The Community Shield is a strange occasion. Within the context of a season it’s essentially meaningless, but it annually benefits from being the first competitive game most fans have seen for a while – it’s a friendly, but it pretends not to be and we go along with that pretence for the sake of our own amusement.
Having finally treated their long-empty trophy cabinet to some FA Cup silverware last season, Arsenal have splashed the cash ahead of the new campaign to improve a squad that could now be capable of pushing for loftier titles.
Sunday’s opponents Manchester City have been surprisingly quiet in the transfer window, suggesting managerManuel Pellegrini is content with his squad ahead of their Premier League title defence.
TEAM NEWS
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger must decide whether to unleash summer signings Alexis Sanchez, Calum Chambers and Mathieu Debuchy against Manchester City at Wembley.
Per Mertesacker, Mesut Ozil, and Lukas Podolski will all be absent owing to their extended post-World Cup break while Olivier Giroud is a doubt after struggling for fitness in the friendly defeat against Monaco.
Manchester City will be without eight players for Sunday's Community Shield clash with Arsenal at Wembley.
Frank Lampard is deemed not ready to feature yet following his arrival on loan, and the same applies to fellow new signing Bacary Sagna, along with Sergio Aguero, Pablo Zabaleta, Martin Demichelis, Fernandinho and skipper Vincent Kompany - six City players who were involved in the knockout stages of the World Cup.
Alvaro Negredo is the other man to miss out due to his foot injury, but there could be debuts for two new recruits in goalkeeper Willy Caballero and midfielder Fernando.
Arsene Wenger: "We are less vulnerable now, that is for sure. In the last two years we bought Ozil and Sanchez - five years ago we would have lost Ozil and Sanchez. We have more money available to buy today than we had five years ago. We can compete better. For years we have lost top players without the ability to replace them because of financial management. It is tiring to lose players - whether it be to Man City or somewhere else - it is the same. Southampton would say the same today. If you look at the team Southampton had last year and then add Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott and Gareth Bale you see the quality of the work they have done. They are in a similar position today to where we were before in relation to the other clubs who have superior financial power."
Manuel Pellegrini on the furore surrounding City's capture of Frank Lampard: "I think as managers we have enough problems with our own teams to be talking about other teams. The only thing I can say is that we have important restrictions about the amount of money we can spend, and Frank Lampard was a free player - we didn't spend any money in bringing him from New York City to Manchester City. I don't understand the reaction of Chelsea fans who say he is a traitor. The problem was not that Frank Lampard did not want to sign another contract with Chelsea - Chelsea didn't want him any more. He is a competitive player, he will be important for our team and we didn't spend any money on him, so the rules of financial fair play don't have any relation with Lampard."
No comments:
Post a Comment