Community Shield 2023 Betting Preview: Goals galore in tight affair

While the start of the Premier League season is still a week or so away, Manchester City and Arsenal will renew hostilities in the Community Shield at Wembley Stadium this weekend.

Greg Lea preview Sunday's big game and expects goals to be firmly on the agenda for both sides.

Manchester City vs Arsenal

Sunday 6 August, 4pm, ITV1

Manchester City and Arsenal will renew hostilities in the Community Shield at Wembley Stadium this weekend.

City supporters are probably yet to come down from the ecstasy of last season, when they became only the second English club to win a treble of Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup. Although it is technically possible given their failure to lift the EFL Cup trophy, it is hard to see City enjoying a more successful campaign this time around.

Could that be a factor? Their domestic rivals will certainly hope that the reigning champions (of pretty much everything) struggle to climb the mountain once again. But given Guardiola’s high standards and the talent within the City ranks, they remain the team to beat on all fronts.

At the same time, this has not been an overly convincing summer up to now. Riyad Mahrez has left for Saudi Arabia and Ilkay Gundogan has joined Barcelona, robbing City of two key players. Mateo Kovacic has arrived from Chelsea, but other targets such as Michael Olise and Josko Gvardiol are proving hard to extract from their current employers.

Arsenal have had more success in the transfer market so far. The north Londoners did most of their business early in the window, acquiring Declan Rice, Jurrien Timber and Kai Havertz in time for pre-season. Crucially, Martin Odegaard, William Saliba and Bukayo Saka remain.

It will be interesting to see how Arsenal respond to the additional expectation this time around. Before a ball had been kicked in 2022/23, Mikel Arteta’s men were widely tipped to miss out on the top four. This term they must deal with being among the favourites for the title.

There would be no better way for Arsenal to make a statement of intent than by beating Manchester City in the Community Shield. This is a chance for Arteta’s side to lay down a marker against a team to whom they lost three times last season (twice in the Premier League and once in the FA Cup).

Yet whatever the result on Sunday, it would have little influence on what lies ahead. Guardiola and Arteta will both be keen to lift the shield at Wembley but the Community Shield is in effect a glorified friendly. For a reminder of its predictive quality, recall that Liverpool beat City 3-1 in the 2022 edition.

Tipping a winner in this match is notoriously difficult, so consider other markets instead. We like the look of goals at both ends and at least three of them in total.

Defensive discipline may be relatively lacking here, in part because the stakes are not particularly high and also because the two teams are not yet fully up to speed. With the attacking talent on display, this should be an entertaining affair.

Community Shield Betting Tips:

Both teams to score and over 2.5 goals at 2