Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo will be eager to pick up his first trophy of the new season when the Blues face Manchester City (5/4 to win) in the Community Shield at Villa Park on Sunday.
The Italian manager has endured a poor summer warm-up with the Blues and will want to show owner Roman Abromavich that he was right to back the Italian and silence any doubters.
Usually pre-season form is not studied with too much scrutiny, but defeats to the MLS All Stars, AC Milan and Brighton have put unwanted pressure on Di Matteo.
The FA Cup holders can be backed at 10/1 to claim a slim 1-0 victory against City and it would be a score line that Di Matteo would welcome.
Both teams have a lot to play for, but with only one new signing likely to be amongst the 22 players to walk out in the August sunshine the form suggests City will be the team with the upper-hand.
The Stamford Bridge club are likely to give Eden Hazard his first taste of competitive football in the UK, and the £32million Belgian playmaker can be backed at 8/1 to be the first on the score sheet. New Brazilian recruit Oscar will be unavailable due to Olympic duty.
John Terry and Gary Cahill are likely to line-up as the centre-half pairing and City boss Roberto Mancini will be keen to see if his strike force can penetrate the Engand duo.
The 47-year-old manager is under a self-imposed pressure to deliver.
In the build up to the clash between the league and cup champions, the Italian – who oversaw City’s first league title in 44 years – has lamented the club’s lack of transfer activity and heaped praise on their title rivals.
The Eastlands club will see Hazard in action against them, a player they wanted, while they appear to have lost out on the chance to sign Arsenal’s Robin van Persie to rivals Manchester United.
However, Carlos Tevez – 33/1 to score a hat-trick – and Sergio Aguero – 5/1 to score first – will be form a formidable forward pairing.
Despite saying that United are favourites for the forthcoming Premier League, Mancini will be determined to lay down a marker – and then let the mind games begin.
City are 11/1 to pick up a 2-0 victory and that looks like a decent bet considering Chelsea’s pre-season stutters.
Mario Balotelli, who featured in the Euro 2012 final, will most probably start on the bench but the enigmatic 21-year-old – who Paris Saint-Germain are keen on signing – is 13/8 to score at any time. With his tendency to net in big games, that could be a shrewd wager.
Samir Nasri, who scored the last time the two clubs met – a 2-1 victory to City in the Premier League – is 3/1 to grab a goal.
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