This season’s FA Community Shield holds this Sunday at the iconic Wembley Stadium between English Premier League and FA Cup champions Manchester City and EPL runners-up, Arsenal.
The Community Shield is the curtain raiser of every season and is between the English Premier League winners and the FA Cup champions.
The Citizens emerged as the EPL as well as the FA Cup champions so their opponents will be Arsenal who came second in the EPL.
This match is a renewal of last season’s rivalry, where Arsenal led for most of the season only for Manchester City to pull the rug off the feet of the London side and clinched the title.
Victory for Arsenal will be a morale booster ahead of the season, in which their biggest challenge will most likely come from the Pep Guardiola tutored side.
This match will offer both teams an opportunity to see some of their new signings in a competitive match.
Arsenal signed Declan Rice from West Ham for a fee of €116.6m, Kai Havertz from Chelsea for €75m, Jurriem Timber from Ajax for €40m, and Nicolas Pepe from Nice for an undisclosed fee. They have also let go of Granit Xhaka, Pablo Mari, and Matt Smith.
Manchester City, on their part, have fortified their squad through the signing of Mateo Kovacic from Chelsea for a fee of €29.10m and the return of Joao Cancelo from loan. They also let go of last season’s captain Ikay Gundogan, Riyad Mahrez, and Benjamin Mendy.
Both sides have met three times this year with The Citizens emerging victorious in all occasions. On January 27 they met in the FA Cup and City won by a lone goal. 19 days later, Arsenal hosted Manchester City in the EPL and lost 1-3 to the visitors. The reverse fixture on April 26 saw The Citizens gun down The Gunners 4-1.
