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The 2018-19 English football season will kick-off today with reigning FA Cup champions Chelsea FC locking horns with Premier League titleholders Manchester City in the FA Community Shield at Wembley stadium in London.
Chelsea had a disappointing 2017-18 season as they finished 5th in the league and missed out on a Champions League spot. The Blues sacked Antonio Conte from the head coach position last month and replaced him with former Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri. The Community Shield match against Manchester City will be Sarri's first competitive game in charge of the London based club.
Manchester City had a memorable 2017-18 Premier League season as they not only clinched the title for the 3rd time but also broke numerous records such as most points (100), most wins (32), most away wins (16), most goals (106), most consecutive league wins (18), highest goal difference (+79) and biggest winning points margin (19). Pep Guardiola after winning the league and EFL Cup title with City signed a new contract with them till 2021.
Team news
Chelsea will be without World Cup winners N'Golo Kante and Olivier Giroud, plus semi-finalists Michy Batshuayi, Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois and Gary Cahill as they are yet to return to training from their break.
The 59-year-old Italian manager has an attacking mindset and will most probably go with a 4-3-3 formation. The summer signing, Jorginho is expected to feature in the midfield with Alvaro Morata leading the attacking front for the Blues.
Manchester City in their pre-season exploits showed a lot of faith in their youngsters and Guardiola is once again expected to field teenage sensations such as Phil Foden and Eric Garcia against Chelsea in the Community Shield as several World Cup stars are not ready to feature.
City along with the prowess of young guns will also have some familiar names available such as Leroy Sane, Sergio Aguero and Bernardo Silva. Riyad Mahrez who was signed by City for a transfer fee of £60 million and became the club's most expensive signing ever. He trained with the team after picking up an injury during City's pre-season match against Bayern Munich and is likely to feature in Sunday's Community Shield match.
Chelsea possible starting eleven: Caballero; Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso; Barkley, Jorginho, Loftus-Cheek; Pedro, Morata, Hudson-Odoi.
Manchester City possible starting eleven: Bravo; Walker, Kompany, Otamendi, Mendy; B. Silva, Fernandinho, Foden; Mahrez, Aguero, Sane.
Final Scoreline Prediction: Chelsea 1-1 Manchester City (City win on penalties)
Both Chelsea and Manchester City will look to give their 2018-19 season a positive start by winning silverware at the very beginning. The teams are expected to play draw in the regular 90 minutes following which the penalty shootout (ABBA) will take place.
Manchester City will obviously have an edge if the game goes to penalties. They will have the option to feature Claudio Bravo as compared to Chelsea's goalkeeper Willy Caballero who had a woeful World Cup campaign in Russia with his national side Argentina and was dropped from the team after the first two group games.
