Eddie Howe is welcomed to the Emirates Stadium by Mikel Arteta as the Gunners look to expand their historic winning streak to six Premier League titles in 2024.
Arsenal will be subject to new Premier League regulations.
The North Londoners will kick off this evening at 8 p.m., which is odd for a Saturday.
But the special game time, as reported by the Mirror, is the consequence of a recent Premier League regulation meant to prevent quick European turnarounds for teams that participated in Europe throughout the week.
Arsenal lost to Porto 1-0 on Wednesday night. Historically, teams participating in European competition throughout the week have had to play the early kickoff on Saturday.
Naturally, this shortens the time for recuperation and raises the possibility of injuries. To prevent these problems, the Premier League has now implemented this new regulation.
One person who will be happy is Jurgen Klopp. The German coach has frequently expressed his displeasure over Liverpool having to play in the early slot on Saturday after a midweek trip to Europe.
This season, Newcastle has already had two Saturday kickoffs at 8 p.m.
The Magpies faced Manchester United in December and Manchester City at this same time last August.
But since this will be Arsenal’s first encounter with the new Premier League rule, let’s hope Arteta can adequately prepare his team, even though Howe has more experience with the newly assigned slot.
More history can be made by Mikel Arteta.
As previously said, in 2024, Arsenal has already started an incredible winning run.
Up until today, no Arsenal team in history had won all five of their first-round league matches to begin a calendar year. If Arteta can defeat Newcastle, the Spaniard will have the opportunity to push that record to six.
