The new Premier League season kicks off on Friday with a London derby as Crystal Palace and Arsenal clash at Selhurst Park.
Bookmaker William Hill has the odds at 1.57 for Arsenal to score the first goal of the 2022-23 season and at 2.60 for Palace to do it. Meanwhile, the odds are at 9.50 for no goals in the contest.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: August 3rd, 8:00 A.M. (EST)
These teams have cooked up a lot of exciting clashes over the years, so the chances of a bore draw seem slim. The chances of Arsenal’s success might not be very high either as the Gunners failed to beat their southern neighbors last season and boast only one win from their last eight head-to-head meetings.
A losing start to the campaign would be a huge disappointment for Arsenal after a very successful transfer window. Mikel Arteta has added a lot of quality to his squad and many believe that Arsenal are nailed-on to finish in the top four for the first time since 2015-16.
Gabriel Jesus was the biggest signing from Manchester City and he’s looked superb during the preseason, scoring seven goals. The Brazilian forward owns a spectacular record of having yet to lose a Premier League game after scoring a goal and the Gunners faithful will have their fingers crossed that the 25-year-old can keep it up in North London.
Palace had a fairly quiet summer, but manager Patrick Vieira also clearly had far fewer issues to deal with. The former Arsenal captain enjoyed a very successful debut season as manager in the Premier League and he will hope to build on it now.
Vieira will be disappointed that he can’t count on Michael Olise at the start of the season because of a foot injury, but he’ll have Wilfried Zaha raring to go after a very productive summer and that spells trouble for Arsenal.
Zaha had a career year with 15 goals last season and it looks like he’s set to take another step forward in 2022-23 after piling up five goals and three assists during preseason action.
Arsenal had a horrible finish to last season that included a 3-0 away loss against Palace and they didn’t start well either, going point-less in their first three outings. Arteta needs to find a way to achieve consistency in the team’s performances and a good outing at Selhurst Park on Friday would be a very nice building block.
