Aston Villa aim to bounce back from an opening defeat to Brighton against an Arsenal side attempting to open with an away win for a fifth successive season.
BBC Sport examines some of the key themes ahead of their meeting at Villa Park on Monday (20:00 BST).
Aston Villa and Arsenal experienced vastly different fortunes in their respective opening fixtures, with Unai Emery attempting to lead his side's recovery from a 4-0 thrashing at Brighton against his former employers.
Emery's Arsenal tenure lasted just 18 months before he was sacked following a winless run of seven matches. His career has since gone from strength to strength, winning the Europa League with both Villarreal and then Villa last season for the fifth time in his career, while he also guided the Midlands club to fourth place and a return to Champions League football in 2025-26.
However, Villa's poor start to the campaign on the south coast last weekend was indicative of a club in a state of flux following the departure of four key players, including Ezri Konsa to the Gunners. Striker Ollie Watkins is also set to leave, with Chelsea forward Nicolas Jackson expected to replace him.
Villa have already made eight new signings with a focus on younger talent, although such significant recruitment is likely to take time to settle, as evidenced by conceding four goals last weekend in the opening half an hour.
They also failed to have a shot on target in a Premier League game for the first time under Emery, while setting record-low tallies of possession (27%) and recovering possession (17) during the 54-year-old's tenure.
Aston Villa had an opening day to forget at Brighton last weekend [BBC]Villa have not lost their opening two league games since 2019. The last time they did so without scoring was 24 years ago.
They next face the reigning champions, who got off to a fast start of their own against newly promoted Coventry City last Friday night, going 2-0 up in 23 minutes before adding a third in the second half.
It was Arsenal's 150th victory in the Premier League under Mikel Arteta, who, on Monday night, will become just the 10th manager to take charge of 250 Premier League fixtures.
Of the previous nine, only Pep Guardiola (70.8%), Alex Ferguson (65.2%) and Jürgen Klopp (62.6%) have a higher win rate than Arteta's 60%.
Mikel Arteta takes charge of his 250th Premier League game with Arsenal on Monday [BBC]Arsenal have won their first away game in each of the last four Premier League seasons, keeping a clean sheet on each occasion.
They have never won their opening away match in five successive league campaigns before, although Villa Park has proved to be a tough nut to crack in recent times.
Arsenal have lost on three of their past seven visits – the same number of defeats as in their previous 24 away matches against Villa.
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