Arsenal Football Club and Crystal Palace on Friday night kicked off the new Premier League campaign.
The PUNCH had earlier reported that the 2022/23 Premier League actions resume today with Gunners travelling to Selhurst Park to take on Palace in a London derby in their opening game.
For the third season in a row, Arsenal will begin their new campaign with a London derby; the Gunners eased to a 3-0 success at Fulham behind closed doors in 2020, but Brentford ran out convincing 2-0 winners over Arteta’s side in their first-ever Premier League fixture last term.
Patrick Vieira’s side thumped the Gunners 3-0 in this fixture only a few months ago, but Mikel Arteta has worked to plug the gaps in his Gunners XI during a productive summer.
Taking four points from a possible six against his former club last season, Patrick Vieira slammed the Emirates turf in frustration when his side gave away two points in a 2-2 draw with Arsenal before witnessing his side outclassing the Gunners in April.
By leading the Eagles to a 12th-placed finish last season and reaching the FA Cup semi-finals, former Invincibles captain Vieira earned a manager of the season nomination, and optimism is high around Selhurst Park under the Frenchman.
Meanwhile, Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, has expressed optimism that Gabriel Jesus’ experience of regularly winning trophies at Manchester City will rub off on his new teammates.
Jesus makes his competitive debut for the Gunners at Crystal Palace on Friday night after a summer move from City. The striker won four Premier League titles among eight major trophies.
The Brazilian forward joined the Gunners for more game time as he aims to make the World Cup in Qatar later this year.
He has whetted Arsenal fans’ appetite by scoring seven times in pre-season.
“When you bring top players from top clubs and they’ve been extremely successful over the years, there is expectation,” said Arteta at his pre-match press conference on Friday.
“The role that Gabi has here is going to be very different to the role that Gabi had in his previous club.
“He’s a tremendous talent with a mentality that is so contagious and he’s going to give us a lot, but it’s a team at the end of the day.”
Arteta has also recruited Oleksandr Zinchenko from City, while the additions of Fabio Vieira, Marquinhos, Matt Turner and the return of William Saliba from a loan spell at Marseille have bulked up the Arsenal squad.
Expectations of finishing in the Premier League top four for the first time in seven years have been lifted by thrashings of Chelsea and Sevilla in pre-season.
But Arteta knows those results will count for little if his side do not make a positive start at Selhurst Park, where they lost 3-0 last season.
“We are all enthusiastic. We had the pre-season we wanted, it was well organised, we had good results, good preparation and good performances,” added the Spaniard.
“But now the ball starts to roll tomorrow evening in a completely different context and against a Premier League team and we know what to expect there.”
