Arsene Wenger was reportedly 13 minutes early to his pre-match press conference and wasted no time telling the media how prepared his side are for anything Leicester City throw at them.

Arsenal welcome the Foxes to the Emirates Stadium on Friday evening in the opening game of the Premier League season. The Gunners are favourites to pick up all three points on home soil but have started campaigns slowly in the past.

However, Wenger has said his side are prepared for a fight to ensure they win their opening game and start the new season strongly. “(Arsenal are) well prepared and ready for a fight. Ambitious as well. I think we had good physical preparation and all of our players got a decent number of minutes,” reports ESPN journalist Mattias Karén on Twitter.

“Now it is about transforming the quality of preparation into points. Leicester City have a good way to stop people, they defend very well and are dangerous on the counter-attack.”

Arsenal’s Premier League opening day results after 2009

  • 15/8/10: Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal
  • 13/8/11: Newcastle 0-0 Arsenal
  • 18/8/12: Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland
  • 17/8/13: Arsenal 1-3 Aston Villa
  • 16/8/14: Arsenal 2-1 Crystal Palace
  • 9/8/15: Arsenal 0-2 West Ham
  • 14/8/16: Arsenal 3-4 Liverpool

As shown, Arsenal have started poorly for some time and they’ll be going into Friday’s meeting with Leicester without Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny among others. They may have to work hard for the win this week.