Arsenal start their 2019/20 season Premier League campaign with a trip to Newcastle’s St. James’ Park. The Gunners would be looking to start their season on a winning note knowing that every points count. Having missed out on Champions League football by a single point last season, Unai Emery and his men must have fully realized the importance of starting strong.

Arsenal have had a brilliant summer transfer window. Virtually all the holes in the squad have been blocked. They have brought in experience, flair and pace – the team must now deliver and what better way to start than an away trip at Newcastle.

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

  • Arsenal have won 12 of their last 13 matches against Newcastle, with their solitary defeat coming at St James’ Park in April 2018.
  • Newcastle have only beaten Arsenal three times in 36 meetings in all competitions over the past 17 years.
  • The Magpies have only kept two clean sheets in this fixture since 2007.

Newcastle United

  • Newcastle won six of their final eight homes games in the Premier League last season.
  • However, they have not won their opening league match since a 2-1 victory over Tottenham in 2012, losing five and drawing one since then.
  • Just one of Newcastle’s last 25 Premier League home matches has been drawn – a goalless stalemate with Fulham in December 2018.
  • Newcastle manager Steve Bruce has lost a career-worst 19 games against Arsenal. His teams have beaten the Gunners just twice in 27 meetings, with Birmingham in 2005 and Sunderland in 2009.
  • Bruce was relegated from the Premier League as manager of both Birmingham City (2005-06) and Hull City (2014-15).
  • The Magpies spent 69 days in the relegation zone in 2018-19, the most of any side not to go down.

Arsenal

  • Arsenal won only seven of their 19 Premier League away games in 2018-19 and kept one clean sheet – fewer than any other side.
  • This will be the first time in eight seasons that Arsenal have not opened a league campaign at home. They drew 0-0 at Newcastle in 2011.
  • The Gunners have lost four of the last six season-opening Premier League matches.
  • Arsenal conceded 51 Premier League goals in both 2017-18 and 2018-19, having never conceded more than 49 goals in any of the first 25 campaigns.
  • Thirteen of Arsenal’s last 17 goals in all competitions have been scored by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (9) or Alexandre Lacazette (4).

Stats courtesy of BBC Sport

Team News and Potential Line Up

Because of the ongoing security situation around them, Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac would not be featuring at St. James’ Park. Bellerin, Holding, Mavropanos and Tierney would also miss out as they recover from injuries. New signings David Luiz and Dani Ceballos might feature while Nicolas Pepe, Alexandre Lacazette and Mohammed Elneny will be assessed.

Kolasinac and Ozil

The Missing Men

Arsenal should be deploying a 4-2-3-1 formation despite the absence of important players.

In defence, David Luiz is expected to make his debut alongside Sokratis. Maitland-Niles, despite his horror own goal in the last warm up game vs Barcelona should play at right back. In the absence of Kolasinac, Nacho Monreal should play as a left back to complete a back 4.

The midfield is where Unai Emery might have a little bit of headache. He has to decide who would pair Granit Xhaka in the base of the midfield – the not-too-fit Torreira or the impressive Willock. In the absence of Ozil, Ceballos and Mkhitaryan could interchange between the attacking midfield and the wing. Reiss Nelson is expected to take the last slot in midfield while Aubameyang plays as the sole striker.

Predictions

As tough as games away at St. James’ park are, Arsenal seems to have this habit of picking up maximum points there. As seen in the stats, we have lost just once in 13 matches and that was a long time ago. Tomorrow shouldn’t be an exception. I expect Arsenal to come out all guns blazing.

The top sides that have played blew their opponents away with relative ease. Newcastle are not an easy proposition but they shouldn’t trouble Arsenal that much.

I’m predicting a 3 – 0 win for Arsenal.

Match Details

Kick Off: 2:00PM
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Where To Watch: The match would be available on Cable TV but you can watch right here on this website, on our streaming platform, the 9jagooners Mobile and on MatchDay Live apps.