Arsenal have confirmed the starting XI for their opening Premier League fixture of the season, with Mikel Arteta selecting a side to face Coventry at home on Friday evening.
David Raya starts in goal, with Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera, Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori named in the defensive line.
Declan Rice and Myles Lewis-Skelly are included in midfield, while captain Martin Ødegaard is also selected from the beginning. Bukayo Saka, Christos Tzolis and Kai Havertz complete the Arsenal line-up.
The announcement provides the first indication of Arteta’s selection for the opening match of the new English top-flight campaign. Arsenal will begin their season in front of their home supporters as they look to build on their recent success.
The match between Arsenal and Coventry is scheduled to kick off at 22:00 Moscow time on Friday. Live updates from the game will be available through the text commentary service on the LiveResult website.
Arsenal enter the fixture as the reigning Premier League champions. The London club also previously won the English Super Cup, giving Arteta’s team silverware before the start of their league title defence.
The inclusion of Raya, White, Mosquera, Gabriel and Calafiori gives Arsenal a settled-looking defensive group for their first competitive league match of the campaign. Rice, Lewis-Skelly and Ødegaard will operate in midfield, while Saka, Tzolis and Havertz are named as the attacking options in the starting side.
For Coventry, the match represents an opportunity to begin the season against the defending champions on Arsenal’s home ground. The visitors will face an Arsenal team starting the campaign with the confidence of having already secured the English Super Cup.
Arteta has therefore chosen a line-up featuring a combination of established players and members of the squad given responsibility at the beginning of the new season. The focus will now turn to how Arsenal’s selected XI performs when the match gets under way on Friday evening.
The fixture marks the formal opening of Arsenal’s Premier League title defence. With the club having already lifted the English Super Cup, attention will now be on whether the champions can start their league campaign with a positive result against Coventry.
Kick-off is set for 22:00 Moscow time, and supporters unable to watch the game can follow the action through LiveResult’s text commentary.