A week before the kick-off of the premier league, the league champions always play against the winners but in case the same club wins both titles, they face the premier league runners-up in the Community Shield.
Last season Chelsea won both league and FA cup and Manchester United were the runners-up meaning that the two clubs will face-off on Sunday 8.

Manchester United in the only club that has won the shield three times since it was changed from Charity shield to Community shield. They won it in 2004, 2008 and 2009. Chelsea and Arsenal are the other clubs that have won the shield, twice

Chelsea
They won both titles last season indication that their team was solid and consistent in the season. The club has no big changes; their biggest departure during the summer has been Joe Cole to Liverpool and Michael Ballack to Bayer Leverkusen. Yossi Benayoun has joined Chelsea from Liverpool. Peter Cech is still injured and is unlikely to feature though  he could be ready for the Premiership opening the next week. Didier Drogba is also a doubt.

Ancelotti's team had no impressive results in the pre-season matches but he is confident that the return of all players that participated in the world cup in Africa and the expected return of Michel Essien, his team is still solid "all my players returned from world cup holiday and they have been performing well in the training" Ancelotti told  the press on Thursday.
The Blue coach stressed that both Drogba and Ashley Cole will not leave the Bridge as it had been published in various media.

Manchester United
Alex Ferguson has not sold any of his guns but has secured more signatures. Man United are likely to rest Wayne Rooney for this match but new signing Javier Hernandez, who impressed playing for Mexico during the summer's World Cup and in pre-season matches at United will play. Chris Smalling has also joined from Fulham and could start. Goalkeeper Ben Foster left Manchester United over the summer to join Birmingham City. Anderson, who was already struggling with a knee problem, will not play after his car accident last weekend.

The team had a good performance and according to Ferguson, players like Berbatov who had poor performance last season, proved that they are fit for the club during the summer tours.
United players like Rooney, Anderson and captain Garry Neville were involved in different scandalous   incidents and according to Ferguson, were results of irresponsible alcohol consumption.

However, Fergie vowed that this will not affect the performance of the club in the community shield or the league. "Personal problems could not affect our performance on the pitch" said Fergie      
The FA said that they have allowed the fans to enter Wembley with their Vuvuzelas to support their clubs. Clubs like Fulham, Arsenal and others have banned Vuvuzelas in their stadiums urging that they disturb the concentration of players on the pitch.

The press, especially the electronic media who do live commentaries have also complained that the noise of Vuvuzelas impact on their services, as the case was in world cup in South Africa.

Previous winners
2009/2010   Chelsea
2008/2009   Manchester Utd
2007/2008   Manchester Utd
2006/2007   Liverpool
2005/2006   Chelsea
2004/2005   Arsenal
2003/2004   Manchester
2002/2003   Arsenal blog comments powered by Disqus

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