The 2021-22 Premier League season gets underway at the Brentford

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The 2021-22 Premier League season gets underway at the Brentford Community Stadium on Friday night, as the newly-promoted Bees play host to London rivals Arsenal. Thomas Frank’s men are plying their trade in the English top flight for the first time since 1947, while the Gunners prepare for a rare campaign without European football.

The Premier League (PL) finally makes its return with the season opener at the Brentford Community Stadium, which will become the 59th venue to host PL football. It has been a long journey for Brentford with nine heartbreaking play-off failures, but they’ve managed to climb through the tiers whilst consistently making a profit, testament to their eye for talent.

The combination of a smooth attack and a strong defence was key to the ‘Bees’ success last campaign, as they allowed opposing sides just 8.6 shots on average during the regular season. They also shutout three PL sides over six cup fixtures vs such opposition last term (W3, D1, L2 – 90 minutes), and scored 2+ goals in three of those, hinting that they might be competitive this season.

After consecutive eighth-placed finishes, Arsenal will be expected to do much better this season, especially without the distraction of European football for the first time in 26 years. With a number of new additions to the squad, and more expected, the ‘Gunners’ will hope to build on a decent second half to last season that only saw Manchester City accrue more points than them from Boxing Day onwards (W14, D5, L5).

Indeed, only Manchester United can boast a longer current PL unbeaten away run than Arsenal (W5, D2) and Mikel Arteta’s men should be confident of extending that into the new season, given that they didn’t concede a single goal in any of their away league games vs promoted opposition last term (W2, D1).

Date: 13/08/2021
Time: 22:00
Venue: Brentford Community Stadium (London)
Pick for this match:
“Over 2.5” – @ 2.07 ( Betway )