The Community Shield Match Preview
This is the season opening game in England, its where the winners of the Premier League face the winner of the FA cup.
This game is seen more as a glorified friendly especially to fans.
If the same teams win both the FA cup and the Premier League, then whoever comes second in the league is the opponent.
As Liverpool won their first Premier League trophy at a canter they will face Arsenal who overcame Manchester City in the Semi Finals of the FA cup to set up an all London derby in the final against Chelsea.
The most successful club is Manchester United with 21 titles, but 4 of these were shared trophies.
The competition dates all the way back to 1908. The game has always been played at the home of English Football, Wembley, except for a few years in at the start of the century when it was played at the Millennium Stadium due to the new Wembley being built.
While Manchester United have the most titles, Arsenal are second on the list 15 and only one of them was shared.
These days the trophy isn’t shared and is decided on the day.
However what has it in Liverpool’s favour is that since the Premier League was started in 1992, 17 times the winner was the winner of the Premier League (5 of these was when a team won both the FA cup and Premier League).
Compared to just 12 times when the FA cup winners beat the Premier League winners (again 5 of these was when the same team won both the FA Cup and Premier League).
So the stat’s would suggest its Liverpool’s to lose.
Liverpool vs Arsenal Head to Head:
This will be the 230 competitive fixture between these two sides, with Liverpool just coming out on top.
- Liverpool Wins: 89
- Games Drawn: 61
- Arsenal Wins: 79
This is just the third time these two have met in this competition, the first being in August 1979, which Liverpool won 3-1. The previous game was more recent in 2002, when a Silva goal in the 69th minute gave Arsenal a 1-0 victory.
More recent head to head:
These two teams have been going in opposite direction in recent years, with Arsenal falling down the league and now scrapping for Europa league spots, whereas Liverpool have gone from strength to strength under Jurgen Klopp to win their first top flight title in 30 years.
However, these sides met last year 3 times, Liverpool winning the Premier League game at Anfield in August 3-1, before a league cup meeting in October where a string of changes were made and the game ending 5-5 in normal time, before Liverpool won on penalties.
Once football had returned after the break due to COVID, Arsenal was able to beat Liverpool 2-1.
In fact, in the last 10 games in all competitions between these two sides there has been 52 goals, that’s an average at over 5 goals per game, so I wouldn’t expect a 0-0 when this game does kick off.
However, there hasn’t been more than 3 goals in the Community Shield since Manchester City beat Chelsea 3-2 back in 2012.
Arsenal was last in this competition in 2017 after winning the FA cup the previous year.
The game against Chelsea ended 1-1 and went the penalties which Arsenal won.
Liverpool was last in this competition last year, losing to Manchester City on penalties after drawing the game 1-1.
Think you know the score – why not try our free predictor?
This is the first game of the new season.
