After a great preseason the Gunners are looking to reverse recent history and beat the Crystal Palace Eagles on opening day or Premiere League. The recent history I speak of ?
Crystal Palace has lost just one of their last 8 Premiere League meetings with their cross London rivals, 2 W and 5 Draw 1 L the last 8 for the Eagles.
Crystal Palace have won their opening top-flight league match in only five of their previous 22 seasons (D7 L10), although they have won two of their last four (D1 L1), beating Fulham in 2018-19 and Southampton in 2020-21.
Crystal Palace v Arsenal will be the fifth time in top-flight history the season has kicked off on a Friday night, with the home side winning on each of the previous four occasions – Arsenal 4-3 Leicester in 2017-18, Man Utd 2-1 Leicester in 2018-19, Liverpool 4-1 Norwich in 2019-20 and Brentford 2-0 Arsenal last season.
This is the third consecutive season Arsenal are starting their Premier League campaign with a London derby. They won 3-0 at Fulham in 2020-21, before losing 2-0 at Brentford in 2021-22’s season opener.
Arsenal have lost their opening Premier League match in five of their last nine seasons (W4) after losing their first match in just one of their 19 campaigns prior to this run; the Gunners lost 2-0 to Brentford last term.
Crystal Palace ended the 2021-22 Premier League campaign unbeaten in six home games (W3 D3), while keeping a clean sheet in each of the last five. The Eagles last had a longer unbeaten home run in the top-flight between March-August 1992, while they’ve never kept six consecutive home clean sheets in the top division.
None of Arsenal’s last 17 Premier League games has ended level (W11 L6). It’s the longest ongoing run without a draw in the competition among the 20 current sides, while only once have the Gunners had a longer such run (25 between January and October 2018).
However we do see hope on the Arsenal side as fans are excited as they scored 20 goals in 5 preseason games, winning all five and keeping a clean sheet (shutting out the opponent) in 3 of the 5 games. They have upgraded their roster including former Manchester City goal scorer Gabriel Jesus, who has been involved in seven goals in his last seven league games (6 goals, 1 assist). They now have a total of 11 different Brazilian goal scorers on their roster.
We see Arsenal here on the road is the favorite -125 just beware of the history here and that Crystal Palace is always a danger to at least get a draw at home +275 for the draw. For me I will not be wagering on the outcome of this game, though my pick for making a pick here is Arsenal 2-1.