As Leicester City visit the Emirates Stadium on Saturday afternoon, August 13, Arsenal will look to start the 2022–23 Premier League campaign with back-to-back victories. The match will kick off at the Emirates Stadium at 15:00.
The Gunners defeated Crystal Palace 2-0 to start the new season, while the Foxes blew a two-goal lead against Brentford to draw 2-2.
Last season, Arsenal open the new Premier League campaign with a defeat in a London derby, but Mikel Arteta’s strengthened team made sure that lightning didn’t strike twice with a professional display against Crystal Palace last Friday.
Aaron Ramsdale had to save his team on more than one occasion, but in the end, a Gabriel Martinelli header from a skillfully executed corner routine and Marc Guehi’s own goal gave the Gunners the victory.
With the help of Zinchenko’s assist, Gabriel Jesus’s spirited performance, and William Saliba’s man-of-the-match showing, the trio of debutants set early benchmarks for months to come as Arsenal look to get their efforts at the Emirates off to a strong start.
It has been more than 50 years since Arsenal started a top-flight season with back-to-back wins and back-to-back clean sheets, hence, they would want to achieve that this season by beating an inconsistent Leicester City.
Note that, Arsenal finished the 2021–22 campaign with three straight home victories over Manchester United, Leeds United, and Everton. They also had an inspiring preseason outing which implies that coach Mikel Arteta’s led team is in superb form.
The core of the current Arsenal crop should feel confident about defeating a Leicester team whose summer activity has been essentially nonexistent. While Leicester are yet to make any notable recruitment this summer, Arteta who has welcomed a couple of new signings already is still aiming to be active in the transfer market before the window closes.
As Timothy Castagne and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall scored for the Foxes against Brentford to put them two goals ahead, Leicester fans temporarily forgot about their side’s failure to make a single new acquisition as an essentially identical first-team squad took to the field on the opening weekend.
But shortly after the hour mark, Ivan Toney made things interesting, and with only a few minutes left to defend their slim advantage, Leicester allowed former Arsenal youngster Josh Dasilva to curl home a lovely equalizer, bringing the fans back to reality.
In the coming weeks, fending off interest in James Maddison, Wesley Fofana, and Youri Tielemans will probably take precedence over other tasks because Brendan Rodgers has made it clear that his team’s lack of acquisitions has more to do with those in positions of power than with his managerial decisions.
Although Leicester’s Premier League unbeaten streak now stands at five games, they only managed four league victories away from home during the whole 2021–22 season, and their lone away clean sheet came against Burnley in March 2022.
The Foxes have lost against Arsenal on the road the most times of any team in the top league, with 35 defeats, including a 2-0 setback at the Emirates back in March, after the Gunners had previously won by the same score at the King Power in October.
Arsenal In the Premier League: W
Leicester City in the Premier League: D
Arsenal vs Leicester City: Team News
Gunners left-back, Kieran Tierney was able to join the action at Selhurst Park on Friday after overcoming a second knee injury. Fabio Vieira, Emile Smith Rowe, and Takehiro Tomiyasu, who played for the Under-21s, were all unable to do so.
While Arteta would have considered the trio for minutes from the substitutes’ bench, all three players have returned to senior training this week and may therefore apply for spots in the squad this weekend especially now that Reiss Nelson has sustained a quadriceps injury and may be sidelined for a few months.
Given that Saliba has already proven himself virtually impossible to drop, he might partner with Ben White who potentially earn another shot on that side after his excellent performance against Wilfried Zaha last weekend.
Regarding Leicester, Rodgers did not notice any new injury concerns during the weekend and has since permitted Hamza Choudhury to join Watford temporarily. However, the team has suffered a terrible loss in Ricardo Pereira.
Harvey Barnes and Ryan Bertrand, who are recovering from knee problems, are with the injury-prone right back, Pereira, in the treatment room after he underwent surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon.
While there is ongoing speculation about the futures of Tielemans, Fofana, and Maddison—the former of whom has been closely linked to Arsenal—Jamie Vardy will look to add to the 11 goals he has already scored against Arsenal in his football career.
Arsenal’s possible starting lineup:
Ramsdale, White, Gabriel, Xhaka, Saliba, Zinchenko, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, and Jesus are all on the team.
Leicester City’s possible starting lineup.
Ward; Fofana; Amartey; Evans; Castagne; Ndidi; Tielemans; Justin; Maddison; Dewsbury-Hall; Vardy might.
The Arsenal defense has been strengthened by Saliba and Zinchenko, and the team is well-positioned to earn another three points this weekend, especially if Arteta has all of his players available.
Since Leicester has a long history of losing clean sheets away from home, we may anticipate another two-goal victory for Arteta’s team in front of their home supporters.
