🕟 Kick Off: 20:00 BST

🏟️ Venue: Emirates Stadium

📺 UK Broadcaster: Sky Sports

🙎🏻‍♂️ Referee: Thomas Bramall

📹 VAR: Jared Gillett

🔴 Arsenal Team News:

• Bruno Guimarães: Doubt. Picked up a knock against City in the Community Shield, when asked Arteta said “Let’s see”.
• Jurriën Timber (Fitness): Ruled Out. Returned to on-pitch training however still weeks away from a return.
• William Saliba: Long term injury. Saliba is taking an extended break from football to heal his back without the need for surgery.

⚽ Arsenal Form: (Resetting form for the new season)

🐘 Coventry Team News:

• Haji Wright (Quad): Major Doubt. Coventry’s top scorer from last season (17 Championship goals) missed pre-season and is not expected to start.
• Jack Rudoni (Shoulder): In contention but not 100% certain to feature.
• Ephron Mason-Clark (Thigh): In contention but not 100% certain to feature.

⚽ Coventry Form: (Resetting form for the new season)

⚔️ Head-to-Head:

• Arsenal 4–0 Coventry City (Jan 24, 2014, FA Cup Round 4)
• Arsenal 6–1 Coventry City (Sep 26, 2012, League Cup Round 3)
• Coventry City 0–1 Arsenal (Feb 3, 2001, Premier League)
• Arsenal 2–1 Coventry City (Sep 16, 2000, Premier League)
• Coventry City 3–2 Arsenal (Dec 26, 1999, Premier League)

📖 Match Facts:

• Coventry City have not played in the Premier League for over a quarter of a century, with their last fixture coming against Bradford City, which ended in a 0-0 draw.
• When Coventry were last relegated in the 2000/01 season, they went down alongside Manchester City and Bradford City.
• The last time Arsenal lost at home to Coventry was in 1993 where Coventry beat us 0-3. This was also in the opening game of the Premier League season.

📸 Previously in this fixture…

Arsenal demolished Coventry in their last meeting 11 years ago in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup on our way to winning the competition, ending a 9 year trophy drought. A brace from Podolski along with goals from Giroud and Cazorla saw us breeze into the next round.

✍🏼 Pre-Match Ramblings

A wise man once said about football “it will never stop, the football is officially going on forever”, and that wise man was absolutely correct.

Arsenal’s title defence starts at home tomorrow as the 26/27 season gets off the mark with the world watching, interested to see how this evolutionary, not revolutionary, Arsenal team will play now that the huge monkey of 22 years without a league title has left their back.

Coventry are being treated to a visit to the champions for their first game in the Premier League since being relegated in 2001. Frank Lampard and Mikel Arteta are no strangers to eachother, having not only played against eachother as players, but also managed against eachother. Arteta has come out of 4 of those games as the victor, with Lampard winning 1. The game that Lampard won was his first against Arsenal as manager of Chelsea, and it was only Arteta’s second ever game as a manager. Arsenal lined up with the likes of Chambers and Luiz at CB with Saka at LB, and a midfield of Torreria, Guendouzi, and Ozil. God we really have come a long way.

In their Championship run to promotion last season, Coventry were the team with the highest volume of crossing in the entire division, with Lampard liking his fullbacks to play high and wide. This will be a test for the Arsenal defence that’s lacking Saliba and Konsa (who we are led to believe is signing today, so he almost certainly won’t feature tomorrow). Of course, this won’t matter if we can outscore them. Given a fully fit attacking group to start the season including newcomer Tzolis who has been turning heads in pre-season, the way we attack this game should be very exciting.

Another aspect of Lampard’s Coventry that may go against us is their 4-4-2 midblock out of possession, which I’m sure are words that will fill a lot of Arsenal supports with dread. A well structured and well drilled midblock seemed to be the way to nullify us last season. The key players to watch to unlock this are Odegaard and Myles Lewis Skelly. Both players have had outstanding pre-seasons, with the young midfielder solidly cementing his place in the first team midfielder, blocking out the rumours that were circling about his departure. It’s a shame that Bruno G picked up an injury in the Community Shield which will likely keep him out of at least the starting lineup tomorrow, as his deep playmaking and line breaking passes will have been a big reason the club pushed the boat out to sign him at the grand old age of 28 (until he’s 29).

Anyway, here’s to another cracking season which will absolutely contain cheers and tears; let’s hope it starts with cheers…

So that’s the football! Coming up! Watch it! Watch the football! Watch it! Watch it! It’s gonna move… Watch the football! It’s football!