Arsenal vs Liverpool Community Shield match at Wembley Stadium, Saturday (29/8) night, has the chance to create another minimum goal.
Despite being the Premier League’s opening match in the new season, the Community Shield is no different than a friendly match.
In the last five seasons not many goals have been scored in Community Shield matches. The last match that featured neat competition and many goals occurred in the 2014 edition.
In the 2014 Community Shield, Arsenal beat Manchester City 3-0. Goals from Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud saw Arsenal win their 14th Community Shield.
Meanwhile, two of the last five Community Shields ended with two penalties, the other two narrow wins by one goal, and another game that resulted in Man City’s 2-0 win over Chelsea.
In the 2015 Community Shield, Arsenal won 1-0 over Chelsea through a goal from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. In the following season Manchester United won 2-1 over Leicester City in the 2016 Community Shield.
In 2017, Arsenal won 4-1 on penalties over Chelsea. The only win by a two-goal margin in the last five years when Man City beat Chelsea 2-0 in 2018.
Meanwhile, last season The Citizens won 5-4 on penalties over Liverpool after a 1-1 draw.
The lack of goals has a big chance to happen again this year when Arsenal meet Liverpool. One of the reasons, both teams had a short time to prepare for this match.
The Gunners only have 18 days since they last played an official match in the FA Cup final against Chelsea (2-1), 1 August 2020.
Meanwhile, the Reds have a longer pause because the last match in the English league against Newcastle United (3-1) took place on July 27, 2020.
The three weeks to one month of time are used by the two teams to provide rest to their players and also pre-season trial matches.
The London club, which has a longer break, has only undergone one trial. Against MK Dons at MK Stadium on Wednesday (26/8), Arsenal won 4-1.
Meanwhile, 2019/2020 Premier League champions Liverpool underwent trials in Austria twice, against VfB Stuttgart (3-0) and RB Salzburg (2-2).
Apart from the matter of relatively shorter preparation time, the composition of the squad that is mediocre will also be the basis for Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta to give instructions to their players to perform optimally but unreasonably.
Quoted from the Mirror, four Arsenal players will first undergo quarantine related to health protocols during the corona virus pandemic.
Two of the four Arsenal players who are undergoing independent isolation are: goalkeeper Emilano Martinez, and new player Gabriel Magalhaes who are claimed to already belong to the London club. Another new Gunners player, Willian, will also not participate with Arsenal in this match.
Apart from the four players who are undergoing quarantine, the 2019/2020 FA Cup winner also cannot play the injured quartet Shkodran Mustafi, Pablo Mari, Gabriel Martinelli and Calum Chambers.
In a Liverpool stronghold that has not made many player purchases, Klopp will not play Trent Alexander-Arnold. Alexander-Arnold did not participate in pre-season in Austria. Meanwhile, Jordan Henderson and Joel Matip are recovering from injury, but they are too risky to play against Arsenal.
Without Alenxander-Arnold and Henderson, Liverpool still have a strong squad to silence Arsenal and win the Community Shield. Klopp could play their new signing Konstantinos Tsimikas on this occasion.
However, it all depends on the instructions of the two coaches in the field later. The reason is, winning the first victory in the opening match in the Premier League is more important than winning the Community Shield.
Because of this, both Klopp and Arteta are expected to be more concerned with preparing the team for the first match of the 2020/2021 Premier League which starts on September 12, rather than desperately for the Community Shield. For this reason, the duel in the Community Shield will likely be held half-heartedly.
In the first week of the Premier League, Liverpool will face promoted club Leeds United, while Arsenal are challenged by Fulham.
Historically, Arsenal and Liverpool have been strong in the Community Shield. Both teams have 23 appearances in the Community Shield with 15 wins.
However, from the two meetings between the two in the Community Shield, Liverpool have a better record than Arsenal with two wins.
In the Community Shield or previously known as Charity Shield, in 1989 Liverpool defeated Arsenal 1-0, while in the 1979 edition the Reds won 3-1 over the Gunners.
