Arsenal, Liverpool To Clash In FA Community Shield Showdown

The Gunners are scheduled to clash with Liverpool in the FA Community Shield Showdown.

The match is scheduled for 3:30pm today at the Wembley Stadium.

Liverpool have announced that their centre-back, Virgil van Dijk, is available for the clash with Arsenal following a head injury.

van Dijk was forced off during the second half of the Liverpool’s’ friendly against Salzburg in midweek.

But Liverpool say he is now fit for today’s match.

“Virgil looks fine, he looks not good because he has the cut there, but apart from that it should be fine,” according to Jürgen Klopp on Friday.

Klopp described the right-back as being “very close” in terms of his condition while providing a general fitness overview of his squad.

According to him, “All the boys which were not involved so far or got slight knocks in pre-season will not be available for tomorrow, but [are] getting closer, really closer, closer and closer so hopefully the majority of them can start training completely normal after the Arsenal game, but this game is now a bit too early for them. Maybe one or two [will be] involved in the squad, we have to see.”

“That’s it pretty much. Hendo and Joel [Matip] looking really good, on a good way. Ox, early stages but good. Shaq, good. Trent, very close, we have to make a decision about tomorrow. Harry [Wilson] looks good.”

For Arsenal, Willian and William Saliba may debut after arriving at Emirates Stadium during close-season.

Arsenal coach, Mikel Arteta announced to the media on Thursday, August 27, 2020, that
“I don’t know. We’ll make the decision tomorrow on who is going to play and who is going to be involved.”

“We’ve had two training sessions so you can imagine that this game comes straight in the middle of our mini pre-season, but as well we haven’t had much time to lose a lot of the condition.”

“Obviously it’s not an ideal moment to play in this final but the players are motivated. Obviously it’s another opportunity to win a trophy and we will go for it,” Arteta said.