Chelsea open England’s domestic season with the Community Shield. The Blues can win their first Community Shield since 2009, if Maurizio Sarri and his men bother to try for it.
A win in the Community Shield could be a serious injection of motivation for Maurizio Sarri. No Chelsea manager wants to leave with the Shield as their only piece of silverware. It’s almost better to have none than just the Friendly Plate. Apathy will battle history and missing players as the Blues open at Wembley.
Scott Brant: Chelsea 3 – 2 Manchester City. The amount of effort exerted by players will tell me if they care as little as I do. Callum Hudson-Odoi will be worth the watch regardless of who wins or loses. He’s an absolute joy and it’s impossible not to be excited by him. The better color blue comes out on top.
Abhishek Pancholi: 1 – 2. Maurizio Sarri will have no other option but to field a lineup comprised of a lot of second-choice players. Eden Hazard, Thibaut “Let Me Go” Courtois and Willian are likely to miss out, along with N’Golo Kante. It should be an opportunity for Callum Hudson-Odoi to strut his stuff at Wembley. Ross Barkley might also make an appearance, while Chelsea’s number 29, Alvaro Morata, should be the automatic starter.
Chelsea will try to play through Jorginho, but City’s midfield might be a bit too much to handle for a Kante-less Chelsea. It would be a massive show of faith to start Marcin Bulka in goal, so expect Willy Caballero to continue his eccentric antics. Still, it should be much better than the last time Chelsea met Pep Guardiola’s side, when they basically waved the white flag from the off.
Hugo Amaya: 0 – 2. Chelsea have looked solid during all of the pre-season games. The midfield was in complete control of the games, and the defense as solid as possible. However, an International Champions Cup game is one thing. A game against Manchester City is another.
Unfortunately, the Blues do not have a cohesive style of play just yet, while their opponents are the record-breaking team from last season. Furthermore, Chelsea’s attack has been weak to say the least. Alvaro Morata has missed many chances, and Maurizio Sarri is not playing to cross the ball into the box. While Chelsea will have a large portion of possession, Man City will be too much to handle and score two goals in the second half. With not much fire power in the squad, the Blues will lose yet another Community Shield.
Khaled Abdallah: 2 – 2 (Chelsea win on penalties). Both teams are missing a sizable contingent of their stars from the World Cup, so expect a disjointed and open match with plenty of errors and goals to go around. It will be interesting to see how much Maurizio Sarri cares about this glorified friendly. Antonio Conte’s tracksuit and decision to let Thibaut Courtois take a penalty showed how little he cared about it last year, and it set the tone for the season. Winning it doesn’t mean anything, but not caring at all and losing it seems to.
Barrett Rouen: 3 – 2. Chelsea will play David Luiz, so Manchester City will score and after that the game will become a shootout. Then Caballero will also show how ridiculous his being with the team is. Alvaro Morata, now luckily free of Chelsea’s cursed #9, will score a brace and Callum Hudson-Odoi will come in with a goal at the end.
Kevin Peacock: 1 – 3. This one is just the toss of a coin really. The World Cup has savaged the Premier League’s pre-season preparations. Chelsea have hardly ventured out of second gear yet, and with the absence of 50% of Sarri’s strongest XI, Manchester City may in a better place right now. Recent appearances in this glorified kick-about by Chelsea have generally resulted in defeat, and it’s difficult to predict anything else but a win for Pep Guardiola’s champions.
It will be a good chance for Callum Hudson-Odoi to stretch his legs on the Wembley turf. Likewise for Ross Barkley, for whom a run out on the big stage will feel so good after a year of frustration and injury.Whatever the result Maurizio Sarri will be able to find plenty of positives. Pre-season specialist Pedro will grab Chelsea’s goal.