The Premier League season kicks off with a London derby on Friday evening as the newly promoted Brentford embark on their first campaign in the competition when they play host to Arsenal to start a new term.
Both these teams will be out to showcase what the 38 matches ahead holds for them with Brentford looking to prove themselves at this level and Arsenal to show that they have made the necessary improvements from last season.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League channels with the build-up to the contest beginning at 7pm and the match kicking off at 8pm.
Brentford
Brentford should go into their first season in the Premier League bouncing after their win over Swansea City in the play-off final back in May. Usually you would look at the play-off winning side and think they are the ones most obvious to go straight back down but Brentford have been a Premier League side in waiting for a year or two and I don’t expect them to have any issues on that front. They gave us a glimpse of that in the Carabao Cup last term.
Brentford were considered an offensive machine a couple of years ago when they had the ‘BMW’ strike force and although a couple of cogs of that trio have left, they still go about their attacking work in an efficient and profitable manner, however where they are not given the credit they should be is in the defensive department where they keep things very tight without really adopting a cautious or naturally defensive approach.
Arsenal
Although everything was painted as doom and gloom for Arsenal last season, and given that they failed to qualify for Europe for the first time in more than 25 years that is understandable, only the champions Manchester City picked up more points than them since Boxing Day so that suggests that despite the final league position, the Gunners were moving in the right direction. If that was the case, then with the summer spending they have undertaken they should be able to kick on again here.
I think one of the reasons for the doom and gloom is the distinct change in style from the high times during the Arsene Wenger reign. There they were an attacking, attractive side whereas this Arsenal team are very defensively set up and not the best to watch. All Arsenal fans will be hoping that their exciting crop of youngsters will be given the freedom and the licence to get more of an attacking stance and entertain a little more.
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Team News
Brentford will be relieved that their star striker Ivan Toney has been passed fit to play despite missing the last pre-season friendly last week. The match comes too soon for midfield pair Josh Dasilva and Mathias Jensen though.
Arsenal could give a debut to their summer signings Nuno Tavares, Albert Lokonga and Ben White but there are going to be without Gabriel, Eddie Nketiah and Thomas Partey for the first month of the campaign while Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are expected to miss this match.
Betting
The Arsenal injuries don’t look like they are going to help them in any way here. They look especially light of attacking options so you would imagine they will set up hoping not to lose and if they can get something on the break then that would be excellent. I don’t think Brentford will go gung ho here but I do expect them to take the game to their opponents on their home patch in what is a big evening for the London outfit.
Arsenal would normally have enough quality to trouble Brentford but there is no doubt that Brentford are solid enough offensively and Ivan Toney can cause problems to any defence so the home side have to fancy their chances of getting something out of this game, especially given the inexperienced attack they will be facing. Whether it is a win or a draw I fancy Brentford to get a result here and the +0.5 Asian line looks perfectly good enough to me.
Tips
Back Brentford (+0.5AH) to beat Arsenal for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with BetVictor
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