Primetime Premier League: Robin Bairner is backing Arsenal’s in-form striker to open the scoring

Crystal Palace vs Arsenal kicks off the 2022/23 Premier League season on Friday. Can the Gunners get their season off to a flying start or will they be undone by club legend Patrick Vieira once again? Robin Bairner has the lowdown.

Champions League ambition

After falling short in the race for Champions League football last season, Arsenal are determined to make amends this time around. Every result counts in what is likely to be a tight race to finish in the top four, as Mikel Arteta knows only too well after the Gunners missed out by just two points last season. 

Despite their poor finish last year, the North Londoners may also look back ruefully on their opening Friday night performance against Brentford when they lost 2-0 to the newly-promoted club.

Arsenal can be backed at 1.88 to right that wrong and claim the three points against Palace, who are 4.8 to get the win. The draw is on offer at 3.9.

Vieira is king of the Palace

The home side are headed up by Gunners legend Vieira, but there is no room for sentiment on his part ahead of this fixture. Indeed, he transformed Palace into a tough side to beat last season, with only Brighton losing fewer games from sides that finished outside the top four.

Moreover, there was a certain panache about the manner he had his team playing. After earning a reputation as a pragmatic coach in France with Nice, his Palace side notched 50 goals last term – the second highest in the bottom half of the table.

Of course, losing talented midfielder Conor Gallagher after his loan from Chelsea expired does not help their cause. To fill that void, Palace signed defensive midfielder Cheick Doucoure from Lens, but he is far less dynamic than the young Englishman. Otherwise, this is much the same side that impressed last season.

Hey, big spenders!

Arsenal, by contrast, have invested heavily in their squad again. Indeed, only Barcelona and Bayern Munich have spent more than the Gunners, who have the second-highest net spend in the game.

So far, it appears that Arteta’s men have received value for money. They were devastating on a pre-season tour of the US, which was highlighted by a 4-0 win over Chelsea, while they returned home last weekend to blow away Sevilla 6-0. Big-money arrival Gabriel Jesus has been on fire, scoring seven times.

Off the back of these results, it is little wonder that Arsenal have high hopes of returning to the Champions League for the first time since 2016-17.

A history of high scoring

Arsenal have only won one of their last eight matches against Crystal Palace, so the feel-good factor in the visitor’s camp will be sorely tested here. One of just three draws they picked up last season was against Vieira’s men in a 2-2 tie at the Emirates in October, while they were hammered 3-0 at Selhurst Park back in April.

A common theme in those games was goals. Nine of the last 11 fixtures between the two teams have seen at least 2.5 goals, with seven of the last 10 producing at least four. Over 2.5 goals is priced at 1.98 for this game, which looks superb value.

Meanwhile, the 7.2 on offer about Gabriel Jesus bagging the first Premier League goal of the season looks too good to ignore given his red-hot form.

Recommended bets

Back Over 2.5 goals @ 1.98
Back Gabriel Jesus first goalscorer @ 7.2