Sports Blog 31/07/2015: Community Shield Preview – Arsenal vs Chelsea, Sunday 2nd August 2015

English football fans finally get their first taste of the new season proper on Sunday, as Arsenal take on Chelsea in the Community Shield at 3pm on BT Sport 2.

The (admittedly one-sided) rivalry between Mourinho and Wenger will get a run-out at the weekend, a rivalry that has the freshly added kink of Petr Cech, who could make his first appearance against his old club on Sunday. Cech’s transfer from Chelsea is the only one of note made by Wenger this season (so far, at least. The Frenchman is still chasing the perpetual Arsenal target Karim Benzema), but could be a season-changing one nonetheless given a) Cech’s quality and b) Arsenal’s traditional goalkeeper woes.

Mourinho has been similarly quiet on the transfer market, especially when compared to both of the Manchester sides; he signed Asmir Begovic from Stoke to replace Cech, whilst, like Louis van Gaal before him, taking Radamel Falcao off Monaco’s hands for a season. The Colombian was an unequivocal flop last season, managing 4 goals in 26 appearances, but Mourinho seems confident he can draw more out of the Monaco man than his Dutch rival could manage. He goes into the Community Shield with a Super Mega Player Goal Minutes spread of 13-16, and at 13/2 fixed odds to score first.



Whilst Arsenal won the Community Shield last year, with goals from Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and Santi Cazorla sinking Manchester City 3-0, Chelsea pose a different challenge, for arguably psychological reasons. In their last 8 matches against the Blues Arsenal have failed to get a win, drawing 3 and embarrassingly losing 5. However, they go into Sunday in good form, winning the soft targets of the 2015 Premier League Asia Trophy (beating Everton in the final) as well as the Emirates Cup (with a 6-0 victory over Lyon and a hard fought 1-0 win over Wolfsburg).

Chelsea’s pre-season, on the other hand, has been slightly more mixed. It has been based around the North American and Europe leg of the International Champions Cup; their first game saw an embarrassing 4-2 loss to the New York Red Bulls, but was followed by penalty wins against both PSG and Barcelona. More importantly, Chelsea will go into the game with the aforementioned knowledge that Wenger has never been able to beat a Mourinho-managed side, something that could give them the advantage at Wembley.

With Alexis Sanchez still resting, it falls on Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott to prove themselves once again; with both nabbing a few goals in the pre-season, the former is at a Super Mega PGM spread of 14-17 and at 6/1 to score first, whilst latter sits at a 12-15 spread and at 7/1 to score first. In contrast, beyond freshly brought in Falcao, Chelsea have Diego Costa, who scored 21 goals in his debut season in England, as favourite to score first at 5/1 with a Super Mega PGM of 18-21, alongside Player of the Year Eden Hazard at a 14-17 spread and 13/2 fixed odds.

Sunday’s game should provide an insight into the shape of 2 of the Premier League’s top 3 going into the new season; currently Chelsea are expected to top the table once again, at a Season Points spread of 82-83.5 to Arsenal’s 76.5-78 (with City in the middle at 80.5-82), but only have a narrow advantage going into the Community Shield, at a Chelsea/Arsenal Goal Supremacy sports spread betting quote of 0-0.2 with a Total Goals spread of 2.55-2.75.