Chelsea and Manchester City lock horns in search of Community Shield glory

Both of the sides will be looking forward to test their bolstered squads in the weekend.

The Community Shield acts as a curtain raiser to what will be yet another pulsating season of the Premier League. With the winners of the Premier League title going head to head with the winners of the FA Cup, it will be the battle of two of the top teams that plied their trade in the previous season and will look to get on the right foot come to the new season.

The winners of the last two editions of the Premier League are going against one another in this clash but truth be told that this clash shall not echo what is to come in the season. Both the teams are missing a lot of key players due to the World Cup but the fans are raring to see their teams fight it out for the charity shield.

About the teams

As we mentioned before, there are a lot of absentees over both the camps and this game will be more about getting the players up to speed for the marathon that is to come right after.

Chelsea’s players such as Eden Hazard, Courtois, Kante, Giroud and Cahill are only just returning this weekend and these big names will be absent for the clash against the Premier League Champions. With Jorginho very much fit and ready to play, it will be interesting to see how he performs against the team that he snubbed before his move to the Bridge. With Sarri heaping praise on the 17-year-old Callum Hudson-Odoi, it is most likely that he will start in this fixture.

The Manchester City record signing, Riyadh Mahrez picked up a minor ankle injury earlier this week but he seems to have recovered from it and might feature in this fixture. With only Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne yet to return, the squad is almost complete for Pep to choose from. Although Pep has used his youngsters for the majority of the pre-season, it looks like he might just stick with the young guns.

Longtime absentee Benjamin Mendy could make a start in this game after featuring for the U23’s earlier this week.

 

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Venue

The Community Shield will be held in the 90,000 seated Wembley stadium.  The referee appointed for this fixture is Jon Moss.

Expected Line-ups

Chelsea: Caballero, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Rudiger, Alonso, Jorginho, Fabregas, Barkley, Pedro, Morata, Hudson-Odoi

Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Kompany, Otamendi, Delph, Silva, Fernandinho, Foden, Mahrez, Aguero, Sane

What to expect

The teams are just easing into the season and with a few stars in each side just returning back after a long World Cup campaign, the match will be a bit cagey. With both the teams playing the counter-pressing style of game, it will be interesting to see how well Chelsea have adapted to Sarri’s methods.

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Khel Now Predicts

Chelsea 1 – 2 Manchester City