The new Premier League fixtures are out and Arsenal will be heading to Manchester United on the opening weekend of the 2025/26 season. A standout fixture in the first round of games, the sides will meet at Old Trafford on Sunday, August 17 in a 4:30pm kick-off.
Mikel Arteta will want his team to start the campaign as they mean to go on and claim all three points in Manchester. A win really is imperative as the Gunners do have some mouthwatering fixtures to come over the following month.
Facing Leeds United in their first home game of the term, they then travel to Premier League title rivals Liverpool, host Nottingham Forest and Manchester City before making the trip to Newcastle United’s St James’ Park. Quite simply, Arsenal cannot afford a slow start or to drop too many points if they have aspirations of lifting the league title come May.
Come the opening weekend of the season at Old Trafford, Arsenal could have a different look about them as they bid to finish ahead of Liverpool and Manchester City. Martin Zubimendi appears on course to be one of the club’s summer arrivals with the midfielder expected to join from Real Sociedad.
Arsenal’s transfer priority in the weeks ahead has to be the addition of a new striker. Arteta’s team have lacked a proven goalscorer over the past few seasons and things may have panned out rather differently had they had that clinical frontman in recent years.
It does look to be one of Benjamin Sesko or Viktor Gyokeres they move for in the summer transfer market. Both would certainly give Arsenal an upgrade in that area of the pitch, with the latter scoring a remarkable 97 goals in 102 appearances in his last two seasons for Sporting CP.
The former Coventry City forward looks set to be on the move one way or another this summer, with a reported fee of £68million potentially enough to prise him away from the Portuguese side. Arsenal have been heavily linked with the Swede and so have Manchester United ever since his former Sporting CP boss Ruben Amorim stepped in through the door at Old Trafford.
If it is indeed Arsenal who win the race for the 27-year-old in the weeks ahead, his Premier League debut could come against Amorim at The Theatre of Dreams. The Portuguese boss knows exactly what Gyokeres can do after seeing him plunder goals for fun in his exciting Sporting CP team.
He will be fearful of the damage Gyokeres can do to his Manchester United side if he is to face off against them on the opening weekend of the new season. Speaking in his time as head coach at the Jose Alvalade Stadium, Amorim outlined the dangers the striker possesses and stated that he “transforms the team”.
“Now Viktor gives us a different ability to go deep,” he told Sporting CP’s official website. “He transforms the team because he makes us more dangerous at all times in the game. He has great physical attributes that come through especially at the end of the game.”
Amid the decision over whether Arsenal move for Gyokeres or Sesko, that will all come down to sporting director Andrea Berta. At a time when title rivals Liverpool and Manchester City have already made statement signings in the transfer market, the time has come for Arsenal to do the same.
You certainly wouldn’t put it past Gyokeres making a statement at Old Trafford in the first game of 2025/26 if Berta is to entice him to Arsenal. That in turn could be the ultimate double blow for Amorim if he is to see his former star striker join Arsenal and then inflict defeat upon him on the opening weekend.
