Home sweet home! The Premier League returns to the Emirates Stadium this weekend as Arsenal face Burnley in Saturday's early kick-off.
The importance of a strong start and to win at home cannot be understated, especially when looking at Arsenal's previous fortunes at the beginning of the season.
Arsenal's first home-game fortunes have been mixed to say the least. The past few seasons have seen defeats against Manchester City, Liverpool and West Ham (2018, 2016 and 2015); coupled with unconvincing and narrow wins versus Leicester City and Crystal Palace (2014 and 2017 respectively).
The opening weekend of this season, however, was refreshing for Arsenal. Unai Emery will be particularly pleased with his defence holding off for a clean sheet, matching their tally of clean sheets for the entirety of last season. The win over Newcastle was unconvincing yet significant. While the performance was lacklustre in parts- something which is inevitable at the start of the season- the most important thing was that all three points were brought home from St. James' Park. Taking into account that there were also a number of absentees, the Gunners will be confident going into this weekends fixture against the Clarets.
Therefore, this first outing at the Emirates is crucial as it somewhat sets a precedence for the rest of the season. One thing Arsenal need to achieve if they are going to be successful is a home fortress. Although the Gunners eventually fell to Europa League spot misery come the end of last season, wins against Spurs, Chelsea and Manchester United were paired with (on the whole) wins against the lesser teams.
There is no particular reason to fear Burnley either. While many teams usually struggle against the Lancashire side, Arsenal managed a 100% record versus them last season. A Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang brace and a late strike form the now-sold Alex Iwobi sealed the home win during the festive season; and the Gunners will be hoping they can claim all three points once more.
Turning to the bigger picture, the importance of claiming all three points this Saturday is illuminated when looking at Arsenal's own proceeding fixtures. Although it is still early in the season to be worrying about the effect of an early-day result on the table, Emery will certainly have one eye on the not too distant difficult fixtures looming ahead for his side. This is because Arsenal travel to the daunting Anfield crowd to face Liverpool next Saturday (24th August), before hosting Spurs the following weekend (1st September). In addition, Tottenham head to the Etihad this Saturday to play Champions Man City, and so there is certainly a chance for Arsenal to gain an early advantage ahead of their North London rivals. While most will claim it is too early in the season to be concerned with these opening fixtures, there are usually very fine margins come May next year, and thus every point counts, no matter how early they are gained.
Therefore, in spite of Arsenal's unfavourable record at the Emirates for their opening game, the Gunners will be confident of a win this weekend. Achieving back to back wins will be imperative considering the tough couple of weeks looming ahead, and could potentially set the tone for a home fortress this campaign.
Darius Moghtadaii
@_Darius_RM14
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