Arsenal have won 12 of their last 13 competitive fixtures against Newcastle, losing only once in this run: 2-1 at St James’ Park in April 2018.
The last time Newcastle and Arsenal met on matchday one of a Premier League season was back in 2011/12, when they played out a 0-0 draw at St James’ Park.
The last time that Arsenal played an away game on the opening matchday of a league season was against Newcastle in 2011/12. This will be the first time in eight seasons that Arsenal haven’t opened a league campaign with a match at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal have lost four of their last six matches on the opening matchday of a Premier League season: 3-1 at home to Aston Villa in 2013/14, 2-0 at home to West Ham in 2015/16, 4-3 at home to Liverpool in 2016/17 and 2-0 at home to Manchester City in 2018/19.
Newcastle haven’t won their opening league game of a season since 2012/13 (2-1 at home to Tottenham). Since then, they have lost five and drawn one of their MD1 matches in the last six seasons, including one game in the Championship.
Just one of Newcastle’s last 25 Premier League home games has ended in a draw (W13 L11), that game being the 0-0 draw with Fulham in December 2018. The Magpies have won six of their last eight at St James’Park (L2), though those two defeats have come in their last three games.
Arsenal kept just one clean sheet in their 19 away league games last season (1-0 at Watford), with only 15th placed Burnley (36), 14th placed Bournemouth (45) and the bottom two clubs Fulham and Huddersfield (both 45) conceding more away goals than the Gunners last term (35).
New Newcastle manager Steve Bruce will become only the second person to manage both Newcastle and Sunderland in a league match, after Sam Allardyce.
Newcastle manager Steve Bruce has lost more games in all competitions against Arsenal than he has against any other side in his managerial career (19), beating the Gunners just twice in 27 previous meetings (May 2005 with Birmingham and November 2009 with Sunderland).
13 of Arsenal’s last 17 goals in all competitions have been scored by either Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (nine) or Alexandre Lacazette (four).
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