Kick Off: 1620, 29/07/2017
Stadium: Emirates Stadium
TV: Quest TV
Arsenal will seek to win the Emirates Cup for the fifth time in nine renewals this weekend and look worthy favourites to start out by beating Benfica on Saturday, before then facing Sevilla on Sunday.
The Gunners are well on with their pre-season preparations following a tour of Australia and China and will be keen to take another step forward ahead of next week’s Community Shield clash with Chelsea.
Having lifted this trophy two years ago, the hosts can hit the ground running and appeal at 6/5 to lead at half-time and full-time in our Arsenal vs Benfica betting predictions.
A Look At Arsenal’s Betting Odds
This event did not take place last year, but in 2015 Arsenal opened with a 6-0 rout of Lyon, leading 4-0 at the break, before edging out Wolfsburg 1-0 on day two.
The fact that those goals were scored by Olivier Giroud, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alex Iwobi, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla and Theo Walcott highlights how Arsene Wenger likes to give his big names a good run-out.
This year, the Gunners should be in decent spirits after beating two Aussie teams and drawing with Bayern Munich, before being punished for a tired first-half performance when losing 3-0 to Chelsea in Beijing.
Ozil is looking forward to the weekend, telling Arsenal Player: “We want to test ourselves against big teams and if we play against strong opponents where we can show what we can do, it does the team good.
“They are two technically-gifted teams who will give everything. Our aim has to be to get positive results against them and that’s what we want to do in the Emirates Cup.”
With entertaining football also the order of the day, we like 19/20 for the Gunners to win and over 2.5 goals in the game from the Arsenal vs Benfica odds.
A Look At Benfica’s Betting Odds
Benfica’s four friendlies so far have produced mixed results, beating Xamax 2-0 in a Swiss tournament but then losing 5-1 to Young Boys.
A 2-1 victory over Spanish side Real Betis was a promising result for the Portuguese champions, but last Saturday they lost 1-0 to Hull City.
There was also a midweek 2-1 win over Swindon whilst training at St George’s Park, but Benfica’s last appearance in this event has alarm bells ringing.
In 2014, they were crushed 5-1 by Arsenal, with Yaya Sanogo bagging four goals, and then went down 3-1 to Valencia, despite snatching a second-minute lead.
We reckon the best the visitors can hope for is to score in a defeat and that 9/5 bet completes our Arsenal vs Benfica tips.
Additional stats
Last result:
ARSENAL 0-3 Chelsea
BENFICA 0-1 Hull City
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