**By Danong**
**Arsenal kick off their title defence on Friday night with a clash against Coventry.**
**A convincing 3-0 Community Shield win over Manchester City last weekend should have set the tone for how this season ought to pan out.**
**The Gunners ought to be dangerously sharp in tearing apart opponents while also being rock-solid and impossible to break down.**
**While Frank Lampard and his side will be looking to upset Arsenal, Mikel Arteta will be looking to stretch his brilliant record against the Chelsea legend.**
**In the six meetings between the two, Arteta has won four times, drawn once and lost once.**
**Keen to protect that record and to send a message to the rest of the League, the Spaniard will be setting his team up for a more open attacking display aiming for as big a win as possible.**
**Arsenal are expected to welcome Bukayo Saka back into the starting line-up, though Declan Rice could be given more time to recover and may again feature as a second-half substitute.**
**The starting line-up should** **look like:**
**David Raya**
**White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori**
**Myles Lewis-Skelly, Guimaraes, Odegaard**
**Tzolis, Havertz, Saka**
**Arteta will also have a pretty decent bench to call upon should he need to switch things up. It will be interesting if Martinelli was on it...**
**Unfortunately, though, Arteta will still not be able to call upon Jurrien Timber and William Saliba, who both remain out injured.**
**Understanding between the lines, during his game presser, these two maybe longer term absentees than we thought so. And this may explain our acquisition of Konsa...**
**Either way, Arsenal go into this game with a strong team and should have little trouble stretching their five-game winning run over Coventry to six.**