Beaten 2-1 at promoted Hull City last weekend, Leicester avoided the ignominy of becoming the first English champions to lose their first two games since Aston Villa in 1981.
But Claudio Ranieri's side were frustrated by two unsuccessful penalty shouts – one in each half – and also lost full debutant Nampalys Mendy to an apparent ankle injury.
Arsenal looked far more robust than the team beaten 4-3 by Liverpool a week ago and were able to welcome back Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil and Olivier Giroud from their post-Euro 2016 breaks.
But with the season only two games old, both Arsene Wenger's men and Leicester are already five points off the pace set by Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Hull.
Ranieri had given starts to Demarai Gray and new signings Luis Hernandez and Ahmed Musa at Hull, but he reverted to last season's formula for the visit of Arsenal, three months on from his side's title coronation.
Robert Huth returned from suspension in place of Hernandez, along with Marc Albrighton and Shinji Okazaki, and Mendy stepped into the midfield hole created by N'Golo Kante's move to Chelsea.
With Arsenal dominating possession on a blustery East Midlands afternoon, it also allowed Leicester to adopt the counter-attacking formula that saw them storm the table in the first half of last season.
Arsenal were reduced to potshots, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, in for the injured Alex Iwobi, curling wide and Santi Cazorla, who replaced the hamstrung Aaron Ramsey, shooting straight at Kasper Schmeichel.
The first moment of contention in the Arsenal box occurred late in the half, after Petr Cech had saved at the feet of Jamie Vardy.
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