I am extremely excited for our first taste of the new season ahead, with the Community Shield taking place at 1:30 on Sunday at Villa Park. While it is normally held at a larger stadium such as the Millenium Stadium, it is set to be held at Villa Park due to other stadiums being used during the Olympics. Man. City, last season's Premier League Champions, take on Chelsea, last season's FA Cup winners, in what should be an exciting match.
Chelsea Team News
New signing from Borussia Dortmund Marko Marin is struggling with a hamstring injury so will not feature, while another new signing, Oscar, is still representing Brazil at the Olympics, taking on Mexico in tonight's final, so will also not feature. Juan Mata represented Spain at the Olympics, so it is likely that he won't start, although he may feature on the bench, paving the way for Eden Hazard to start. Oriol Romeu also was part of Spain's Olympic squad so he will be unlikely to feature. Danny Sturridge and Ryan Bertrand represented Team GB at the Olympics and also look to be part of Roy Hodgson's plans for the England friendly against Italy next week. However, I doubt they would have started anyway with Fernando Torres and Ashley Cole being the first choice players in their positions.
Man. City Team News
Micah Richards took a knock to the ankle in Team GB's loss to South Korea, so he won't be playing and neither will Gareth Barry, who has been unable to get rid of the abdominal injury that ruled him out of Euro 2012. Vincent Kompany is a doubt, with a calf injury possibly demoting him to the bench, where he looks to be accompanied by David Silva and Mario Balotelli, who will be eased in after both making it to the final of Euro 2012.
Key Battles
Fernando Torres vs Vincent Kompany/Kolo Toure
Torres will be looking to get off to a great start to the new season in order to boost his confidence and get the Chelsea fans behind him. If Kompany is carrying an injury then Torres may get an opportunity to perform well against a player who is widely considered one of the best centre backs in the Premier League. If Kompany does not play then Torres will be up against Lescott and Kolo Toure and I think Torres will look to target Toure, who I feel is the weaker of the two.
Frank Lampard vs Yaya Toure
Both these central midfielders like to make surging runs from the middle of midfield into the opposition's box and they are key parts of the their team. Yes, Frank Lampard is aging but Paul Scholes is far older than he is and he proved extremely valuable to Man. United last season. Yaya Toure was a fantastic player last season for City and one of the reasons why they ended up champions. If these players put in top notch performances then I think that their team will have a good chance of winning.
John Terry vs Sergio Aguero
Aguero was on fire last season for City. and clinched the title for them with a goal against QPR in the last minute. John Terry has mainly been a great player for Chelsea, despite his antics off the pitch, and sometimes on it (Champions League semi final vs Barcelona). If David Luiz plays Aguero will be hoping he does something rash, but I believe he has matured and will have a good season for the Blues. Whether Cahill or Luiz partners Terry in defence, they will hoping to form a good partnership. Meanwhile Aguero will be hoping to build on the fantastic partnership with Tevez that started towards the end of last season.
Verdict
Whilst Man. City have been the stronger team in pre season with an impressive win over Arsenal, I think Chelsea will nick this one. It'll be close but I think City's defence will be weaker than Chelsea's which means that I'm predicting a 2-1 win for Chelsea after extra time. Could be right, but could be completely wrong. Please follow my blog for more similar posts. Cheers.
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