Premier League Champions Liverpool will lock horns with FA Cup Winners Arsenal on Saturday afternoon at Wembley in the FA Community Shield match which traditionally serves as the curtain-raiser for the upcoming season.
Arsenal look to have made some strides under Arteta. They finished the season strongly with five wins in their last eight Premier Leagues, which included a win over Liverpool at their Emirates stadium. They also won the FA Cup in dramatic fashion with victories over Man City in the semifinals and a come-from-behind win over Chelsea in the final.
They showed a great degree of mental fortitude in those matches – a quality that has been alien to them for a long time.
Arsenal still finished 43 points off champions, Liverpool, however, so there is a feeling that there is still work to do to bridge the gap overall. This game while a one-off encounter offers them a chance to build upon their success and to measure themselves against the standard they aspire to.
After a putting up a season for the record books last year to end a 30-year drought with their 19th top-flight title, Liverpool will be looking to build on that by mounting a ferocious defence of this title.
There was a feeling they could have done a lot more but a title win to end that drought was in itself satisfactory enough for Jurgen Klopp and his charges. With teams strengthening their squads in readiness for the new season, Liverpool can expect this campaign will not be as much of a walk in the park as the just-ended season.
This Community shield offers Klopp not just an opportunity to build on the winning culture but also a chance for them to a statement of their intentions for the season to all their challengers.
Even though both teams are just getting their squads back together and they’ve not had a chance to put out their full first teams in the pre-season friendlies they have played, whenever these two teams meet, fireworks are almost certainly guaranteed. The last four meetings between them have had at least three goals scored. In fact, only two of their last 10 head to head encounters have had less than 4 total goals scored. With the likes of Aubameyang for Arsenal and Salah for Liverpool expected to be named for this match, the potential for another thriller looms large. We are backing Over 2.5 goals to land here @ 1.57 with Bwin as our initial betting prediction.
Arsenal won that last game against the Reds 2-1 after coming from behind. Liverpool, however, dominated that game from start to finish and were unlucky not to get anything from it. Liverpool also only won one of their three meetings against the Gunners last season but they scored 9 goals. We are expecting Liverpool to use this game to underline their intentions for the season. With Arsenal nursing injuries, Liverpool are likely to jump on the attack from the get-go and we are backing them to score the first goal @ 1.50 with Bwin betting app as our final prediction for this encounter.
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