The Gunners open their Premier League campaign with a Friday night trip to Selhurst Park as they take on Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace return to the Premier League with aspirations of improving on the 2021/2022 after finishing 12th with just 48 points. Patrick Viera`s side have highlighted their transfer window with 2 reinforcements in their defense with a 22-year-old defensive midfielder Cheick Doucouré arriving from Lens and another 22-year-old centre back Chris Richards arriving from Bayern Munich. The Eagles have played a decent pre-season with 3 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw – scoring 13 goals and conceding 8 across the 6 fixtures. Their attack was highlighted by multiple goals from Luke Plange, Odsonne Édouard and Wilfred Zaha who have all scored at least 2 goals and can certainly cause problems for the Arsenal side. However, on the defensive front Crystal Palace have conceded at least one goal in 5 of their 6 pre-season fixtures which is a big cause for concern going against an Arsenal side that has been scoring for fun. Overall, with their defensive reinforcements and the efficient attacking capabilities the Eagles can certainly put on a good challenge against Arsenal but looking at the visitors` form it is difficult to see Viera`s men taking anything more than 1 point if so.
Arsenal
Arsenal have established themselves as one of the most exciting teams to keep an eye on going into the 2022/2023 Premier League campaign. Mikel Arteta has been ambitious in the transfer window to reinforce the London outfit and it is difficult to argue that the incoming players have not been the right suit for Arsenal – the Gunners have welcomed the prolific Gabriel Jesus to lead the frontline, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fabio Viera and a 19-year-old winger Marquinhos from Sao Paulo. The man all Premier League fans will keep an eye will certainly be Gabriel Jesus [For our Fantasy League fanatics – he has been chosen by 72.5% of this season`s managers]. The Brazilian has scored 7 goals throughout the 5 pre-season fixtures including a hattrick against Sevilla and personally can certainly be backed to bag at least one goal on Friday night. The Gunners have scored 20 goals in just 5 pre-season games while conceding just 4 goals. Just by looking at these statistics we can have a good indication of what kind of performance is expected at Selhurst Park on Friday night. It would be unfair to write-off a decent Crystal Palace outfit but looking at the team that Mikel Arteta has prepared ahead of the Premier League season it is also difficult to see the results go any other way other than in Arsenal`s favour.
BetOlimp Best Bets
Gabriel Jesus to score anytime – 2.55