We said: Crystal Palace 1-2 Arsenal
The likes of Conor Gallagher and Nuno Tavares were big factors in Palace's 3-0 win over Arsenal last term, and with neither man taking part in this contest, Arteta will hope for a vastly different showdown on Friday.
Palace will of course take major confidence from their showings against Arsenal last term and their spate of clean sheets at home, but the Gunners have looked like a different beast in pre-season and have upped their pressing game tenfold, which should help them begin their Premier League season in winning fashion.
Read more.Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Arsenal win with a probability of 44.33%. A win for Crystal Palace had a probability of 30.16% and a draw had a probability of 25.5%.
The most likely scoreline for an Arsenal win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.17%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.08%) and 0-2 (7.63%). The likeliest Crystal Palace win was 1-0 (8.08%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.11%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 7.6% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Arsenal would win this match.