Arsenal vs Leicester betting preview with odds and prediction

Arsenal will look to build on their positive start to the new season when they welcome Leicester City to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Hot off the back of an impressive pre-season, the Gunners kicked-off the 2022/23 Premier League campaign with a hard fought 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park last Friday night.

It was a far cry from the start Arsenal made last season as they suffered three consecutive defeats to Brentford, Chelsea and Manchester City, so Mikel Arteta will have been relieved to get his first win on the board on the opening weekend.

The Spanish coach knows he’s under pressure to get Arsenal back in the Champions League having narrowly missed out last season. The owners have backed Arteta once again in the market with Gabriel Jesus, Fabio Vieira and Oleksandr Zinchenko arriving in big-money deals so it’s time for the north Londoners to deliver.

Next up is a home meeting against Leicester and Brendan Rodgers’ side will be still hurting from their collapse on the opening weekend. The Foxes were cruising at 2-0 just after half-time against Brentford but conceded twice to draw 2-2 at the King Power so Rodgers will be looking for a response on Saturday.

Betting odds

Arsenal are currently the 40/85 favourites with the bookmakers to claim victory this weekend. You can get odds of 11/2 on Leicester going away with all three points while the draw is available at 7/2.

There are usually goals in this fixture and Arsenal and Leicester can be backed at odds of 3/4 on the btts market if you fancy another goal-fest in north London on Saturday afternoon.

Gabriel Jesus looked sharp on his competitive debut for Arsenal and the Brazilian international is 7/2 to open the scoring in this game. Arsenal to win 2-1 is available at odds of 13/2 and that looks like a solid bet.

Team news

Arsenal have been boosted by the news that Takehiro Tomiyasu, Emile Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieira have all trained this week after missing the win over Palace last time out.

Tomiyasu has been working his way back from a niggling calf issue while Smith Rowe picked up a knock in pre-season but they should both be in the squad this weekend. Summer signing Vieira arrived from Porto carrying a foot injury and may not be ready to return just yet.

Leicester will be without Ricardo Pereira after he was ruled out for six months with an Achilles injury. Harvey Barnes and Ryan Bertrand are also out with knee injuries.

Prediction

Arsenal looked solid against Palace but Jamie Vardy almost always scores against them and he’ll be looking to continue that record on Saturday. Leicester are a dangerous side who’ll cause problems but we can see Arsenal having too much quality. The Gunners were electric going forward in the first half at Selhurst Park and another display like that at home will surely result in a win. Arsenal 2-1 Leicester