Man Utd v Man City Tips: Back under cards, goals and corners in 9/2 Bet Builder

• 34 of last 38 domestic games at Wembley have gone under 3.5 goals

• Card count over past eight Community Shield's is just 2.3 per game

• Get a FREE bet every time your team scores a goal in August!

Community Shield SuperBoost!

The Manchester derby is set to grace Wembley once again as the Premier League winners and the FA Cup winners so battle ahead of the 2024/25 season, and what better way to celebrate the return of domestic football than with a Betfair SuperBoost!

You can now back Erling Haaland to score or assist in the Community Shield at 1/12.00, a SuperBoost up from odds of 8/131.61!

Haaland has loved playing in these matches since joining City, having been involved in nine goals in six appearances against Manchester United, scoring six and assisting three more.

He is also one of few players who enjoyed a fairly quiet summer, and after a full pre-season with nine goals in six games since the FA Cup final (including games for Norway in June), he should be raring to go in the curtain raiser. Back the SuperBoost below!

*this is not a tip, but a promotion of a Betfair SuperBoost

Time to come clean: I hate the Community Shield. I don't watch it. I'm not planning to watch this one.

But every football match provides betting angles to explore - and this is no different, albeit it's a very tough match to analyse with so many unknowns regarding selection, player fitness and general motivation. It's a glorified pre-season match.

Manchester United, somehow, gathered themselves from producing arguably their worst ever Premier League to beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final 2-1 in May.

Pep Guardiola's side were not at the races, collapsing to a calamitous 0-2 half-time deficit and were met by a united and coherent defensive performance by Erik ten Hag's men in the second half.

This encounter is a bigger game for Ten Hag and Guardiola once again. But to get involved in the outright prices makes no appeal even though United at 9/43.25 to lift the trophy does seem a little generous considering likely squad strength and motivation on both parts.

Getting involved financially in many of my usual markets I like to dabble in also unappealing. Mass substitutions could be at play, foul counts are notoriously low in Community Shield's with an average of just 17 total match fouls across the last eight finals and under 25 total match shots has also landed in seven of the last eight. There were just 15 shots in last year's clash between City and Arsenal.

So that makes a lot of the prop markets a no-go for me.

The way to attack this game from a Bet Builder angle is to heavily rely on past trends from Community Shields of yesteryear and the Wembley factor in order to conjure up a bet with substance. Let's have a go then...

Under goals, cards & corners pays 9/2

Regular readers of my work will know opposing goals in matches at Wembley is a sustainable long-term betting strategy, almost to the point it's an automatic play no matter the teams on show. It is here.

The numbers paint some hard evidence behind low scoring matches. In the last 38 domestic matches played at Wembley the average total goals per 90 stands at a miserly 1.94 in normal time. Only four of those games have gone above the 3.5 goals line.

Seven of the last 10 Community Shields have also gone under the 2.5 line with nine of them producing three or fewer goals, so the under 2.5 line at the prices - a surprisingly large 6/42.50 - seems a sensible starting point when trying to construct a winning Bet Builder.

Cards are also likely to be in short supply in what can descend into a game lacking tempo and enthusiasm as players have one eye on being fit and firing for the big kick-off the following weekend.

In the last eight Community Shields there have been an average of just 2.3 cards shown per 90 minutes with five of the last six landing for under 3.5 cards backers. Man City are notoriously a dependable team when it comes to low card counts - no team were shown fewer yellows than City's tally of 52 last season. So, adding under 3.5 cards into the mix at 7/101.70 looks a sensible ploy.

We could just stop there but the corner line has also got my attention. In a game where shot counts are low, corner lines tend to be dragged down the same path.

All of the last 10 Community Shields have seen fewer than 12 total match corners won, meaning despite the prohibitive price of 1/51.20 we should really be greedy and allow it to join the Bet Builder party which does boost the price from 3/14.00 to 9/25.50.

Now read my piece on which side you could back for PL title with Betfair's free bet offer in mind!