The Community Shield is the showpiece match staged between the League champions and FA Cup winners one week before the start of the Premiership programme - and this one, on Sunday, is being held at Wembley for the first time since 2000 now that the national stadium has been rebuilt.
Coincidentally, that 2000 Shield also involved this weekend's protagonists - Chelsea and Manchester United, and then as now the Blues had won the FA Cup the previous May, while the Red Devils were League champions.
Chelsea won that game 2-0 thanks to goals by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mario Melchiot, both long gone from Stamford Bridge; and Chelsea also beat United on the last occasion the two teams met at Wembley. That, of course, was in last season's FA Cup final, when Jose Mourinho's side, having been denied a third successive Premiership title by United's sustained challenge, August-to-May, got a
measure of revenge by winning the Cup to thwart United's Double dream.
The decisive goal, struck by the dependable Didier Drogba in the 116th minute, was the one piece of quality in awful contest whose tedium was extended into extra-time. The fans at Wembley, as well as the global TV audience, are entitled to expect a lot better on Sunday from England's top two clubs.
Will they get it? Tiredeness was cited as the main reason for the mediocrity of the FA Cup final; that can hardly be used as an excuse this time, though the losers will almost certainly talk about pre-season preparations being ongoing, and say fitness levels are not quite there yet, with the next five days being critical.
Pride At Stake
The Community Shield may not be one of the game's most prestigious honours, but neither Jose Mourinho nor Sir Alex Ferguson will want to lose on Sunday. That was the fate of both of them when their respective teams last contested the Shield. Cardiff's Millennium Stadium saw Chelsea beaten 2-1 by Liverpool last August, while in 2004, Manchester United went down 3-1 to Arsenal.
Remarkably, last year's contest was the first that hadn't involved either Manchester United or Arsenal since the Everton-Blackburn clash in 1995. Normal service is resumed this year with United's presence, which means only four of the last 20 Shield matches have not featured the Old Trafford outfit or the Gunners.
There is a sharp rivalry between Mourinho and Ferguson that began when the Portuguese tactician's exuberant touchline celebration irked the Scot as Porto beat United a Champions League clash. Since Mourinho moved to London, he has got under Ferguson's skin with some of his claims and comments - but you sense there is greater warmth between the pair than has ever been detected between Fergie and Wenger or Fergie and Benitez. Maybe it's their mutual appreciation of fine wine.
Nevertheless, neither would relish giving the other the satisfaction of victory on Sunday. Last season, Mourinho's enjoyment of the FA Cup triumph was tempered by losing the title to Ferguson. Both their League meetings finished all square. In the 2005-06 campaign, United won 1-0 at Old Trafford, Chelsea won 3-0 at the Bridge, And in 2004-05, Chelsea won 1-0 at home on the opening day - Mourinho's first competitive match in charge of the Blues - and 3-1 away. Chelsea also got the better of United over two legs in the semi-final of the League Cup, drawing 0-0 at home and winning 2-1 at Old Trafford.
Chelsea's assistant manager Clarke said of the Community Shield encounter: "It will not have any bearing on the season. It is still a pre-season match, and the season starts with the Premier League. But when you play someone like Manchester United, one of our main rivals for all the major trophies next season, obviously it gives the match some extra meaning. We want to win it, and I am sure they want to as well."
United boss Ferguson said: "It will be a competitive game, you can't avoid that. Players, particularly against teams they'll be competing against for top honours, are going to be competitive. It will be a better game than the FA Cup final as there was possibly tiredness from both teams."
New Faces
Sunday's meeting will not be just about pride, or revenge; it will also be about the fine-tuning of the two teams, particularly with new players to be bedded in. United were busy this summer bringing in Owen Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson, Tomasz Kuszczak and, it seems, Carlos Tevez. However not all of them will be involved against Chelsea on Sunday.
Chelsea have added Florent Malouda, Tal Ben Haim, Claudio Pizarro, Steve Sidwell and Danny Philliskirk.
