The English Premier League is going to be back with a bang as Arsenal take on Leicester City in the opening match tonight. Both teams haven't been on the top of their game in the English Premier League but history precedes the Gunners and the Foxes as they play each other to start their Premier League on a good note.
Arsenal will be riding on their recent wins in the Community Shield and the FA Cup before that, against Premier League winners Chelsea. Leicester, on the other hand, will be hoping to revive their magical 2015-2016 season, unfortunately in the presence of a rather frustrated Riyadh Mahrez.
Both teams will look to forget their dismal performances last season as Arsenal dropped out of the Top 4 after 20 successful seasons of staying at the top and Leicester remained at 12th place, out of the top 10. Head-to-Head in the last two seasons, Arsenal seem to have the upper hand on Leicester City today as they have won three out of the four matches. Unfortunately, Arsenal also always have a slow start to the season and have only won one of their last seven opening fixtures in the league.
The Gunners have reinforced their team with the likes of French striker Alexandre Lacazette and Bosnian left back Sead Kolasinac. The former came as a welcome signing at 53 million euros as Wenger was already facing the heat because he was unwilling to loosen his purse strings to buy quality players. While Lacazette has started with an impressive performance in the Community Shield match, Kolasinac went a step further to score the all-important equaliser leading to the Arsenal win in the Community Shield.
Looking to strengthen their defence, the Foxes have signed Hull City defender Harry Maguire and Sevilla defensive midfielder Vincente Iborra and Arsenal will definitely be weary of their towering presence. The club has also signed Leicester-born Coventry player George Thomas who can play as a forward or midfielder increasing their options.
Unfortunately, Arsenal will be missing star player Alexis Sanchez to injury and Leicester will be missing summer signing Iborra to a groin injury during training for the upcoming season. The latter will also miss influential midfielder Danny Drinkwater in the opener to a thigh injury. However, there is good news in the recovery of forward and new signing Kelechi Iheanacho after he suffered a toe injury earlier.
While Arsenal may seem to be the clear favourites because of their last encounters with the Foxes, the latter is known to have a lot of fire power that can do much damage in the opening match to Arsenal's campaign. It will be interesting to see Lacazette make a mark on his debut for the North Londoners and Jamie Vardy put his name on the scoring charts to help Leicester get back to winning ways.