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2008-08-02 - Arsenal vs Juventus
A Sports Betting Pick by Gooner
Emirates Cup Pre-season Tournament
Emirates Stadium, London
Saturday 2nd August 2008 - KO 4:15pm
ARSENAL (ENGLAND)
3rd in Premier Lge 24-11-3 GD +42
Despite all the media frenzy and hype about the comings and goings at Arsenal things have actually been pretty quiet at the Emirates.
Mathieu Flamini has left for Italy, Gilberto for Panathinaikos in Greece and Alexander Hleb wasn't wanted in Italy after Jose Mourinho arrived at Inter Milan and so eventually signed for Barcelona.
In came three youngsters (what else with Arsene Wenger?) with Samir Nasri 21, Aaron Ramsey 17, Amaury Bischoff 21 arriving, although getting Robin Van Persie fully fit also feels like another bonus.
EARLY FORM
Arsenal had a handful of easy runouts, including a 10-2 victory in Austria, before taking on German Bundesliga side Stuttgart on Wednesday night and winning 3-1.
Arsenal fielded a reasonably strong line-up but it was three of Arsenal's young Gunners in Nicklas Bendtner, Carlos Vela and 16-year-old Jack Wilshere who got the goals.
JUVENTUS (ITALY)
3rd in Serie A 20-12-6 GD+35
Compared to Arsenal, the transfer merry-go-round at Juventus has been revolving at full speed with coach Claudio Ranieri capturing the signiture of Christian Poulsen from Sevilla making it a total of eight summer signings for the Bianconeri.
The "Old Lady" finished 3rd in last season's Serie A in their first year back after a forced relegation after their part in the Serie A match-fixing scandal - which means that Juventus will take part in the 3rd qualifiying round of the Champions League.
EARLY FORM
Juventus took part in one of those weird, 3-team, 45 minute game runouts that Italian sides are so fond of also on Wednesday night.
Juve drew 2-2 with AC Milan over one half (and lost a penalty shootout) and beat Inter Milan 1-0 in another 45 minutes. I have no idea if that meant that they won the mini-event ... I suspect that no-one really knows or cares.
Match Stats - Head to head 3-2-1
UCL, 05-04-06 Juventus 0-0 Arsenal
UCL, 28-03-06 Arsenal 2-0 Juventus
UCL, 20-03-02 Juventus 1-0 Arsenal
UCL, 04-12-01 Arsenal 3-1 Juventus
CWC, 23-04-80 Juventus 0-1 Arsenal
CWC, 09-04-80 Arsenal 1-1 Juventus
THE VERDICT
Last year when Arsenal hosted the inaugural event I was not really convinced that the hosts would be too interested in the event - but a pair of 2-1 victories over Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan were enough to claim the trophy.
With a vital Champions League qualification tie coming up in mid-August I suspect that this tournament is being targetted (along with next weeks tournament in Amsterdam) as the best way to get "almost" competitive fixtures against quality opponents.
The Gunners have a very good 14-7-0 home record against European sides over the last four seasons in the Champions League, including a 2-0 win over Juventus 18 months ago, which suggests that the even money available for a home win is more than fair.
The Pick :
Arsenal 2-1 Juventus
