5 bold Premier League predictions: Emery triumphs over Guardiola

The opening weekend of the Premier League is almost upon us. Here are five bold predictions for all the action during matchweek 1.

The Premier League returns this Friday, when Leicester travel to face Manchester United on Friday. Newly-promoted sides Cardiff, Fulham and Wolves are all in action on Saturday, while new managers Unai Emery and Maurizio Sarri will take charge of their first games in the Premier League this weekend. Here are five bold predictions for all the action.

5. Unai Emery’s new-look Arsenal best Manchester City

The highlight of the first weekend’s matches is certainly Manchester City’s visit to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal on Sunday. Gunners fans must be on a bit of a high as it’s the first time in more than 20 years their side will have a new manager in the dugout.

Arsene Wenger finally left the London club at the end of last season, and now Unai Emery has the task of building Arsenal back up to where their fans think they should be: league champions.

There’s no better test for Arsenal than facing off against last season’s runaway champions, Manchester City. Their manager, Pep Guardiola, noted in an interview recently that he’s “hungrier than ever for success,” a scary thought considering how many trophies the Spanish manager has won in recent years.

Emery has only added five players to his squad this summer, which suggests he believes the core of the squad is strong enough to compete for the title. Arsenal have a great opportunity to start anew on Sunday and they’ll seize it by triumphing over Manchester City.

Expect a frantic match that will be decided by the finishing of the two sets of attackers rather than the quality of the defenses. The Gunners kicked off last season with an exciting win over Leicester, and this year we’re thinking something similar will happen against Guardiola’s side.