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Arsenal v Chelsea: Community Shield preview, team news & betting tips

By on August 8, 2017

FA Cup holders Arsenal kick-off the new season when we take on Premier League champions Chelsea in the Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday afternoon.

Nobody gave us much hope when faced the Blues in the FA Cup back in May but the players produced an excellent performance to secure a well-deserved 2-1 victory thanks to goals from Alexis Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey.

Obviously there isn’t as much riding on Sunday’s game but it will still be a good chance to test ourselves against the best and see how competitive this squad is going to be this season.

The 10 best betting sites all have Chelsea as the favourites to win the Community Shield, which is understandable given we finished 18 points behind them last season, but we showed in the FA Cup final we are a match for any side on our day.

Team news

Alexis Sanchez only returned to pre-season training on Tuesday so he’s highly unlikely to start but Arsene Wenger says he could still be in contention for a place in the squad along with Shkodran Mustafi – who also arrived back late this summer.

Laurent Koscielny is available to play as his two-match ban doesn’t count in the Community Shield but it will be interesting to see who joins him at the back as Rob Holding and Calum Chambers aren’t 100% fit yet.

Alexandre Lacazette is pushing to start up front and he’ll be looking to impress following his club record move from Lyon this summer while Danny Welbeck is also vying for a start spot in attack.

Mesut Ozil and Ramsey have missed training in recent days with minor knocks but they are expected to be passed fit and available for selection this weekend.

As for Chelsea, they could hand starts to new signings Antonio Rudiger, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Alvaro Morata but Eden Hazard is missing through injury and Diego Costa has been exiled from the squad as he looks to secure a move away.

Betting tips

As I’ve already mentioned, Chelsea are the favourites at best odds of 5/4 to win the game inside 90 minutes while you can get Arsenal at 2/1. Obviously it’s going to be a tough game as Chelsea are an excellent side but let’s not underestimate Arsenal as we have a terrific record at Wembley and can mix it with the very best on our day.

I do think it will be a tight game so I’d back under 1.5 first half goals at odds of 4/9 and a final score of 1-1 at 6/1 looks tempting. However, I’m going to back the boys to edge it so I’m going for a 2-1 Arsenal win inside ninety minutes at 10/1.

I’m sure it’s going to be an intriguing match but I just hope we are competitive and give Chelsea a good game. The last thing we need is being thrashed by one of our rivals before the new season has even kicked off.