Holders Arsenal face Coventry in the Premier League opener with doubts over Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka’s match fitness.
Who: Arsenal vs Coventry City What: English Premier League Where: Emirates Stadium in London, United Kingdom When: Friday, August 21, at 8pm (19:00 GMT) How to follow: Al Jazeera Sport will bring you all the buildup from 16:00 GMT ahead of our live text commentary stream
Arsenal not only kick off their title defence, but also the entire Premier League season when they entertain Coventry City on Friday.
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The match pits the champions of the English top flight flight against the newly promoted winners of the second tier, the Championship.
The match also has a history of an opening day upset – which included a hat-trick hero.
Al Jazeera Sport takes a closer look at the curtain raiser for the new season.
The Gunners pipped Manchester City to the title, denying Pep Guardiola’s side a fifth straight Premier League title.
A seven-point gap separated first and second, but it wasn’t all plain sailing. A 2-1 City win at Etihad Stadium narrowed the gap to only three points – at which stage The Gunners had only five games to play, while City had six.
Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta’s side won all five of their remaining fixtures, while City succumbed to two draws and a final day defeat, although the league was already decided by that point.
The title was built on the best defence in the division, with Arsenal only shipping 27 goals compared to City’s 34.
The Gunners were out fired at the other end of the pitch, though, netting 71 goals to City’s 77.
This season they are boosted by the signing of Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle, with the Brazilian set to significantly bolster the centre of the park.
Head coach Frank Lampard’s Coventry sealed the Championship title by 11 points from Ipswich Town in second.
They registered 28 wins to Ipswich’s 23, and netted 97 goals to finish with a goal difference of 52 – double that of any other in the division.
The next highest scorers were Southampton, who finished fourth, with 82 goals. Their defence was also the meanest, letting in only 45 goals. Ipswich shipped 47.
Their home form was the best in the division, but third place Millwall had a better away record, losing one less than Coventry’s five on their travels. Both sides recorded 11 wins in 23 matches on their travels.
Coventry’s last season in the English top fight was in 2000-01, when they finished second bottom. Bradford City were the basement club with 26 points and only five wins all season.
Coventry finished on 34 points, eight short of safety and level with the third time to be relegated that season: Manchester City.
Arsenal defeated Manchester City in the Community Shield, the season opener that pits the Premier League winners against the FA Cup winners, on Sunday.
The Gunners stormed to a 3-0 win over the team they pipped to the title, who are now managed by Enzo Maresco.
Riccardo Calafiori opened the scoring inside the first minute, while Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard rounded off the dominant display.
Coventry’s last competitive match came at the end of last season when they won 4-0 at Watford to celebrate their title in style. Striker Ellis Simms netted a hat-trick in that game.
The Sky Blues have enjoyed a fine pre-season, including wins against France’s Monaco and Spain’s Espanyol in their last two games.
The supercomputer of Opta, the sports analysts, rates Arsenal as huge favourites with a win probability of 80 percent to Coventry’s 7 percent.
It’s more than 12 years since the sides last met with the last last meeting coming in the FA Cup in January 2014. Arsenal ran out four nil winners, thanks to two first half goals from Lukas Podolski and late strikes from Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla.
The last Premier League meeting was at Coventry in 2001, with Dennis Bergkamp scoring the only goal of the game 12 minutes to play.
Coventry last beat Arsenal in December 1999 with a 3-2 home win in the Premier League.
Former Liverpool and Scotland midfielder Gary McAllister and former Morocco international Mustapha Hadji gave the sky blues a 2-0 first half lead.
Fredrik Ljungberg and Davor Suker netted for the gunners either side of striker Robbie Keane’s third for the home side.
Coventry’s last win at Arsenal came in 1993 when Mick Quinn, synonymous with the club, scored hat-trick on the opening day of the season. The game was played at Arsenal’s former home of Highbury, meaning Coventry have never won at the Emirates Stadium.
Should Coventry claim the spoils on Friday, it would be their first win at Arsenal in 11 attempts. They had conceded 23 goals in the 10 games at Arsenal since their last away win, scoring only four times and losing eight of those games.
This is the 77th meeting between the sides with Arsenal winning 43 of those encounters and Coventry claiming victory on 14 occasions.
Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka started on the bench for the Football Association Community Shield following their exploits with England at the World Cup.
The latter may come into the side as the only change from that win with Noni Madueke likely to make way. It is thought that Rice will be given more time to recover his energy after appearing heavily fatigued while appearing for England in the summer.
William Saliba and Jurrien Timber are Arsenal’s only two injuries and both will miss the game.
Raya; White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori; Lewis-Skelly, Guimaraes; Saka, Odegaard, Tzolis; Havertz
Haji Wright and Luke Woolfenden both miss out through injury, but Coventry are set to hand Jack Rudoni and Frank Onyeka late fitness tests.
Rushworth; Van Ewijk, Thomas, Amenda, Markelo; Onyeka, Grimes, Yirenkyi; Tchaouna, Simms, Thomas-Asante
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/8/20/arsenal-vs-coventry-premier-league-prediction-lineups-teams?traffic_source=rss