Pre-Season Form Guide
Chelsea
Tuesday, 31 July v Brondby (A) WON 2-0
Saturday, 28 July v Rangers (A) LOST 0-2
Wednesday, 25 July v Feyenoord (A) DREW 1-1
Saturday 21 July v LA Galaxy (A) WON 1-0
Manchester Utd
Wednesday, 01 August v Inter Milan (H) LOST 2-3
Friday, 27 July v Guangzhou (A) WON 3-0
Monday, 23 July v Shenzhen Jianlibao (A) WON 6-0
Friday, 20 July v FC Seoul (A) WON 4-0
Tuesday, 17 July v Urawa Red Diamonds (A) DREW 2-2
TEAM NEWS
Chelsea
Ankle injuries rule out both Wayne Bridge and Michael Ballack, while a knee injury means Salomon Kalou misses out. But Arjen Robben, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole are all available.
Lampard is expected to be in contention after Chelsea denied that he had been playing through the pain barrier with a broken toe sustained on the pre-season tour of the United States. And assistant manager Steve Clarke said that Lampard would be central to the Blues' plans for the Community Shield.
"Frank is fine for Sunday," insisted Clarke. "He has not missed a training session, he has not missed a match and is a great character. He has got a small problem with his toe and it is a little bit uncomfortable. But when you think the injury was caused four weeks ago and he has not missed a session or a game since, that tells you it is not a major injury."
United finally broke Chelsea's grip on the Premier League title last season but Sunday's encounter is likely to have little significance on the outcome of this season's title race.
Taking his cue from earlier comments by Mourinho, Clarke suggested that Chelsea are going to be more expansive this year. "The 4-4-2 system with wingers is one we have not used before. We have worked on it extensively in pre-season, and the 4-3-3 system we know inside out. It will all give us good options," he said.
"We want to be a bit more expansive this year, and the wingers can give us that something different."
Manchester United
Captain Gary Neville is still suffering from the ankle injury that ruled him out of the latter stages of last season, while Paul Scholes, Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer are injured. Ferguson has indicated that new signings Hargreaves and Anderson will not be involved - Anderson having played in the reserve friendly win over Doncaster on Friday night.
United centre-back Nemanja Vidic says the team's back four will be back to their best against Chelsea after suffering a few lapses in Wednesdays friendly against Inter Milan. Vidic said: “It is a concern we gave those three goals away against Inter because we didn’t keep our shape and made a lot of mistakes. But Inter were a lot better team than anyone else we have played in pre-season so if we are going to make those errors, it is better to do it against them than in another couple of weeks. No team plays well at this stage, not even Chelsea or Arsenal....I am sure we will improve defensively and our overall performance will be much better.”
Utility player John O’Shea believes United's squad is stronger than they've had for a while. “The quality we have in numbers is fantastic and the manager is going to have a tough time picking a team — which is a dream situation for him to be in. On the counter-attack, the pace and ability of Wayne [Rooney] and Cristiano [Ronaldo] is going to be a major asset. Some of their one-touch football against Inter was fantastic.”
SQUADS
Chelsea: (from) Cech, Cudicini, Hilario, Ferreira, A Cole, Diarra, Sidwell, Essien, Lampard, Robben, Mikel, Malouda, J Cole, Drogba, Shevchenko, Ben Haim, Pizarro, Terry, Carvalho.
Man Utd: (from) Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Brown, Bardsley, Pique, Simpson, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans, Silvestre, Evra, Ronaldo, Fletcher, O'Shea, Carrick, Eagles, Giggs, Rooney.
WATCH OUT FOR:
Chelsea: With so much talent at his disposal, it is anybody's guess who Jose Mourinho will start with. But if Joe Cole is involved this is the sort of match, played on the sort of stage, in which he could shine. And of course Didier Drogba is the perennial danger-man who can win the game for Chelsea in an instant. But expect Michael Essien to be major influence in midfield.
Manchester United: Cristiano Ronaldo did not do his talent justice in the FA Cup final and may see this as the opportunity to put the record straight. If he can reproduce his form from most of last season, he wil be more than a handful for Chelsea's defence - and a beneficiary could be Wayne Rooney, who will probably be shouldering the bulk of the striking responsibilities this season.
