FA Cup holders Leicester City and English Premier League champions Manchester City will face off at Wembley on Wednesday.
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The 2021-22 football season in England is about to kick-off with the Community Shield match. FA Cup champions Leicester City will face English Premier League winners Manchester City in the Community Shield at Wembley on Saturday. The Foxes beat Chelsea courtesy of Youri Tielemans’ goal to lift the FA Cup title. Meanwhile Manchester City comfortably won the English Premier League with an impressive 12- point lead over second placed Manchester United. Both teams will be hoping to start the new campaign with a win.
Leicester’s FA cup triumph was the first in their history. However this would be their third appearance in the community shield. Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers has some major problems ahead of the Community Shield tie because of injuries. Centre-back Wesley Fofana was the latest player to be sidelined after the Frenchman fractured his fibula during the pre-season match against Villarreal on Wednesday.
Jonny Evans, James Dustin, Nampalys Mendy and Timothy Castagne are the other players to miss the game on Saturday. But they are expected to be fit for Leicester’s start of Premier League campaign against Wolves next weekend.
Meanwhile the absence of Frenchman Fofana means that Wilfred Ndidi may partner Caglar Sayuncu in the central defence. And Ndidi’s void in the midfield is likely to be filled by the new signing Boubakary Soumare.
The wing-backs are likely to be Ricardo Pereira and Ryan Bertrand with Kasper Schmeichel occupying the goal. Belgian Tielemans will pull the strings from the midfield alongside Soumare. Meanwhile Rodgers will have a decision to make regarding who will play up front. Patson Daku is certainly one for the future but veteran Jamei Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho are likely to start the match.
Speaking of Manchester City, they haven’t had the best of pre-season with many of their players still unavailable because of their participation in Euro 2020 and Copa America 2020. And head coach Pep Guardiola also has some injury concerns.
Playmaker Keven De Bruyne will miss the trip to Wembley because of an ankle injury. Englishman Phil Foden is likely to miss the start of the Premier League season. This is because of a foot injury that kept him out of the Euro 2020 final against Italy.
However City’s new signing Jack Grealish, who came from Aston Villa for a British record transfer fee of GBP 100 million is likely to make his first appearance for Manchester City on Saturday.
Because of the absence of a large number of players who haven’t yet returned for pre-season training camp, Guardiola is likely to field a second string team. Some of the absentees also include John Stones, Ederson and Gabriel Jesus. Therefore the likes of Fernandinho, Joao cancelo, Ruben Dias, Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gudagon will have to shoulder the responsibility.
Goalkeeper Zack Steffen is likely to start because of the absence of Ederson. Cancelo, Dias, Nathan Ake and Benjamin Mendy will likely forming the four-man backline in front of him.
Meanwhile in the midfield, exciting youngster Cole Palmer may play alongside the experienced Fernandinho and Gundogan. Up front Samuel Edozie may get a chance to impress along with the other two established attacking players Mahrez and Bernardo Silva.
Even though City are without many of their regular players, they still have a very strong squad. On the other hand Leicester have successfully kept hold of a number of their good performers from last season and therefore they are likely to have a decent combination.
Therefore there isn’t too much separating the two teams. However Leicester might come out on top because they had a better pre-season and their team hasn’t changed much from the previous season.
