King of Stats: Man City have Arsenal beat in Community Shield
Published:The bellwether for English football’s seasonal restart looks set to be a scorcher according to our regal rundown of Community Shields gone by.
Arsenal make an appearance in the curtain-raiser for the first time since 2005, when they went home empty handed for the second time in three years, while Manchester City have appeared in two of the last three Community Shields, winning once in 2012.
3 – Out-and-out widemen have been more successful at breaking Community Shield deadlocks than strikers over the last seven renewals, with Manchester United trio Antonio Valencia, Nani and Ryan Giggs accounting for half of the last six openers.
With that in mind, City’s touchline-hugger Jesus Navas could hold the key to the first-goal market at whopping 12/1 odds.
4 – Since 2009, four out of five Community Shield matches have featured at least four goals, and with all of them helpfully coming in normal time, 9/5 about over 3.5 at Wembley rates an incredible bet.
5 – With so much goalmouth action expected in England’s capital it may pay to get involved in the anytime scorer market.
Defenders have been contributing strikes aplenty in recent renewals, with Chris Smalling, Joleon Lescott, Ryan Bertrand, Ricardo Carvalho and John Arne Riise all grabbing Community Shield goals over the last eight years.
Considering three of those have come in the last three such fixtures, Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny – who scored more goals last term than any other defender likely to grace the Wembley turf – looks a decent price to notch at 12/1.
8 – The Charity Shield was rebranded in 2002, and over the 11 Community Shields since eight Premier League champions have taken the laurels.
However, half of those victories came courtesy of a penalty shoot-out, which suggests 6/5 on Man City winning in 90 minutes should be swerved in favour of the 8/13 about the current title holders lifting the trophy.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
Fancy a flutter? Sign up today to claim up to £100 in free bets.
