Pre-season friendly – Arsenal v Chelsea

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Saturday 22nd July

Kick off 12.40

Coverage from 12.25 on ITV

Bird’s Nest stadium, Beijing

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Pre-season games are becoming less and less about getting prepared for the upcoming season and more about commercialisation, with Premier League teams jetting across the world in an attempt to break into new global markets.

With this in mind two title contenders, Arsenal and Chelsea, are set to face each other on Saturday in the Beijing Community Shield. As part of their pre-season warm up the two London teams will go head to head in Beijing’s iconic Bird’s Nest stadium, home of the 2008 Olympic games.

Both teams are expected to field strong starting line-ups with Arsenal’s new record signing, Lacazette predicted to make an appearance up front.

Antonio Conte has also been putting his best players to the test in Chelsea’s recent friendlies. But don’t expect to see either of the blues’ new signings on the pitch as midfielder, Tiemoue Bakayoko, is out injured and Antonio Rudiger remains on an extended summer break.

Both teams go into the match in good form with Arsenal beating Bayern Munich 3-2 on penalties in the Shanghai International Champions Cup; in spite of an outbreak of food poisoning. Whilst Chelsea emphatically beat local rivals Fulham 6-0 in a behind-closed-doors friendly.

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Who will come out on top in Beijing? And, perhaps more importantly, who will be able to sell more advertisement deals?

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