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Liverpool to Face Arsenal in Premier League Curtain Raiser This Weekend

Sports streaming in March 2020

The 2019-20 football season, the longest ever in European football history, came to premier-league-promotion-bet365-pokera close last weekend with Bayern Munich’s 1-0 win over Paris St Germain in the Champions League Final. Barely six days later however, the Premier League is set to restart with the traditional opening match of the new season as the League Champions Liverpool take on FA Cup Holders Arsenal at Wembley in the Community Shield.

The game has long heralded the start of the new football season and while the first round of fixtures following this game will not take place for a couple of weeks (the 12th September is the start date for league action for most professional teams in England) it still means that the new season will effectively be underway for many teams, especially those involved in the early round of cup competitions, such as the Carabao Cup.

For many football punters, the Community Shield is the signal for their football betting season to start as well as the actual football season, so there will be many football fans eager to have a flutter on the outcome of Saturday afternoon’s match at Wembley. If you would like to join them, and you have not yet signed up with a reputable bookmaker offering excellent football betting throughout the season, superb promotional offers and a fantastic New Player Bonus, then the place to start is with the current bet365 New Customer Promotion.

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Let us now take a look ahead to Saturday’s big game by taking a look at the competition itself, and the two teams that will contest the game on Sunday, Premier League Champions Liverpool and FA Cup Holders, Arsenal.

A Brief History of the Community Shield

The very first Community Shield was contested back in 1908 with Manchester United facing Queens Park Rangers at Stamford Bridge, United won 4-0 in a replay afyer a 1-1 draw between the teams. Back in the early years the game was played at a number of grounds around the country including White Hart Lane, The Den, Old Trafford, Highbury, Maine Road, Villa Park, Goodison Park, Roker Park, St James’ Park, Molineux, Turf Moor, Portman Road and Anfield.

However by 1974, the match had been switched to Wembley Stadium, where it has remained ever since apart from the 2012 match which was played at Villa Park and the period from 2001 to 2006 when Wembley was being renovated where the game was played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The game, formerly known as the Charity Shield, raises funds for the FA to distribute to good causes throughout the season and for many years now, it has taken on the format of League Champions taking on the FA Cup Holders.

Manchester United are the most successful team in the competition’s history with a total of 21 wins in total. Then it is both the teams contesting the match on Saturday, Arsenal and Liverpool, who have both claimed 15 wins over the years.

Indeed, the Gunners and Reds have met in three Community Shield matches previously, Liverpool winning the first two (3-1 in 1979 and then 1-0 in 1989) with Arsenal emerging as the 2002 winners with a 1-0 win over the Reds at the Millennium Stadium.

Since 1996, only five teams have won the Community Shield, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool, and in total only nine teams have played in the game. The five teams listed above, plus Newcastle United, Portsmouth, Wigan Athletic and Leicester City, all of whom lost the match.

The last team outside of the five teams listed above to win the Community Shield was Everton who landed a 1-0 win over Blackburn Rovers in 1995.

Arsenal have won the trophy three times releatively recently in 2014, 2015 and 2017, but Liverpool’s last win was way back in 2006 and the Reds last win at Wembley Stadium was even further back in time and came against Arsenal in 1989, when Peter Beardsley’s solitary goal was enough to win the game.

Team News

Arsenal

It will be interesting to see if William Saliba, who had a fine season on loan at St. Etienne earns a spot in the Arsenal first team for this game, with most feeling that he will start on the bench. I think new signing Willian will likely start for the Gunners complementing two defensive midfielders in Xhaka and Torreira in midfield in front of three centre halves and two attacking full backs with Aubameyang and Lacazette likely to start in attack, although Arteta could also opt to play a wider attacker in Saka and push Willian into a wider role to play Aubameyang on his own through the middle.

Arsenal Predicted Team 🙁 (5-3-2) – Martinelli (Gk), Bellerin (Dr), Tierney (Dl), Papasthatopoulos (Dc), Kolasinac (Dc), Luiz (Dc), Xhaka (Mc), Torreira (Mc), Willian (AMc), Lacazette (Ac),

Liverpool

Having said goodbye to Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana over the short end of season period, Liverpool have brought in just one new player, back up left back Kostas Tsimikas from Olympiakos, which suggests that Jurgen Klopp will keep faith with the squad that landed him the Premier League title by 18 points last season. Injury will rule out Alex Oxlade Chamberlain for this one, with slight doubts also over Matip, Henderson and Alexander Arnold although all three should be fit enough to start if selected.

Liverpool Predicted Team: (4-3-3) – Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Robertson, van Dijk, Gomez, Fabinho, Keita, Henderson, Firmino, Mane, Salah.

Our Tips for the Community Shield

Games between these two teams are generally not short of a few goals and we have had some high scoring encounters, including a 5-5 draw in the Carabao Cup last season. As such, Both Teams to Score looks a wise bet, even if the odds of 8/13 are not too enticing.

As for the Full Time Result bet, while Arsenal did beat Liverpool last season, I can’t see them doing so again here and I’d back Liverpool to land the victory at 13/20. More enticing is a correct score bet and with these games being high scoring usually, I am going for a 3-1 win for Liverpool at odds of 16/1 with bet365.

In terms of goalscorer, Aubameyang is the outstanding candidate for Arsenal but I don’t see them scoring too many goals against this Liverpool back line, so I feel one of Liverpool’s front three is the smart bet and Bobby Firmino has a great record against Arsenal. You can back him to score anytime at 6/4 or do an Anytime Scorecast with Firmino to score anytime and Liverpool to win 3-1 at odds of 16/1.

*All odds shown were correct with bet365 Sport as of 12.50pm on Wednesday 26t August 2020.

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