Chelsea vs Manchester City
This is the first volley that will be fired by the Premier League champion and the FA Cup winner.
Manchester City and Chelsea meet for the Community Shield in what is essentially an opening salvo for the coming season of English top-flight football. While the Shield is not as important a trophy as the ones they just won, both sides will want to start their seasons off on the right foot.
Manchester City hope to extend their dominance in the Premier League for one more season. Meanwhile, Chelsea are looking forward to better things after turning a new page with former Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri.
Both sides feature talented stars who are raring to win football games, so we can expect quality football throughout the 90 minutes played. The question lies on whether Chelsea’s metamorphosis is enough to topple one of the most dominant sides in Europe today.
Chelsea vs Manchester City predictions will be tough to make for this one as both teams seem to be on equal footing.
Talking Points
The eyes of the entire English footballing world is on Chelsea. They will be challenging City with a new manager and a set of philosophies to drive the club forward. Their performance in the Community Shield would clue everyone else in on whether they could pull off a successful challenge for the Premier League throne.
One of the biggest Community Shield 2018 news is easily Chelsea’s performance during their ICC friendly against Arsenal in Dublin. Sure, they may have lost the match in penalties, but they looked intimidating and ready to attack for a good chunk of the match. If they had all of their stars ready to play, then they would have easily won over Unai Emery’s Arsenal.
Jorginho has done well during the preseason for the London Blue. He has played in a good chunk of preseason games for Sarri’s Chelsea and will be fit and ready to play against the Citizens at Wembley.
The Italian will be in a pretty interesting situation come the 5th of August. He was once billed as a natural replacement for the ageing Fernandinho but is now working with Sarri at Stamford Bridge. As Guardiola continues his search for a defensive midfielder, he will be playing against a player that should have become one of his key players on the defensive end.
However, it’s not like everything is dark and gloomy over at the Etihad. They added Riyad Mahrez into an already-rich vein of attacking talent that would easily cause terror across the league. They will welcome back many of their first-team players who had a thrilling World Cup in Russia.
Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones, Vincent Kompany and Raheem Sterling came back from productive stints at the World Cup and will likely maintain the top forms they got during their very successful runs in Russia.
However, it’s not like Chelsea don’t have World Cup players of their own. Eden Hazard, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, N’Golo Kante and Olivier Giroud also had great campaigns in the past World Cup and will also be in peak condition when they vie for the Community Shield.
Moreover, Guardiola also has reasons to cheer for coming into this match. The under-strength squad he brought to the ICC emerged victorious against Bayern Munich, managing a great 3-2 comeback. This assurance of quality is what Guardiola needed as he is extremely pressured to bring home a Champions League trophy.
History
These two sides aren’t far off from each other when it comes to overall club history. Chelsea have won 66 of their 159 matches. City won 54 of those and they drew the remaining 39. While Manchester City won over a disgruntled Chelsea side in the Premier League last season, the last four years have been a close bout between the two sides.
When it comes to preseason form, Chelsea are undoubtedly the better side. They comfortably won against Perth Glory and defeated Internazionale before bowing out to the Gunners in Dublin.
While the Bayern match was a great morale booster for City, their ICC campaign was far from pleasurable. They lost 0-1 to Borussia Dortmund and stumbled 1-2 to Premier League rivals Liverpool.
What are the odds?
SBOBET tips this game as a close battle with not one side holding the definite advantage. It is difficult to figure out which side will lift the Community Shield until the final whistle is blown.
If you believe that Chelsea still won’t be in full form until the start of the league, the Asian Handicap market is a good place to start. Manchester City have a -0.75 handicap for 2.38. However, If you see Chelsea as the surprising winners of this doubt, their 1X2 odds are at 3.35.
Given the preseason form of these two sides, I don’t think much goals will be scored here. Under 2.75 Goals is a pretty safe bet at 1.89. I also think that neither side will be able to score in the first half, making Under 1.00 Goals @ 2.13 a tempting proposition.
Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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