Chelsea v Manchester City
The much anticipated pre-season curtain raiser, the Community Shield will be contested between FA Cup winners Chelsea and league champions Manchester City this Sunday. The match will be played at Villa Park since the traditional venue of Wembley Stadium is being used for the Olympic Football tournament. It’s the perfect opportunity for both teams to build confidence ahead of the title race.
Chelsea excelled in cup competitions last season winning the UEFA Champions League as well. The Blues won the FA Cup Final by beating Liverpool 2–1 at Wembley. They beat Portsmouth 4–0, Queens Park Rangers 1–0, Birmingham City 2–0, Leicester City 5–2 and Tottenham Hotspur 5–1 en route to the final.
Manchester City qualified for their second consecutive Community Shield by clinching the Premier League in the final minutes of the season. City made a strong start to the league season, beating rivals Manchester United 6–1 at Old Trafford in October and maintained the lead in the league for the majority of the season. However, a drop in form in March and April meant they fell eight points behind leaders Manchester United who would later drop points to Wigan Athletic and Everton. City won the last six league matches of the season, including a crucial 1–0 victory over United at the Etihad Stadium which put City top of the league with a superior goal difference. City needed to win the final two matches to win the league, irrespective of what United did. They beat Newcastle, meaning victory against QPR would seal the title for them. Although taking an early lead, QPR scored twice in the 48th and 66th minute. It looked as if City had blown their chance to win the league with United winning 1–0 at Sunderland. However, two stoppage time goals from Edin Dzeko and a last-minute goal from Sergio Aguero completed a remarkable comeback to give City a 3–2 lead and their first league title since 1968.
Chelsea’s form has been stuttering at best in pre-season, with last Saturday’s 3-1 loss at Brighton the Londoners’ third defeat in succession after losing to the MLS All Star team and AC Milan. Their friendlies started with a win over Seattle Sounders and a draw with PSG. Championship side Brighton exploited vulnerability in what was a first-choice Chelsea defence. While much has been made of the need to integrate new attacking signings into the line-up, the Londoners have appeared uncharacteristically slack at the back and have now failed to keep a clean sheet in five pre-season matches, conceding 10 times. £70m has been spent already on Eden Hazard, Oscar, Thorgan Hazard and Marko Marin. They are also interested in Porto’s Hulk and Marseille’s Spanish right-back, Cesar Azpilicueta. All eyes will be on the highly rated Eden Hazard who was also wanted by City but opted to move to the European champions.
Manchester City completed their pre-season schedule with a comprehensive 4-0 win over Irish side Limerick last Sunday. City enjoyed much better results than Chelsea in their pre-season recording five wins against Besiktas, Arsenal, Malaysia XI, Wolfsburg and Limerick. They suffered setbacks with a 0-0 draw in their pre-season opener against German first division side Dresden and a 2-1 loss to League One side Oldham. Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero have looked sharp during pre-season and are likely to start together here.
Their league meetings last season were won 2-1 on both occasions by the home side. The inconsistent Fernando Torres will try to fill the gap left by Stamford Bridge legend Didier Drogba. City finished 25 points above Chelsea in the league scoring 28 goals more. The defending champions have made no major signings and have retained their full squad. Back Manchester City to oust the Blues.
