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Arsenal will be aiming to continue their fine pre-season form when they start their 2015/16 Premier League campaign at home to West Ham.
The Gunners won all five of their pre-season matches, including a 1-0 win over Chelsea in the Community Shield last weekend – Arsene Wenger’s first ever victory against Jose Mourinho.
Arsenal finished 12 points behind champions Chelsea in the 14/15 campaign but have strengthened this summer by signing keeper Petr Cech from the Blues.
The Hammers should be well prepared for the opening day as they have already been playing competitive football for over a month.
Slaven Bilic’s side saw their participation in the Europa League come to an end on Thursday evening as they were [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
A number of first-team players were left at home for the match ahead of the start of the Premier League.
Team news
Jack Wilshere will miss the match after [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] that could keep him out for a month.
Alexis Sanchez, who only recently returned to training after his Copa America exploits for Chile, is also out while Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky are both unavailable through injury.
Winston Reid, Joey O’Brien and Pedro Obiang are all struggling with knocks for the Hammers while Carl Jenkinson is ineligible to play against his parent club.
Merson's prediction
West Ham will have played their Europa League game against Astra in Romania and I thought Arsenal were very good in the Emirates Cup and against Chelsea in the Community Shield.
I just don't see how West Ham can hurt or stop Arsenal at the Emirates, I really don't. Even if they manage to hold on until the 60th minute with the score goalless, they could still end up losing the game by three or four goals.
PAUL PREDICTS: 3-0 ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.])
Stats
Arsenal are unbeaten in 14 Premier League meetings (W12, D2) against West Ham – winning the last nine.
West Ham have scored first in four of the last six meetings and gone on to lose all four.
Arsenal have won one of their last five opening fixtures (D3, L1) – but have lost only one of the last 14 (W9, D4).
The 2015/16 season will be Arsene Wenger's 20th in charge of Arsenal.
Kevin Nolan is set to make 400th career Premier League appearance and is also on 99 career league goals.
