The Premier League is back with a bang and fans will be treated to the first instalment of Friday Night Football for the season. Arsenal will welcome Leicester City to the Emirates Stadium in the first match of Premier League 2017/18. Kick-off in London on Friday August 11th 2017 is at 19:45 (7:45pm) BST.
There is a massive African interest in this fixture too with nine players from the continent represented across the two squads. Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi (Nigeria) and Mohamed Elneny (Egypt) could both feature at some point on Friday night, with the former having notched up a goal and two assists in what was a lively pre-season for the Gunners which included trips to Australia and China.
Leicester City could hand a debut to 20-year-old Nigerian front-man Kelechi Iheanacho, signed from Manchester City for 25 million pounds. He scored 21 goals in 64 appearances for the Citizens and has 10 international caps to his name already. He joins fellow forwards Ahmed Musa (Nigeria) and Islam Slimani (Algeria), both of whom were club record signings for the Foxes last season.
Arsenal
Mohamed Elneny – Egypt
Alex Iwobi – Nigeria
Leicester City
Riyad Mahrez – Algeria
Islam Slimani – Algeria
Daniel Amartey – Ghana
Kelechi Iheanacho- Nigeria
Ahmed Musa – Nigeria
Wilfried Ndidi – Nigeria
Yohan Benalouane – Tunisia
This will be the 138th meeting between the two teams in all competitions – 15 of those came in either the League Cup or FA Cup.
Arsenal vs Leicester City head-to-head
Games Played: 137
Arsenal Wins: 64
Drawn Games: 44
Leicester City Wins: 29
Leicester City lost just three matches in 2015/16 as the Foxes pounced on the Premier League title. Two of those defeats came at the hands of the Gunners. Arsene Wenger’s men won both home and away to pile pressure on Claudio Ranieiri’s men but it seemed to do little to distract them from the task at hand as they eventually finished ten points clear of Arsenal at the top of the table.
We have to cast our minds back nearly a generation to the last time Leicester tasted victory in the League over Arsenal - the 23rd of November 1994 at the Foxes old Filbert Road home. Since then Arsenal have won 14 of their 21 league meetings.
Arsenal league record vs Leicester City since 23 November 1994:
Played: 21
Wins: 14
Draws: 7
Losses: 0
Goals Scored: 48
Goals Conceded: 16
*******
Arsene Wenger will be without Alexis Sanchez and Laurent Koscielny who are injured and suspended respectively, while Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey recently returned to training and could still be included in the matchday squad.
Craig Shakespeare will be taking charge of his first full season at Leicester City after being handed the job on a permanent basis. He will be missing the services of Danny Drinkwater, Vicente Iborra and Robert Huth who are all out with injury.