London, Aug 22 (IANS) Arsenal got the defence of their Premier League crown off to the perfect start as they swept aside promoted Coventry City with a 3-0 win at Emirates Stadium.

Kai Havertz opened the scoring after 14 minutes with a fine finish before Bukayo Saka added a tGunnersdway through the half to put us in control.

Straight after the restart, Martin Odegaard added a third to wrap up a fifth-straight opening day victory to ensure the Gunnners start this season the same way they ended the last one – on top of the Premier League table.

New winger Christos Tzolis was heavily involved for Arsenal early on, sending one shot off target and seeing another blocked by Bobby Thomas following a clever corner routine.

It was Tzolis’s recovery from Milan van Ewijk that led to Arsenal taking the lead in the 15th minute, Riccardo Calafiori’s centre was swept into the bottom-right corner by Havertz, who had retained his place up front ahead of Viktor Gyokeres, Premier League reports.

And when Rushworth could only parry Tzolis’s low cross into the path of Saka eight minutes later, the winger made no mistake in front of an unguarded net.

An audacious overhead attempt from Loum Tchaouna had Raya backpedalling before it dropped on to the roof of the net, but that was Coventry’s only chance in the first half, before Arsenal almost added a third goal through Declan Rice’s left-footed curler.

Mikel Arteta’s side did extend their advantage four minutes into the second period, with Rushworth unable to keep out Odegaard’s shot despite the Norwegian scuffing his effort from Ben White’s cutback.

Arsenal went in search of further goals, but Rushworth tipped Myles Lewis-Skelly’s dipping effort over the crossbar and later got down to repel Tzolis’s volley. Then Raya saved comfortably from substitute Rudoni at the other end to preserve the hosts’ clean sheet.

The result marked Arteta’s 150th Premier League win in charge at Arsenal after 249 games, becoming one of only five managers to reach that mark in fewer than 250 matches, after Pep Guardiola (204 matches), Jose Mourinho (231), Jurgen Klopp (237), and Sir Alex Ferguson (247).

–IANS

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