There is a good London derby of a friendly match happening on the weekend (July 22nd), even though it will be taking some back seat interest because of the International Champions Cup. While both Chelsea and Arsenal are taking part in the summer’s International Champions Cup, this is just a friendly match which has nothing to do with that at all. For Arsenal, this is another step in what has been a busy summer already for them, while Chelsea are going to be using this game as a warm ahead of their trip to Singapore to play in the International Champions Cup.
Pre-Season Friendly – Saturday 22th July 2017 – 12:30 pm
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Draw Best Odd of: 5/2 at Ladbrokes |
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Arsenal
ChelseaThis match is being played at the iconic Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, China. It can be tricky of course from a betting perspective to get a read on friendly matches, but it is English champions Chelsea who are going into the game as 6/5 outright favourites with Ladbrokes leaving Arsenal on the drift a little at 9/5. But the Gunners, who have been settled out in China longer than Chelsea have, probably won’t be deserted by punters going into this fixture.
On August 6th, these two will meet up for the more serious issue of the Community Shield back on home soil at Wembley.
Arsenal Form
The Gunners have been busy over the summer as they made an early start to July by going on tour to Australia. But they just faced Bayern Munich in the International Champions Cup this week and played out a 1-1 draw with the German giants, thanks to a 93rd-minute equaliser from Alex Iwobi. Arsenal did go on to win the penalty shoot out there so their confidence and mood will be pretty high. Last season Arsenal took two wins over Chelsea from their three meetings (L1) and because of them having played in China already (against Bayern) they are probably going to be the more settled of the two.
Chelsea Form
Chelsea have been bringing in the summer signings but none are featuring in this one. You will probably see them later at the International Champions Cup. After this game, Chelsea move on to Singapore to face Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in that International Champions Cup so this will be something of a warm up for them. So you aren’t going to be the looking at the strongest line up from the Blues in this one, who do have summer signing Willie Caballero ready to share goalkeeping duties with Thibaut Courtois during the summer pre-season.
Team News
Neither side is going to be at full strength and you would expect nothing less really for a pre-season friendly. Arsenal do have their big summer signing Alexandre Lacazette with them but because of international duty over the summer at the Confederations Cup, Alexis Sanchez is being given a break and isn’t on tour with them. As for Chelsea, new defender Antonio Rudiger joins up with the squad in Singapore because of summer action with Germany at the Confederations Cup, while midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko continues rehabilitation on his knee injury and Alvaro Morata won’t join them on Tour yet. Chelsea doesn’t have Eden Hazard with them either.
Top Betting Tips
A friendly match with no strongest-starting lineup for either and nothing at stake. It sounds perfectly made for an Arsenal victory in this one because they have gotten some bigger friendly action under their belt already. Each of last season’s three meetings between these two went over 2.5 goals, so swing that way for a price of 4/6 with Ladbrokes. It is worth backing both teams to score, but Arsenal to come out on top against the rusty, under strength Blues.