(from goal.com)
Coincidentally, that 2000 Shield also involved this weekend's protagonists - Chelsea and Manchester United, and then as now the Blues had won the FA Cup the previous May, while the Red Devils were League champions.
Chelsea won that game 2-0 thanks to goals by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mario Melchiot, both long gone from Stamford Bridge; and Chelsea also beat United on the last occasion the two teams met at Wembley. That, of course, was in last season's FA Cup final, when Jose Mourinho's side, having been denied a third successive Premiership title by United's sustained challenge, August-to-May, got a
measure of revenge by winning the Cup to thwart United's Double dream.
The decisive goal, struck by the dependable Didier Drogba in the 116th minute, was the one piece of quality in awful contest whose tedium was extended into extra-time. The fans at Wembley, as well as the global TV audience, are entitled to expect a lot better on Sunday from England's top two clubs.
Will they get it? Tiredeness was cited as the main reason for the mediocrity of the FA Cup final; that can hardly be used as an excuse this time, though the losers will almost certainly talk about pre-season preparations being ongoing, and say fitness levels are not quite there yet, with the next five days being critical.
Pride At Stake
The Community Shield may not be one of the game's most prestigious honours, but neither Jose Mourinho nor Sir Alex Ferguson will want to lose on Sunday. That was the fate of both of them when their respective teams last contested the Shield. Cardiff's Millennium Stadium saw Chelsea beaten 2-1 by Liverpool last August, while in 2004, Manchester United went down 3-1 to Arsenal.
Remarkably, last year's contest was the first that hadn't involved either Manchester United or Arsenal since the Everton-Blackburn clash in 1995. Normal service is resumed this year with United's presence, which means only four of the last 20 Shield matches have not featured the Old Trafford outfit or the Gunners.
There is a sharp rivalry between Mourinho and Ferguson that began when the Portuguese tactician's exuberant touchline celebration irked the Scot as Porto beat United a Champions League clash. Since Mourinho moved to London, he has got under Ferguson's skin with some of his claims and comments - but you sense there is greater warmth between the pair than has ever been detected between Fergie and Wenger or Fergie and Benitez. Maybe it's their mutual appreciation of fine wine.
Nevertheless, neither would relish giving the other the satisfaction of victory on Sunday. Last season, Mourinho's enjoyment of the FA Cup triumph was tempered by losing the title to Ferguson. Both their League meetings finished all square. In the 2005-06 campaign, United won 1-0 at Old Trafford, Chelsea won 3-0 at the Bridge, And in 2004-05, Chelsea won 1-0 at home on the opening day - Mourinho's first competitive match in charge of the Blues - and 3-1 away. Chelsea also got the better of United over two legs in the semi-final of the League Cup, drawing 0-0 at home and winning 2-1 at Old Trafford.
Chelsea's assistant manager Clarke said of the Community Shield encounter: "It will not have any bearing on the season. It is still a pre-season match, and the season starts with the Premier League. But when you play someone like Manchester United, one of our main rivals for all the major trophies next season, obviously it gives the match some extra meaning. We want to win it, and I am sure they want to as well."
United boss Ferguson said: "It will be a competitive game, you can't avoid that. Players, particularly against teams they'll be competing against for top honours, are going to be competitive. It will be a better game than the FA Cup final as there was possibly tiredness from both teams."
New Faces
Sunday's meeting will not be just about pride, or revenge; it will also be about the fine-tuning of the two teams, particularly with new players to be bedded in. United were busy this summer bringing in Owen Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson, Tomasz Kuszczak and, it seems, Carlos Tevez. However not all of them will be involved against Chelsea on Sunday.
Chelsea have added Florent Malouda, Tal Ben Haim, Claudio Pizarro, Steve Sidwell and Danny Philliskirk.
