Curtain Raiser Against Coventry

. It was a heartbreaking occasion, but it didn't dampen the spirits too much. The parade that followed the next day was brilliant and I was lucky enough to attend. Now, we're back down to business and we actually already have a trophy under our belts. The victory over Manchester City last weekend, to win the Community Shield, has given me much more confidence. The defeats to Real Betis and Borussia Dortmund stung, but they were still friendlies. The draw against Como felt unlucky, but the win over City came at just the right time. Our first game will see us take on the champions of the Championship, Frank Lampard's Coventry City. Let's take a look.

Form

This section will be hard to do for a few weeks as form needs to build up, so I'll take a look at how they got on over pre-season. Coventry have only played three friendlies, which doesn't feel like enough. I'm not sure whether they've had some 'behind closed doors' fixtures, but three doesn't feel like enough. I could be wrong. Having said that, they grabbed some good results. Their first of the three was a 0-0 draw against Northampton, nothing to shout about. It's the next two that are the most impressive. 3-1 win over Espanyol and a 2-0 victory over Monaco. Two established top flight teams in their respective countries. You can't look too much into friendly matches, but it's still something to win them. If you lose every friendly 4-0, at some point you're going to feel like you're not even close to being ready. As I say, that's all I can work with at the moment.

Injuries

Ephron Mason-Clark, Jack Rudoni and Haji Wright are all expected to miss the opening encounter. Wright being one of the key players missing.

Player to Watch: Caleb Yirenkyi

Arsenal were actually linked with Caleb before he joined Coventry, labelled as a very exciting youngster. He was also at the World Cup where his Ghana side faced off against England. Yirenkyi played in that one and I was thoroughly impressed by him. He's a physical powerhouse that can do it all. Traditionally speaking, he's a box-to-box midfielder, but that feels too limiting to what he can actually do. In addition to midfield, he can play as a centre back, right back and attacking midfielder. Coventry have got a gem on their hands and he's going to be tough to contain.

Coventry Predicted Lineup

Until you see a team sheet for a few weeks, it's hard to predict what direction Lampard will go in. I do think Yirenkyi will go straight into the starting line up and he'll then try and pad his team out with as much Premier League experience as possible. Frank Onyeka, Loum Tchaouna and Taiwo Awoniyi all have that required experience. Lampard also might remember that the Arsenal defence have struggled against Awoniyi in the past. Outside of that prediction, it's a guessing game.

Arsenal Predicted Lineup

Outside of Saka and Rice returning, this is the team that started against City. Considering what they did to City, I'd find it hard to see the need to rotate. News coming out of today suggests that Bruno Guimaraes is an injury doubt, but there's hope he'll make it. The midfield without him will be fine, but it would've been nice to see him. I do think he'll make the bench, but a start could be beyond him. This team was capable of tearing City to shreds, so why not Coventry? There's still plenty of firepower on the bench if we need it.

Score Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Coventry

I don't think Arsenal blow Coventry away with a massive scoreline. The first game is all about just picking up that win. Get those three points on the board and shelve those nerves. It's very likely that Arsenal will dominate, but Coventry will have their chances. So, everyone will need to remain switched on. My only concern is that all eyes will be on us as we are the curtain raising fixture, so perhaps we'll see an extra 10% from the Coventry City players.