Patrick Vieira (left) and Martin Keown (right) predict the result of the game between Manchester City and Arsenal in the Bird's Nest on July 27. Vieira says City will win 3-2 while Keown hopes the Gunners will seal a 3-1 victory. [Provided to China Daily]

China is becoming one of the most lucrative destinations for European clubs' summer tours as more and more are rushing here to exploit the market. Most would prefer to play friendlies with Chinese clubs. However, those matches are losing their attractiveness due to the limited competitiveness of local teams and the games insignificance to world soccer's big guns.

In a friendly between Barcelona and Beijing Guo'an in 2010, more than half of the 80,000 seats in the Bird's Nest were empty. Real Madrid faced a similar lack of interest in a 6-0 romp over Tianjin Teda at the Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium last summer.

However, it is a different story when giants collide here. The Supercoppa Italiana final between AC Milan and Inter Milan last August attracted more than 70,000 fans to the Bird's Nest, surpassing the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

English Premier League powerhouses Manchester City and Arsenal are the first top-notch international teams to confirm a tour to China this year, and are expected to draw a huge crowd to their preseason friendly at the Bird's Nest at 8:12 pm on July 27 - seven hours ahead of the opening of the London Olympic Games.

Tom Fox, chief commercial officer of Arsenal, said the Gunners' first tour outside of Europe last year enhanced its determination to continue its trips to China.

"Many Arsenal fans have known for years that we are not a touring club, and when we decided to tour last year, for the first time in 15 years, we naturally went to a market that we knew we had fans - and that market was China," Fox said.

"We played last year in Hangzhou, and our players and manager were absolutely motivated by the level of support that our club has in this market," said Fox, adding Arsenal will play another game with Hong Kong first division champion Kitchee FC in Hong Kong, two days after the game in Beijing, to reach as many fans as possible from the north to the south.

After being disappointed by the mundane spectacle of some tour matches, in which off-field commercial activities have overshadowed the games and stars play only half a game, it can be hard to convince Chinese fans to buy match tickets, and Fox is aware of that.

"We will bring our first-team squad to China, every player who is in contract with Arsenal and in our first team and healthy will be on the trip and they will play," he said. "This is a preseason preparation for us, even though this is a friendly, we will show you what we bring to the field this summer ... it will be a game and a competition."

Man City gave the same response by saying it doesn't like to lose to any competitor in the Premier League at any time.

"When you play preseason, you are building confidence, and the base to build confidence is to win games, so the manager will want to win, not to mention we will be playing Arsenal, which is one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League," said former French international Patrick Vieira, who played nine years at Arsenal before taking up the role of soccer development executive after retiring at City last summer.

This will be City's first visit to China since it played a four-team tournament in Shanghai six years ago. The trip is regarded as a new start to the club's penetration into China, which has been described as a "marathon" by Ian Cafferky, chief brand and commercial officer of the Blues.

"Obviously it's our first big step, so we've contacted the soccer authorities (in China), discussing their development plans and how we can participate, so hopefully in the next six months we will be able to announce cooperation within China, which will be at the grassroots level, but also create a genuine relationship with our fans here," Cafferky told China Daily.

"It's not a race, it's a marathon, and we are going to be here for quite a long time," he said.

Cafferky said the club would introduce some of its star players to the fans during a near week-long schedule of activities - especially designed for children to introduce them to soccer.

Officials from City were also encouraged to have Chinese player Sun Jihai suit up for the club in the match. Sun was at Man City for six years and made 130 appearances for the team. He was named "China's biggest star of the past 20 years" by the club. Sun revisited the club in January and received a commemorative No 130 jersey from the club during the halftime interval of a match in which City defeated Liverpool 3-0.

"When he came over in January, we were asking fans, 'What do you remember about Sun when he played?', and the most popular response was that they really liked him because he played almost every position," said Cafferky. "Actually, he was used in so many different parts of the team, that the joke is the only position he didn't play was goalkeeper.

"We really like the fact that he tried and never complained, which is very unusual and fans respect and love him for that," he said.