Arsenal vs Leicester City Preview

August 10, 2017
By: Deke Hardman

The 2017/18 Premier League season kicks off at the Emirates Stadium on Friday evening when Arsenal face Leicester City.

The hosts go in to the game on the back of Sunday’s penalty shoot-out victory over champions Chelsea at Wembley and they will be keen to start the campaign with three points having missed out on the top four last time around.

Alexandre Lacazette and Sead Kolasinac are in line to make their league debuts for Arsene Wenger’s side though Alexis Sanchez, who remains strongly linked with a move away from the North London side is out with an abdominal strain.

Laurent Koscielny is banned while Aaron Ramsey, Per Mertersacker and Mesut Ozil all face late fitness tests ahead of kick-off.

Lacazette is favourite to open the scoring at 4.4 (17/5) with Unibet with Olivier Giroud a 5.0 (4/1) chance with Bet 365.

The home win can be backed at 1.53 (8/15) with a number of firms with the visitors a 7.0 (6/1) shot with a variety of firms. Bet 365 have the draw at 4.75 (15/4).

Having looked in real trouble for much of the first half of the campaign, the Foxes recovered following the dismissal of Claudio Ranieri and secured a twelfth place finish – just two points behind Southampton in eighth.

Danny Drinkwater, Vicente Iborra and Robert Huth are all sidelined with the latter set to be replaced by summer signing Harry Maguire while fellow new boy Kelechi Iheanacho could also make his debut.

The former Manchester City man is priced at 12.0 (11/1) to get the first goal of the game with Jamie Vardy widely available at 10.0 (9/1).

Last season’s corresponding fixture ended in a 1-0 win for the hosts with a Huth own goal enough to separate the sides while the meeting at the King Power Stadium almost twelve months ago ended goalless.

You can back there being less than two goals this time around at 4.1 (41/10) with Unibet while Bet 365 offer odds of 2.88 (15/8) for Arsenal, who have lost their last two opening day fixtures, to win without conceding.

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