adminLONDON. – The game’s most reliable raiser of curtains will be played at Wembley tomorrow, with English Premier League soccer champions Chelsea taking on FA Cup holders Arsenal. The match kicks-off at 4pm. Arsene Wenger will hope that ultimately meaningless Barclays Asia Trophy and Emirates Cup triumphs will be followed by a second successive and slightly less meaningless Community Shield victory, but he will be well aware that pre-season form does not necessarily translate into the competitive campaign, even if they did just last week hit Lyon for six.
Chelsea go into the game as favourites to lift the first trophy of the season despite arguably having failed to strengthen the first eleven that fared so well last season.
Arsenal, meanwhile, upgraded significantly in goal with the signing of Chelsea legend Petr Cech, and he will make his debut for his new club up against his former teammates.
Arsenal have five Community Shield victories from eight attempts in the English Premier League era, a tally two greater than Chelsea (three) from the same number of matches.
Arsene Wenger clearly knows how to prepare his team for big, one-off clashes, but Chelsea did not have ruthless winner Jose Mourinho in charge for the majority of their outings.
The war of words between the two managers continued this week, and both will be extremely keen to get one over their rival this weekend.
Mourinho will be confident of victory and will be buoyed by the record held by reigning English Premier League champions, who tend to fare significantly better than teams that have just won the FA Cup.
Of the 23 Community Shield clashes since 1992, 15 have been won by league winners and just six by FA Cup holders (with the other two won by teams that qualified through a second-placed Premier League finish in a double-winning season for their opponents).
Chelsea also have a fantastic record against Arsenal, having kept five consecutive clean sheets against them, going over eight hours without conceding a single goal.
Chelsea have scored 10 goals without reply in that time and Arsenal have not beaten their cross-London rivals since their 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge in 2011.
Goals are plentiful in these clashes and drama could be on the cards for tomorrow’s clash.
An average of 2,9 goals have been scored during the English Premier League era, including a whopping 23 in the last six matches (an average of 3,8).
Eric Cantona scored the only hat-trick in the last 23 matches – doing so in 1992 – and added two more in the following years, making him the highest scorer in Community Shield games in this time frame with five goals.
The result of the game is a mild indicator for the ensuing campaign. Sixty per cent of teams that lift the Community Shield go on to have a better season than the side they defeat, while 57 per cent of Community Shield matches have featured the eventual Premier League champions.
The winners tomorrow could have drawn first blood in the title race.
Chelsea are once again the team to beat this season, while Arsenal genuinely look like title challengers for the first time in a long while.
The stats suggest it is more likely than not that tomorrow’s game includes a team that will win this season’s Premier League, and also that the Community Shield victors will have an early-season edge over their rivals.
Meanwhile, Chelsea’s Diego Costa and Gary Cahill have both been passed fit for tomorrow’s Community Shield match against Arsenal, boss Mourinho has confirmed.
The pair suffered injuries during Chelsea’s pre-season tour match against Barcelona in the United States.
England defender Cahill left the pitch with a suspected broken nose after scoring Chelsea’s 85th-minute equaliser, while Spain forward Costa was replaced on the hour mark by Loic Remy due to a worry over his hamstring.
Mourinho admitted following his side’s 4-2 penalty shoot-out victory over the European champions that he would wait to hear the full diagnosis of the pair’s injuries before making a decision on whether to include them in the season’s curtain raiser with the Gunners.
News of their availability will come as a major boost for Mourinho, who currently has no other injury concerns heading into the match.
When asked over the fitness of his squad, Mourinho said: “All good.”
He added: “There are no concerns, no protections (for Costa). We have three top strikers. I’m not worried. No problem.”
The match with Arsenal will also see Mourinho resume his rivalry with Wenger.
Mourinho, who is yet to taste defeat in 13 encounters with Wenger, has endured a spikey relationship with the Frenchman and even branded him a “specialist in failure” in 2014.
But the Chelsea boss was keen to play down his exceptional record over Wenger and Arsenal, insisting he doesn’t think about it.
“I just want my club to get the best possible result. It doesn’t matter about Arsenal, it doesn’t matter about the manager,” Mourinho said.
“I’ve never made a special thing about wins over Arsenal.
“I don’t explode with happiness when I beat them, and I won’t make drama when lose.” – The Telegraph.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter