Next Sunday, 10th August 2014, the current FA Cup holders, Arsenal, and the English Premier League champions, Manchester City, will measure forces at Wembley Stadium for the 92nd Edition of the Community Shield.

With the English Premier League’s start just around the corner, the time for making the final tests and to prepare the teams for such an Herculean task is scarce and both Arsenal and Manchester City will already need to be at their best behaviour if they want to claim the first major trophy of the season.

Arsenal’s pre-season was a mixture of quality with some less impressive performances. Last Saturday, the Gunners completely hammered the Portuguese champions, SL Benfica, by 5-1 for both sides’ first match at the Emirates Cup. Arsene Wenger’s boys not only won the match, they were also completely in control of the operations throughout the entire game. On the other hand, during their second match of the tournament, one day later and against AS Monaco, Arsenal were not able to impose the same intensity and the same quality standards they put up on the clash against SL Benfica.

For the match against the Citizens, Arsene Wenger will certainly present his 4-2-3-1, which is no more than a simple variation of the classical 4-3-3 approach, with two versatile players, such as the newcomer Alexis Sánchez and maybe Joel Campbell, backing the team’s centre forward, who will certainly be the French international Olivier Giroud, although he does not seem at his best just yet.

As for Manchester City, this will be the third time in four years they will try to snatch the Community Shield. The current Premier League champions seem to be even stronger this season than they were last term, specifically since they managed to add on some more quality footballers to their already impressive set-up of players. The two men City brought in from FC Porto, the defensive midfielder Fernando Reges and the powerful French centre back Mangala, will certainly offer the team even more consistency back in defence. Nevertheless, the player who will probably become one of the team’s most important assets is not a new signing, but rather the Montenegrin versatile forward Stevan Jovetic, a player that arrived last season but that had to deal with an injury that severely affected his overall production.

For the next Sunday’s clash, Manchester City’s Chilean head coach Manuel Pellegrini  will certainly keep faithful to his usual 4-4-2 formation, which gave him the most impressive displays from his team last season.

The last time both teams went head-to-head in this particular competition was back in 1934 with Gunners smashing the Citizens by 4-0. Although it is hard to name any favourites at this stage of the season, one might say that Manchester City enjoy from a slight advantage for next Sunday’s match, as they look more consistent than their opponents at this particular moment.

Arsenal

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - LWLW

Manchester City

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - LLWWW

Possible Line-ups

Arsenal  (4-2-3-1) – Szczesny - Debuchy - Koscielny - Chambers - Gibbs - Ramsey - Arteta - Sánchez - Wilshere - Campbell - Giroud

Head Coach: Arsene Wenger

Manchester City (4-4-2) – Hart - Sagna - Kompany - Rekik - Kolarov - Touré - Fernando - Silva - Nasri - Jovetic - Dzeko

Head Coach: Manuel Pellegrini

Prediction

Arsenal 1 Manchester City 2