STAR PREVIEW: Community Shield

Manchester City and Liverpool gave us one of the best title races in recent memory last season and the two meet again in the Community Shield.

Fans of other big clubs will be hoping their teams can get closer to the big two but they have a tall task to overhaul the 25-point gap between third-placed Chelsea and second-placed Liverpool, and there will be plenty of interest in the latest meeting between the two, who have begun to develop a heated rivalry.

City start as favourites, but upon closer inspection, a price of 10/11 in comparison to 7/4 for Liverpool does look short. Yes, City won three trophies last season but they won the Premier League by just a point from Liverpool and their two meetings last season resulted in a 0-0 draw at Anfield and a 2-1 win for City at the Etihad which was literally decided by centimetres.

Liverpool v Man City
FA Community Shield
15:00 BT Sport 1 / BT Sport Ultimate

HEAD TO HEAD RECORD*
(Maximum 10 matches)
JAN 2019 PREMIER LEAGUE Manchester City 2-1 Liverpool
OCT 2018 PREMIER LEAGUE Liverpool 0-0 Manchester City
APR 2018 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Liverpool 3-0 Manchester City
APR 2018 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Liverpool 3-0 Manchester City
JAN 2018 PREMIER LEAGUE Liverpool 4-3 Manchester City
SEP 2017 PREMIER LEAGUE Manchester City 5-0 Liverpool
MAR 2017 PREMIER LEAGUE Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool
DEC 2016 PREMIER LEAGUE Liverpool 1-0 Manchester City
MAR 2016 PREMIER LEAGUE Liverpool 3-0 Manchester City
FEB 2016 CAPITAL ONE CUP Liverpool 1-1 Manchester City

There’s clearly not much between the two teams and it’s possible that Liverpool will be more tuned up for today. Klopp had a good record in the domestic Supercups when in Germany and a 3-1 friendly success against Lyon saw Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino return to the side. Number 1 Goalkeeper Alisson also started that game in a strong line up which saw Alisson, Joe Gomez, Dejan Lovren, Naby Keita, Xerdan Shaqiri, and Adam Lallana all get a start.

City had a several players heavily involved in the Copa America, with Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus and Nicolas Otamendi all subject to late judgements on whether they’ll be allowed to play, whilst we know that goalkeeper Ederson and midfield anchor Fernandinho will not start. The huge amount of depth that they have means they’ll still put out a heavyweight side – but it’s likely we’ll see De Bruyne, Rodri, Silva and Bernardo all start this afternoon.

It all points to a very close contest and maybe the draw is a value runner here at 11/4 between two sides who are nearly always separated by very little.

RECOMMENDED BETS (scale of 1-100 points)
BACK DRAW 4 points at 11/4 with starsports.bet

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