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Arsenal vs Liverpool | Community Shield LIVE!
Less than a month after the 2019/20 national season came to a close, the curtain rises on a new campaign today when Arsenal and Liverpool collide in the Community Shield at Wembley Stadium.
Liverpool are here for the second year in a row after a 2019 loss to Man City, but this time as Premier League champions who ended their 30-year wait for the title.
Jurgen Klopp’s team has warmed up with a pre-season training camp in Austria, while Mikel Arteta’s Gunners have less than a week of training in their belts before the Wembley clash.
Kicking off at 4:30 pm BST, follow all the goals and action LIVE!
Live updates
Arsenal’s FA Cup triumph in early August further consolidated their stunt status at Wembley. The Gunners also beat Liverpool in the last meeting between the two sides, with mistakes by Van Dijk and Alisson Becker ending Liverpool’s hopes of equaling or surpassing Manchester City’s record for points in the Premier League in July.
Community Shield’s reputation as a glorified friendly rather than an ultra-competitive final has only grown in recent years, and that is likely to be the case more than ever here, with both managers eager not to overload their key stars with a campaign. busy after hot hot on his heels last.
Still, it should be a pleasant occasion, as Liverpool only overshadowed it to claim their first success in this match since 2006, when Peter Crouch and John Arne Riise scored in a 2-1 win over Chelsea.
Arsenal 1-2 Liverpool
Trent Alexander-Arnold is ready to win his fitness race. The defender missed the Reds’ preseason training camp in Austria this summer as a result of what was described as a minor injury complaint.
Instead, he remained in Merseyside to pursue a tailor-made fitness program designed to prepare him for this weekend’s visit to Wembley Stadium. And Standard Sport understands that, barring news of any setback suffered in Friday practice, Alexander-Arnold will be in the squad to face Mikel Arteta’s men this afternoon.
He will be joined by Virgil van Dijk, who suffered a deep cut over his eye during Liverpool’s last friendly, a 2-2 draw with RB Salzburg, but is in line to start. However, Jurgen Klopp will be denied the services of several players who missed the preseason due to fitness problems.
Jordan Henderson, Joel Matip, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Xherdan Shaqiri, Harry Wilson and Divock Origi will not travel to the capital this weekend. But Klopp remained optimistic about his progress, revealing that a number could return in time for the start of the Premier League season.
Planned formation (4-3-3): Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Keita, Salah, Firmino, Mane
As Arteta said, the Gunners have only had a handful of training sessions to prepare for today. As a result, it is difficult to know which team head coach Mikel Arteta will choose, especially when considering that some players have had to self-quarantine after returning from vacation.
That was the case with Emiliano Martínez and, although the Argentine international is already training, Bernd Leno should go ahead in goal. On defense, William Saliba will debut as part of a back-three that should contain Rob Holding and Kieran Tierney.
On the right back, the absence of Hector Bellerin in Tuesday’s friendly at MK Dons suggests that Cedric Soares could start and Ainsley Maitland-Niles could operate on the other flank. With Dani Ceballos already out of the club, Mohamed Elneny is ready to start in midfield alongside Granit Xhaka.
Up front, Eddie Nketiah seems ready to go as Alexandre Lacazette was not on the team that played for MK Dons. On the wings, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be the captain on the left side and Bukayo Saka should play on the right.
Planned formation (3-4-3): Log; Saliba, Holding, Tierney; Cedric, Elneny, Xhaka, Maitland-Niles; Saka, Nketiah, Aubameyang
Opportunities for youth
Simon Collings will be present, and says it will be a Community Shield unlike in recent years …
The Community Shield is often written off as nothing more than a preseason friendly, but this year it really is. It’s amazing that Arsenal are back at Wembley the same month they won the FA Cup, and that the backdrop to the season is just six days after the Champions League final.
Arsenal and Liverpool have barely returned to the preseason and their rapid change shows how the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted not only last season’s schedule, but the new period as well. In fact, when Mikel Arteta was asked yesterday what state his team is in on Saturday, he had to suppress a laugh.
“We have had two training sessions,” he said. “So you can imagine this game coming right in the middle of our preseason mini.”
Read the full preview of Simon here.
Hello and welcome to our LIVE coverage of today’s Men’s Community Shield between Arsenal and Liverpool!
Date, time and place
Arsenal vs Liverpool is scheduled to kick off at 4:30 pm BST this afternoon.
The match will be played behind closed doors at Wembley with no fans due to government guidelines on coronavirus.
How to watch
Television channel: The game will be televised live on BT Sport 1 and BT Sport Ultimate, with coverage starting at 4:00 p.m.
Live broadcast: BT Sport subscribers will be able to stream the game online via the BT Sport video player and app.
Team news
Arsenal have only had a handful of training sessions to prepare. As a result, it is difficult to know which side Arteta will choose, particularly when some players have had to self-quarantine after returning from vacation.
That was the case with Emiliano Martínez and, although the Argentine international is already training, Bernd Leno should go ahead in goal. On defense, William Saliba will debut as part of a back-three that should contain Rob Holding and Kieran Tierney.
On the right back, Hector Bellerin’s absence in Tuesday’s friendly at MK Dons suggests that Cedric Soares could start and Ainsley Maitland-Niles could operate on the other flank.
With Dani Ceballos already out of the club, Mohamed Elneny is ready to start in midfield alongside Granit Xhaka.
Up front, Eddie Nketiah seems ready to go as Alexandre Lacazette was not on the team that played for MK Dons. On the wings, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be the captain on the left side and Bukayo Saka should play on the right.
As for Liverpool, Trent Alexander-Arnold is set to win his fitness career to return to the team. He will be joined by Virgil van Dijk, who suffered a deep cut over his eye during Liverpool’s last friendly, a 2-2 draw with RB Salzburg, but is in line to start.
However, Jurgen Klopp will be denied the services of several players who missed the preseason due to fitness problems.
Jordan Henderson, Joel Matip, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Xherdan Shaqiri, Harry Wilson and Divock Origi will not travel to the capital this weekend.
But Klopp remained optimistic about his progress, revealing that a number could return in time for the start of the Premier League season.
Planned lineups
Arsenal (3-4-3): Log; Saliba, Holding, Tierney; Cedric, Elneny, Xhaka, Maitland-Niles; Saka, Nketiah, Aubameyang
Liverpool XI (4-3-3): Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Keita, Salah, Firmino, Mane
Prediction: Arsenal 1-2 Liverpool
Arsenal’s FA Cup triumph in early August further consolidated their stunt status at Wembley. The Gunners also beat Liverpool in the last meeting between the two sides, with mistakes by Van Dijk and Alisson Becker ending Liverpool’s hopes of equaling or surpassing Manchester City’s record for points in the Premier League in July.
Community Shield’s reputation as a glorified friendly rather than an ultra-competitive final has only grown in recent years, and that is likely to be the case more than ever here, with both managers eager not to overload their key stars with a campaign. busy after hot hot on his heels last.
Still, it should be a pleasant occasion, as Liverpool only overshadowed it to claim their first success in this match since 2006, when Peter Crouch and John Arne Riise scored in a 2-1 win over Chelsea.
Head-to-head history and results (h2h)
These two giants of English soccer have met 229 times in all competitions over the years, with Liverpool winning 10 more, 89-79.
There have been 61 ties.
Although they lost at the Emirates in July, Klopp’s men sidelined Arsenal 3-1 at Anfield last August before also triumphing on penalties two months later following a 10-goal thriller in the Carabao Cup fourth round in Merseyside.
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