Brentford vs Arsenal: Betting preview – Gunners backed to kick-off new season with a win

Premier League football returns on Friday night when newly-promoted Brentford take on Arsenal at the Brentford Community Stadium.

It was a hugely disappointing 2020/21 campaign for Arsenal as they finished way down in eighth position and missed out on European qualification for the first time in over 25 years.

Mikel Arteta is now under pressure to get their Gunners back on track with a top six finish seen as a minimum requirement for this season so the Spaniard will be keen to kick things off with a win.

Things haven’t gone to plan during pre-season as Arsenal failed to win a single game – losing to Chelsea, Tottenham and Hibernian while also being held to a draw by Rangers – so it hasn’t been the ideal preparation.

Brentford return to the top flight for the first time since 1947 after they sealed promotion from the Championship with victory over Swansea City in the play-off final back in May so they’ll be desperate to impress on Friday night.

Betting odds

There is likely to be a huge amount of betting activity around this game as punters are eagerly awaiting the return of Premier League action. Sites like https://www.mobiilikasinot.io/ are predicting a large increase in traffic and the vast majority of bettors will be backing Arsenal to come out victorious on Friday night.

The Gunners are the 20/23 favourites with the bookmakers to claim all three points. Brentford are 16/5 to cause an upset on home soil while the draw can be backed at 11/4 for those who feel the points will be shared.

Goals were hard to come by for Arsenal at times last season so Arteta will be looking to the likes of Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette to provide the firepower this season. Aubameyang to score at anytime in an Arsenal win looks good value at 3/1.

Team news

Arsenal will be without Thomas Partey after the midfielder was ruled for 2-3 weeks with an ankle injury that he sustained against Chelsea earlier this month while Eddie Nketiah is also out with an ankle issue.

Centre-back Gabriel is out with a knee injury and with Rob Holding short of fitness, new summer signing Ben White looks set to start alongside Pablo Mari in the middle of the Arsenal defence.

Bukayo Saka is short of fitness after returning to pre-season late following his exploits with England at Euro 2020 so Nicolas Pepe could start in attack along with Emile Smith Rowe.

Brentford will be without Josh Dasilva as he misses the chance to face his former club due to a hip injury but the hosts have no other injury issues to contend with.

Prediction

It’s difficult to make predictions on the opening weekend as teams aren’t in their stride yet and new players are still bedding in, but we have to back Arsenal to win on Friday night. However, we predict the Bees to give a good account of themselves – Brentford 1-2 Arsenal