English Community Shield
2025-08-10 - Crystal Palace vs Liverpool
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Community Shield
Sunday 10th August 2025 - Kick Off 3pm
This game is live on TV
Crystal Palace
No one will ever be able to take away the achievement of the 2024/25 Crystal Palace squad having won a first major trophy in the history of the club. However, it has been a tough summer for the manager and the squad, while the fans are hugely frustrated that Crystal Palace have to appeal a decision made by UEFA which means they will be entering the Conference League Play Off Round rather than the Europa League Group Stage.
Oliver Glasner is still confident that Crystal Palace will be given a reprieve when the decision is released on Monday, but the manager is also a little frustrated by a lack of new faces at Selhurst Park. Some of the fans will be concerned that the likes of Marc Guehi and Eberechi Eze continue to be linked with a move away, while Glasner is in the final year of his contract as manager here in South London.
Crystal Palace have had some mixed pre-season results, but the team are unbeaten in 8 competitive fixtures since the thumping 5-0 defeat at Newcastle United. Most important is that during that unbeaten run, Crystal Palace earned wins over Aston Villa and Manchester City at Wembley Stadium to win the FA Cup in May.
Cheick Doucoure could be involved this weekend, while those mentioned as potential departures like Guehi and Eze are expected to start. Very little investment has been made in the playing staff, perhaps with the UEFA decision being a factor, and that means Crystal Palace could start with a team that is familiar to most.
Liverpool
Twelve months is a long time in football and Liverpool fans will certainly feel very differently about their team in August 2025 compared with August 2024. Back then Liverpool went into the season with a new manager in Arne Slot and had not made any real investment in the transfer market, while also being set as 15-2 for the Premier League title.
Not many would have been rushing to tip them up, but Slot and the squad inherited from Jurgen Klopp made a really fast start to the campaign and it proved too hot to handle for the likes of Arsenal and four-time defending Champions Manchester City. This means that Liverpool will enter this season as favourites to retain the title for the first time in over forty years, especially with the huge investment made by the club.
Pre-season results mean very little in the grand scheme of things, but Liverpool have won 4 of the 5 friendly games that have been played. Arne Slot will have noted that his team failed to win any of their last 4 Premier League games after the win over Tottenham Hotspur which confirmed Liverpool as Champions, while they were also beaten 2-1 at Wembley Stadium in the League Cup Final in March.
Alisson is a doubt, although expected to be back in the squad ahead of the Premier League opener. Both Joe Gomez and Conor Bradley are expected to miss out, while new signings Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Hugo Ekitike are expected to be involved. Virgil van Dijk should also have overcome an illness that saw him miss the last friendly.
Head to Head
Liverpool took four points from Crystal Palace in the Premier League last season.
However, Liverpool have only won 2 of their last 6 games against this opponent and 3 of those matches have ended in draws, including on the final day of the season at Anfield.
Prediction
It has been an up and down off-season for Liverpool fans.
Being crowned English Champions at the end of April was soon followed by some big signings in the transfer market as Liverpool look to build from a position of strength.
Nobody would have expected to hear about the tragic events of early July.
Diogo Jota scored the winner at Selhurst Park when these clubs met last season, but the 28 year old suffered a terrible accident that saw him and his brother both pass away. That is going to have had a big impact on the players, staff and fans and you have to believe the Portuguese's presence will be a feature of the early games played.
The pre-season performances and results have seen the group rally together and the new signings made by Liverpool prior to that tragedy has already begun to reshape the squad. Luis Diaz has left for Bayern Munich, while Darwin Nunez is set to move on, but Liverpool fans will still be hoping Alexander Isak can be added and that would make it tough to oppose the defending Champions as they bid to retain the English title for the first time in over forty years.
The likes of Florian Wirtz are expected to have a big impact on the new season, but the Community Shield continues to be treated like a glorified friendly, even if silverware is on the line.
Liverpool are rightly set as favourites with the attacking options at the disposal of the manager, but Crystal Palace have managed to retain the key players of the squad and that will give the fans hope they can go again.
They are potentially distracted by the upcoming decision about the appeal to rejoin the Europa League, while Oliver Glasner has been a touch frustrated that new faces have not been signed to bolster his options. Both Marc Guehi and Eberechi Eze continue to be linked with moves away from Selhurst Park and so it is perhaps not ideal preparation for a new season.
It is an exciting one for Crystal Palace fans with European Football to be played for the first time and winning the FA Cup should give the squad a lot of confidence. The fact this is a game being played at Wembley Stadium where Crystal Palace had such great experiences a few months ago will help, perhaps even more considering Liverpool's last appearance here was a defeat in the League Cup Final.
Crystal Palace will cause problems for Liverpool, but the backline is also going to be tested and it could end up being one of the more exciting Community Shield fixtures of recent times.
That has been far from the case when you consider 4 of the last 6 have ended 1-1 and all but one of those fixtures have finished with at least three goals shared out. However, that was a fixture featuring Liverpool who beat Manchester City 3-1 in 2022 and the defending Champions may have the qualities in the final third to come through a tough opponent.
Both teams finding the back of the net would not be a surprise and backing at least three goals is a fair runner, despite the recent history of the Community Shield.
However, the edge may be with Liverpool and backing them to win a game featuring at least two goals may be the right approach to take, although keeping stakes at a minimum would be the suggestion.
Ultimately this is effectively treated as a pre-season friendly and the real thing starts next week so keeping the power dry in the main for that would be the recommended approach.
Liverpool should win, but Manchester City were the first defending Champion to win the Community Shield since 2019 when they beat Manchester United on Penalties twelve months ago. It also might be worth noting that the last SIX Community Shield Winners have not gone on to win the Premier League title so this is not a game that sets the standard and neither team will be pushing so hard to win the game if it is level with about 20 minutes left.
The Pick :
Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool
