Arsenal wants to build on their opening day victory over Crystal Palace with a win against Leicester City in their first fixture at home this season.
Gabriel Martinelli and an own goal from Marc Guehi helped the Gunners take sweet revenge at Selhurst Park to open the 2022/23 Premier league season while Leicester stumbled to a 2-2 draw against Brentford having led the game by two goals until the hour mark.
ARS vs LEI Match Details
Date: Saturday, 12th August 2022
Time: 15:00 (BST)/ 19:30 (IST)
Venue: Emirates Stadium, London
ARS vs LEI Match Preview
Manager Mikel Arteta will be pleased for his side registering a positive result in the opening game against Crystal Palace this time unlike the last season when they started with a loss and carried it for three more games. The impact of their new signing of Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City has already been massive in the preseason for them with the Brazilian bringing a different dimension to Arsenal’s attack and his official debut for the club marked his brilliance once again. In the defence, William Saliba looked like a man marshalling the back four for the club for years in his first ever appearance for Arsenal in a competitive fixture. The same credit goes to Oleksandr Zinchenko who produced an assist to remember in his first match for the club in the Premier League picking out Gabriel Martinelli for the opener from a well-worked corner. Goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale had to be alert to pull out some crucial saves to maintain his side’s lead until the job got done by Bukayo Saka’s cross deflected off Marc Guehi to rest in the back of the net with five minutes remaining. The football wasn’t convincing at every period of the game as expected from a tension-filled opening game of the season but Arsenal showed the grit and energy to see off the fixture that bugged them earlier. The Gunners failed to secure the Champions League football last season so early momentum in the new season will help them to gather the required points to be in the top four at the end. With the World Cup disrupting the flow midway in the league season, this becomes an even more important factor. Carrying the momentum from the win over Palace, Arsenal now meets Leicester City in a backlog regarding transfer in their first game at Emirates to offer the home support more confidence in what is to come from the team. Their home record was impressive last season collecting 13 wins and losing four in 19 games played compared to that of their away with 9 losses. It has been 50 years since Arsenal started a season with back-to-back wins and keeping consecutive clean sheets so they are desperate to claim another win here.
Whether Leicester will be forced to make some new additions in the squad if any of their key players leave before the window closes is up for debate right now and their disappointing draw to Brentford in the season opener is not extinguishing it. Brendan Rodger’s men thought they are having a comfortable ride in the King Power Stadium led by two goals scored by Timothy Castagne and a thunderbolt strike from Kevin Dewsbury-Hall. Then Ivan Toney sneaked past his marker to put the Bees back in the game in the second half before substitute Joshua Dasilva curled in a terrific equalizer to snatch the win away from the home side. Understandably, Rodgers will be unhappy with the way Leicester lost control of the game and could soon lose the grip on the season before it began properly if stars of the squad like Wesley Fofana and Youri Tielemans pack their bag for destination new in this transfer window. The act of signing no players in the window so far could take a toll on their squad that looked so vulnerable with injuries last season and glimpses of it felt in the draw with players like Harvey Barnes missing through a knee injury. Unlike Brentford in the game, there was also no one to call from the bench to make the difference cited by only one change made by the Foxes to the Bees’ five. Ultimately, it is down to the management to make decisions on the transfer window as been said by the manager having little say in negotiations. Their eighth-place finish last season was not what many hoped for this exciting and talented squad that won the FA Cup in 2021 and fought valiantly for Champions League football places in recent seasons. Spending should be a key part for them to taste European football again finishing in the high reaches of the table when the rest haven’t felt reluctant to dive into the market. For now, attention turns to Arsenal in the second game week in the league who have beaten them twice last season in convincing fashion.
ARS vs LEI Team News
Left-back Kieran Tierney came off the bench in the win over Crystal Palace on the opening day after recovering from a knee injury but Oleksandr Zinchenko is set to retain his place in the starting lineup. Emile Smith-Rowe, Fabio Vieira and Takehiro Tomiyasu all missed the season opener due to their respective injury issues. They have since returned to team training and is expected to be at least on the bench for this weekend’s match. Regardless of Tomiyasu’s fitness, Ben White will be the right-back again also because of William Saliba’s sublime showing in his first game for Arsenal after three years at the club.
Brendan Rodgers doesn’t have any more injured players to cause him a headache at Leicester. The Foxes’ right-back Ricardo Perreira has been ruled out for this year undergoing surgery on his ruptured Achilles. Harvey Barnes and Ryan Bertrand are rehabilitating from knee injuries not expected to return until the next month. The future of James Maddison, Youri Tielemans and Wesley Fofana, nearing a deal with Chelsea, at the club hangs in balance with the first two a long-standing targets for Arsenal. They are all expected to start the game amid the speculations.
ARS vs LEI Predicted Lineups
ARS: Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Granit Xhaka, Thomas Partey; Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli; Gabriel Jesus
LEI: Ward; Wesley Fofana, Johnny Evans, Daniel Amartey; Timothy Castagne, Wilfred Ndidi, Youri Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, James Justin; James Maddison; Jamie Vardy
ARS vs LEI Head to head
The last meeting at the Emirates ended in Arsenal’s favour with both goals coming from set plays. The one before here two years back was won by the Foxes which became the first away win ever in this meeting in their history. Jamie Vardy scored the winner that time Leicester which was his 11th strike against the Gunners. Otherwise, Leicester have suffered defeat in 35 away games in this fixture, the most against any opposition in their top-flight history.
ARS vs LEI Dream11 Team Prediction
GK: Ramsdale (8.5)
DEF: Castagne (8.5), Fofana (8.5), Saliba (8.5), Zinchenko (9)
MID: Saka (10), Maddison (9.5), Dewsbury-Hall (9.5),
FW: Jesus (9), Vardy (9.5), Martinelli (9.5)
Captain: Gabriel Jesus (44.22%)
Vice-captain: James Maddison (13.02%)
