Arsenal target fifth straight opening-day win against Coventry

Arsenal will begin their 2026/27 Premier League title defence against Coventry City on Friday looking to extend an impressive record on the opening day of the season.

According to Arsenal’s website, the Gunners have won their opening Premier League fixture in each of the last four seasons, defeating Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest, Wolves and Manchester United.

Another victory against Coventry would give Arsenal five consecutive opening-day wins, a feat they have achieved only once before, between the 2001/02 and 2005/06 seasons.

Across their 122 previous opening league fixtures, Arsenal have recorded 58 wins, 23 draws and 41 defeats. The club have also never gone on to win the league after losing their first game of a season.

Arsenal have started at home 69 times and away 53 times, while their overall opening-day record in the Premier League stands at 20 wins, six draws and eight defeats from 34 matches.

Arsenal have scored 199 goals in their opening league fixtures and conceded 169, leaving them one goal short of reaching the 200-goal mark. Their biggest opening-day victory came in August 2009, when they thrashed Everton 6-1 at Goodison Park. Everton, Liverpool and Newcastle United are Arsenal’s most frequent opening-day opponents, having faced the Gunners eight times each.

The club have not drawn on the opening day for 14 years, since a goalless draw with Sunderland at Emirates Stadium in 2012. Arsenal have also won all three of their opening Premier League matches as reigning champions, with the most recent coming against Everton in the 2004/05 season.

Their other victories as defending champions came against promoted Nottingham Forest in 1998/99 and Birmingham City in 2002/03.

Ted Drake remains Arsenal’s leading scorer in opening-day league fixtures with six goals, including a hat-trick against Everton in 1937. Alan Smith is the only other Arsenal player to score a hat-trick on the opening day, doing so in a 5-1 victory over Wimbledon in 1988.

Dennis Bergkamp is the club’s leading Premier League opening-day scorer with five goals, while Cesc Fabregas is the only other player to score twice in a Premier League opener for Arsenal.

Steve Bould scored Arsenal’s first-ever Premier League goal on the opening day in 1992, heading in against Norwich City before Kevin Campbell added another in a 4-2 defeat. Alexandre Lacazette also holds a unique record, having scored the first goal of the entire Premier League season on two separate occasions.