Pre-Season Friendlies: Emirates Cup to elude Arsenal

Arsenal might be denied their first "trophy" of the new campaign

Valencia, Monaco and Benfica head to north London this weekend to partake in a pre-season tradition...

Arsenal's Emirates Cup pulling power has dipped a smidge recently, but they have cobbled together a decent line-up this year comprising of the Europa League runners-up (Benfica), unlucky semi-finalists (Valencia) and one of 2014/15's most exciting Champions League returnees (Monaco).

None of the entrants are currently among Europe's elite, presenting Arsenal with a reasonable chance of winning their own competition for the fourth time in seven editions, yet there is plenty to be intrigued by...

Valencia v Monaco
Saturday, 14:00
Live on BT Sport 1

Match Odds: Valencia 3.185/40, Monaco 2.447/5, The Draw 3.412/5

This should have been a notice-issuing summer for Monaco ahead of their third full season in the big money and first back in the Champions League. It started dramatically enough, with Sporting Lisbon's Leonardo Jardim replacing Claudio Ranieri as coach.

Things went rather quiet after that, barring the sale of James Rodriguez to Real Madrid, though there is now talk of a double deal for Shakhtar's Douglas Costa and Alex Teixeira. Either way, they are judged far more likely to win Ligue 1 at 7.413/2 than Valencia are to top La Liga at 170.0169/1.

Los Che have changed manager again, ditching Juan Antonio Pizzi for Rio Ave's Nuno to render this a dugout clash of the Portuguese Primeira Liga graduates, and sold Jeremy Mathieu to Barcelona. Given Spanish sides' poor Emirates Cup record - two of their three prior participants finished third, whereas three of France's four came second - Monaco appeal at 2.447/5.

Arsenal v Benfica
Saturday, 16:20
Live on BT Sport 1

Match Odds: Arsenal 1.784/5, Benfica 4.84/1, The Draw 3.9n/a

Benfica are having a Southampton of a summer, losing Jan Oblak, Ezequiel Garay and Lazar Markovic already, with rumours of others like Nicolas Gaitan following them out. That combined with a superb window for Porto in which Bruno Martins Indi, Casemiro, Adrian Lopez and Cristian Tello among others have signed sees the champions rated second favourites to retain at 2.6213/8.

At Arsenal, Alexis Sanchez is rightly the addition generating the most enthusiasm, but David Ospina, Mathieu Debuchy and Calum Chambers seem savvy buys too. They are 8.27/1 Premier League third favourites, but counterintuitively might be worth laying at 1.794/5 against Benfica, having won none of their last four Emirates Cup clashes and lost their latest friendly this year to New York Red Bulls.

If you want to see which team winds up lifting the trophy, Benfica v Valencia and Arsenal v Monaco are both live in the same kick-off slots on the same channel on Sunday. Also worth knowing is that every Emirates Cup goal is worth an extra point in the overall standings.