Table of contents for 01 August 2023 in MATCH!

WILFRIED ZAHA Crystal Palace to Galatasaray Free transfer HARVEY BARNES Leicester to Newcastle £38 million ARNAUT DANJUMA Villarreal to Everton Loan OLA AINA Torino to Nottingham Forest Free transfer ALEX TELLES Man. United to Al-Nassr £4 million P.-EMERICK AUBAMEYANG Chelsea to Marseille Free transfer NATHAN REDMOND Besiktas to Burnley Free transfer JAMES TRAFFORD Man. City to Burnley £15 million MARVELOUS NAKAMBA Aston Villa to Luton £4 million MILOS KERKEZ AZ Alkmaar to Bournemouth £15.5 million MATT DOHERTY Atletico Madrid to Wolves Free transfer ORIEL ROMEU Girona to Barcelona £3 million ASHLEY YOUNG Aston Villa to Everton Free transfer ANGELO GABRIEL Santos to Chelsea £12.9 million…

ARSENAL Manager: Mikel Arteta Captain: Martin Odegaard Stadium: Emirates Stadium Last Season: 2nd BUKAYO SAKA He was just beaten to Arsenal’s 2022-23 Player of the Season award by Martin Odegaard, but the England winger wouldn’t have been far off! He recorded his best-ever campaign for goals and assists combined and will be hoping to record a similar tally this season! LAST SEASON IN NUMBERS 6 Arsenal are returning to the Champions League for the first time in six years. Awesome! STRONGEST LINE-UP ONE TO WATCH DECLAN RICE The most expensive British player of all time will have to be a strong anchor if Arteta chooses to play both Odegaard and Kai Havertz alongside him! The other option is to use Rice as a box-to-box No.8 with Partey or Jorginho holding instead! DID YOU KNOW?…

SHEFFIELD WED. v SOUTHAMPTON Friday 4 August, 8pm Two new teams in the Championship – one promoted, one relegated – kick off the second tier’s new campaign! BURNLEY v MAN. CITY Friday 11 August, 8pm This Friday night fixture kicks off the 2023-24 PL season and sees Vincent Kompany face old boss Pep Guardiola! NEWCASTLE v ASTON VILLA Saturday 12 August, 5.30pm These two played out a six-goal thriller a few weeks ago in a pre-season friendly and we’d love to see another goalfest! LEEDS v WEST BROM Friday 18 August, 8pm These sides have averaged four goals a game in their last nine head-to-heads, so we’re expecting tons of net-busters! LEICESTER v COVENTRY Sunday 6 August, 12pm The Foxes start their spell in the EFL against last season’s play-off…

CHAMPIONSHIP PROMOTION BATTLE! We fancy all three of the relegated Premier League teams to make at least the play-offs, with Leicester our favourites to win the Championship title, while Middlesbrough look really strong under Michael Carrick! It could be one of the most competitive campaigns in recent history and we’re bracing ourselves for some major surprises! GOAL MACHINES! Last season’s Golden Boot winner Chuba Akpom is unlucky not to be playing Prem footy after his heroic 2022-23 form! He’s one of the faves to win the top scorer prize alongside the likes of Sunderland star Ross Stewart, Swansea’s Joel Piroe, Leeds’ Patrick Bamford and any of Leicester’s forwards! YOUNG GUNS! Sunderland sealed Jude Bellingham’s 17-year-old brother Jobe for around £1 million this summer! He’s one of the wonderkids to watch…

10 Liverpool haven’t lost their opening Premier League game in any of the last ten seasons! The last time the reigning Prem champions played their first game of the season away at a newly-promoted club was in 2016-17! 345+ Since 2018-19, James Maddison has created more than 345 chances in the Premier League! 51 Luton’s game against Brighton will be their first in the Premier League, making them the 51st team to play in the competition! 2 Two of the last three clubs making their debut in the competition won their opening match–Huddersfield in 2017 and Brentford in 2021! 3 Vincent Kompany is the third boss to take charge of his first PL game v Pep Guardiola! 7 Man. United will play at home in their opening PL match for…

