Manchester United v Manchester City – Sunday 7th August – Wembley Stadium (15:30)
Wayne Rooney - Manchester United
The new English football season kicks off with the traditional curtain raiser on Sunday where the winners of the Premier League face the winners of the FA Cup. This season’s Community Shield will be the battle of Manchester which pits last season’s FA Cup winners Manchester City head-to-head with Premier League champs Manchester United.
Manchester United are coming off an excellent pre-season tour of the USA where they won all four friendly matches. United rounded off their pre-season tour with a 2-1 victory over UEFA Champions League conquerors Barcelona in Washington. Just a couple of months after being comprehensively beaten 3-1 by Barca at Wembley, United claimed the friendly win courtesy of Michael Owen’s goal 14 minutes from time after Nani’s opening goal was levelled by Barcelona with a wonder strike from young talent Thiago. Sir Alex Ferguson has added three players to his squad over the summer – Ashley Young from Aston Villa, Phil Jones from Blackburn Rovers and goalkeeper David de Gea from Atletico Madrid to replace Edwin van der Sar, who has retired. United are yet to start a full strength team and with the English Premier League just a week away, Sir Alex Ferguson is expected to test his first choice players together in this encounter that holds the opportunity for bragging rights. Wayne Rooney looks likely to have a much more promising season with his exceptional performances so far in the pre-season matches and will want to put a few past United’s derby rivals.
Manchester City are also coming off a victory against one of the biggest clubs in the world. City’s promising pre-season form, where they also went unbeaten, continued against Italian giants Inter Milan with the Blues running out comfortable 3-1 winners in the final of the Dublin Super Cup. They easily overcame the Ireland XI 3-0 on Saturday to qualify for the final. Manchester City’s big signing of the pre-season is Argentina’s Sergio Aguero, for whom they paid £38 million from Atletico Madrid and he is likely to feature here. Also joining the team have been Stefan Savic from FK Partizan and Gael Clichy from Arsenal. The future of Carlos Tevez has still to be decided, though if still available he’d probably love to play against his old club Manchester United. David Silva has proved to be City’s inspiration in the midfield and the Spaniard created many chances against Inter Milan. Last season was a successful one for Roberto Mancini’s side, who lifted the FA Cup and also secured a 3rd place finish ahead of Arsenal to book a place in the UEFA Champions League.
Both sides are playing well and this heated encounter is tipped to end in a draw.
