Barclays Premier League
Venue: Emirates Stadium Date: Saturday 22 August Kick-off: 1500 BST
Head-to-head
• Arsenal are unbeaten in the last 19 league and cup matches against Portsmouth (W11, D8).
• Portsmouth last beat Arsenal in March 1958, a 5-4 home win in the old First Division. Their last win at Arsenal was in September 1955.
Last time Arsenal met Portsmouth Carlos Vela scored his first goal in the Premiership and Nicklas Bendtner added two more. Vela strangely enough has dropped out of sight although he was a big part of Mexico’s win against the USA in the Gold Cup and the World Cup qualifier, so there is evidence that he does exist.
Clubs like Pompey can potentially trip up Arsenal just like Hull did last season at the Emirates. The Gunners never really recovered from that loss.
“Last year if you look well we got a big blow against Hull at home because if we won that game we would have been top of the league,” recalled Wenger.
“On that day we didn’t do it and we never came back to the top of the league the whole season. We lost ground.”
Injury update: Vela is out with an ankle injury. Eduardo might see action.