Arsenal v. Newcastle United: here we go again

I love the smell of new season in the morning...smells like victory. The first weekend of the season is something special. Every team is top of the table. No dreams have been ruthlessly shattered against the cold, hard reality of Premier League football. Maybe, just maybe, this could be your club’s year — I mean if Leicester did it in 2016, why not your club?

Arsenal are full of new faces to start the season, not all of them will feature against Newcastle today, but Raul Sanllehi had himself a transfer window. So now it’s up to Unai Emery and the players to show up and show out.

That the Gunners struggled away from the Emirates last season is common knowledge, so of course, they open their season away from home. Fortunately, it’s against Newcastle, a club several TSF writers picked for relegation this season. It’s a bit of a shambles on the Tyneside — supporters are protesting both the owner (Mike Ashley) and the manager (Steve Bruce).

Mesut Özil and Sead Kolasinac were relatively late omissions from the traveling squad as they deal with further, scary security concerns. Fortunately, new signings Dani Ceballos, Gab Martinelli, Nicolas Pepe and David Luiz are available off the bench.

LINEUPS:

Arsenal - Leno, Maitland-Niles, Chambers, Sokratis, Monreal, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Mkhitaryan, Willock, Nelson, Aubameyang

Newcastle - Dubravka, Manquillo, Schar, Lascelles, Dummett, Ritchie, Hayden, Longstaff, Shelvey, Almiron, Joelinton

WHAT: Arsenal at Newcastle United

WHERE: St. James’ Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyneside

WHEN: Sunday, August 11th, 6:00 AM PT | 9:00 PM ET | 2:00 PM BT

US TV: NBCSN

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