DID YOU KNOW? CF Montreal also play select home matches at the 61,004-capacity Olympic Stadium! STADIUM FACTS TEAM: CF Montreal BUILT: 2008 CAPACITY: 19,619 RECORD ATTENDANCE: 23,352 v Philadelphia Union, March 2023 NEAREST NEIGHBOUR: New England LONGEST LEAGUE JOURNEY: Inter Miami, 1,615 miles COLLECT ALL 15!…

ASTON VILLA v EVERTON We fancy Villa to win their first home match of the new season! MATCH SAYS 2-0 YOU SAY FULHAM v BRENTFORD We think the points will be shared in this crunch west London derby! MATCH SAYS 0-0 YOU SAY MAN. CITY v NEWCASTLE We think Man. City are just gonna edge this toughie at the Etihad! MATCH SAYS 2-1 YOU SAY TOTTENHAM v MAN. UNITED Ange’s first home game won’t end how he would have imagined it! MATCH SAYS 1-2 YOU SAY C. PALACE v ARSENAL Martinelli scored in both matches v Palace last season. Dangerman! MATCH SAYS 0-2 YOU SAY LIVERPOOL v BOURNEMOUTH We still remember Bournemouth’s visit to Anfield last season… MATCH SAYS 3-0 YOU SAY NOTT’M FOREST v SHEFF. UNITED Forest’s extra year…

SONNY’S SPECIAL SILO! Heung-min Son has his first-ever signature boots, with adidas presenting these bright X Crazyfast inspired by the lights and life of the major cities in South Korea! TELETUBBIES LOLS! Burnley always introduce their new signings in weird and wonderful ways! Zeki Amdouni was presented via a clip of children’s television series the Teletubbies! REAL ODD REVEAL! Real Madrid revealed their new away jersey while boarding a flight en route to their pre-season tour in the USA. It’s deffo not a “plane” pattern, though!…

WHO NEEDS HARRY KANE? Bayern Munich’s friendly with Rottach-Egern last month ended 27-0! They were 18-0 up at half-time and had 13 different scorers. LOL! FC 24 REVEAL PARTY! New football videogame FC 24 had a launch party in Amsterdam last month, with cover star Erling Haaland attending ahead of its release on September 29! MLS MELTDOWN! The official MLS Twitter account welcomed Sergio Busquets to the league by using a photo of former Real Madrid defender Alvaro Arbeloa. What a fail!…

TOTTENHAM v MAN. UNITED Saturday 19 August, 5.30pm We’ve heard Tottenham fans have funded a huge tifo for Ange Postecoglou’s first home league game welcoming him to the club! That should raise Spurs supporters’ spirits after a disappointing 2022-23, but they couldn’t have asked for a much harder first home league match. They have one win in their last nine H2Hs with United! MAN. CITY v NEWCASTLE Saturday 19 August, 8pm Man. City have won their last four home matches against The Magpies 14-0 on aggregate! You’d think Eddie Howe would just be pleased to score a goal, but he’ll have something bigger planned. It was pretty much a year to the day when they played one of the most thrilling matches of 2022-23 at St. James’ Park, ending 3-3!…

Fabfooties! Noah designed three new footballs for the 2023-24 season. Great work, mate! Belgiumballer! Joseph drew this cartoon of Man. City’s world-class midfielder Kevin De Bruyne! Goal grabber! Check out Oscar’s wicked drawing of France goal machine Karim Benzema! Messi masterclass! Luke made this awesome tribute to Lionel Messi’s PSG career! City cartoon! William sent in this drawing of his fave player, Phil Foden! Spurs superstar! Jasper drew a picture of his favourite Tottenham player, Harry Kane! SEND YOUR PICTURES TO… Email: match.magazine@kelsey.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/matchmagazine Twitter: www.twitter.com/matchmagazine…