Chelsea vs Manchester United Preview

FA Community Shield
Wembley Stadium
8th August 15:00

Despite all the summer activity, these two clubs are still considered the favourites to win the League and the Community Shield game will give one of them an important psychological edge.
Unusually, Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has already names his starting lineup. Didier Drogba only makes the bench for the tie at his happiest hunting ground and Cech, Alex and Bosingwa miss out entirely - all nursing minor injuries or simply short of fitness after the World Cup. Chelsea have had a mediocre pre-season winning at Crystal Palace before suffering consecutive defeats to Ajax, Eintracht Frankfurt and Hamburg and Ancelotti knows the importance of carrying momentum into the new season saying, "we need to win because we have lost too many games - we are not happy."
Manchester United have their own injury concerns ahead of Sunday's game. Michael Carrick is out for two weeks with an ankle injury, Gabriel Obertan also has an injured ankle, Rio Ferdinand has not recovered from the knee injury which kept him out of the World Cup, Anderson too has a long-term knee inury, Patrice Evra has been given time to recover after France's horror of a World Cup and the Da Silva's have food poisoning. Sir Alex Ferguson has also stated that Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen will both only play 45 minutes - the former needing time off after the World Cup and the latter short of match fitness. Ferguson also suggested that the other World Cup participant Nemanja Vidic will have a limited game on Sunday saying, "there is no point pushing players too early, so I don't think we will get the benefit of these players until the third week of the season". The belief being Rooney and Vidic will be starters coming off at half time for Owen and possibly Smalling. All signs point to a Manchester United 4-5-1 with Rooney on his own up top although United may switch to a 4-4-2 to test the resolve of Hernandez, Macheda or Berbatov.
Clearly Manchester United are staring down the barrel at the prospect of being outpaced by the Chelsea front line and outpassed in the midfield. The deeper midfielders Mikel and Essien should have no problem dealing with the sluggish and predictable Fletcher and Scholes and though Ryan Giggs can provide the occasional monet of brilliance, the midfield tussle should mainly result in Frank Lampard getting too much space in his box-to-box role. United's defense also looks vulnerable with the mistake-prone Wes Brown and Jonny Evans likely to start with the task of nullifying the rapidly improving Florent Malouda who will be looking to take out his frustrations after an embarassing World Cup. United's greatest threat comes through their own wingers. Antonio Valencia and Nani will need to be on top of their game as they are responsible for that all important service to the front man Wayne Rooney - who could have a field day against the out-of-position Paulo Ferreira (though he will have John Terry lending a helping hand if United do indeed only play one striker).

Prediction - Chelsea 3 : 1 Manchester United

Line-ups:

Chelsea (4-3-3) : Hilario, Ivanovic, Terry, Ferreira, Cole, Essien, Lampard, Mikel, Kalou, Anelka, Malouda

Manchester United (4-5-1) : van der Sar, Brown, Evans, Vidic, O'Shea, Valencia, Fletcher, Scholes, Giggs, Nani, Rooney