Pre-Season Form Guide
Chelsea
Tuesday, 31 July v Brondby (A) WON 2-0
Saturday, 28 July v Rangers (A) LOST 0-2
Wednesday, 25 July v Feyenoord (A) DREW 1-1
Saturday 21 July v LA Galaxy (A) WON 1-0
Manchester Utd
Wednesday, 01 August v Inter Milan (H) LOST 2-3
Friday, 27 July v Guangzhou (A) WON 3-0
Monday, 23 July v Shenzhen Jianlibao (A) WON 6-0
Friday, 20 July v FC Seoul (A) WON 4-0
Tuesday, 17 July v Urawa Red Diamonds (A) DREW 2-2
TEAM NEWS
Chelsea
Ankle injuries rule out both Wayne Bridge and Michael Ballack, while a knee injury means Salomon Kalou misses out. But Arjen Robben, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole are all available.
Lampard is expected to be in contention after Chelsea denied that he had been playing through the pain barrier with a broken toe sustained on the pre-season tour of the United States. And assistant manager Steve Clarke said that Lampard would be central to the Blues' plans for the Community Shield.
"Frank is fine for Sunday," insisted Clarke. "He has not missed a training session, he has not missed a match and is a great character. He has got a small problem with his toe and it is a little bit uncomfortable. But when you think the injury was caused four weeks ago and he has not missed a session or a game since, that tells you it is not a major injury."
United finally broke Chelsea's grip on the Premier League title last season but Sunday's encounter is likely to have little significance on the outcome of this season's title race.
Taking his cue from earlier comments by Mourinho, Clarke suggested that Chelsea are going to be more expansive this year. "The 4-4-2 system with wingers is one we have not used before. We have worked on it extensively in pre-season, and the 4-3-3 system we know inside out. It will all give us good options," he said.
"We want to be a bit more expansive this year, and the wingers can give us that something different."
Manchester United
Captain Gary Neville is still suffering from the ankle injury that ruled him out of the latter stages of last season, while Paul Scholes, Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer are injured. Ferguson has indicated that new signings Hargreaves and Anderson will not be involved - Anderson having played in the reserve friendly win over Doncaster on Friday night.
United centre-back Nemanja Vidic says the team's back four will be back to their best against Chelsea after suffering a few lapses in Wednesdays friendly against Inter Milan. Vidic said: “It is a concern we gave those three goals away against Inter because we didn’t keep our shape and made a lot of mistakes. But Inter were a lot better team than anyone else we have played in pre-season so if we are going to make those errors, it is better to do it against them than in another couple of weeks. No team plays well at this stage, not even Chelsea or Arsenal....I am sure we will improve defensively and our overall performance will be much better.”
Utility player John O’Shea believes United's squad is stronger than they've had for a while. “The quality we have in numbers is fantastic and the manager is going to have a tough time picking a team — which is a dream situation for him to be in. On the counter-attack, the pace and ability of Wayne [Rooney] and Cristiano [Ronaldo] is going to be a major asset. Some of their one-touch football against Inter was fantastic.”
SQUADS
Chelsea: (from) Cech, Cudicini, Hilario, Ferreira, A Cole, Diarra, Sidwell, Essien, Lampard, Robben, Mikel, Malouda, J Cole, Drogba, Shevchenko, Ben Haim, Pizarro, Terry, Carvalho.
Man Utd: (from) Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Brown, Bardsley, Pique, Simpson, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans, Silvestre, Evra, Ronaldo, Fletcher, O'Shea, Carrick, Eagles, Giggs, Rooney.
WATCH OUT FOR:
Chelsea: With so much talent at his disposal, it is anybody's guess who Jose Mourinho will start with. But if Joe Cole is involved this is the sort of match, played on the sort of stage, in which he could shine. And of course Didier Drogba is the perennial danger-man who can win the game for Chelsea in an instant. But expect Michael Essien to be major influence in midfield.
Manchester United: Cristiano Ronaldo did not do his talent justice in the FA Cup final and may see this as the opportunity to put the record straight. If he can reproduce his form from most of last season, he wil be more than a handful for Chelsea's defence - and a beneficiary could be Wayne Rooney, who will probably be shouldering the bulk of the striking responsibilities this season.
(from goal.com)
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