William Saliba who after a number of loan spells in the French league will finally make his competitive debut for The Gunners.
With Tomiyasu is expected not to be available for the match, it could be Ben White in the right-back spot with Saliba partnering Gabriel Magalháes in the middle and Zinchenko at left-back.
With the departure of Bernd Leno to Fulham, Aaron Ramsdale will be seen as the automatic choice for Arteta as the goalkeeper. Jesus will be the focal point of attack and will be supported by Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Ødegaard.
Arteta will then have to choose beyween Granit Xhaka, Mohamed Elneny and Thomas Partey to hold the fort in front of the defence while helping to link between defence and attack in the fastest way possible.
A winning start to the season would be most welcomed but coming away with a point from Selhurst Park on the opening day of the season against a Patrick Vieira side will be acceptable too.
No comments:
Post a Comment