Date: Sunday, 10th August Venue: Wembley Stadium Kick-Off: 15:00 (BST)
Team News
Arsenal are without About Diaby after yet another injury set-back to the French midfielder. New goalkeeper David Ospina is also still on the sidelines and will therefore be available.
The Gunners World Cup winning trio of Per Mertesaker, Mesut Ozil and Lukas Podolski are still on extended leave following the tournament in Brazil and will not feature tomorrow.
Frank Lampard will not make his Manchester City debut following his loan arrival from New York City FC and none of the World Cup players that arrived back this week will feature- which includes former Gunner Bacary Sagna.
Alvaro Negredo is unavailable due to injury.
Likely Arsenal Line-Up
Szczesny; Debuchy, Chambers, Koscielny, Gibbs; Arteta, Ramsey, Cazorla; Campbell, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sanchez
Match Preview
Arsenal find themselves back in the showcase even that kick-starts the English season for the first time in years, as they finally ended their trophy drought with an FA Cup victory last season. For this match, the Gunners return to the Wemlbey stadium that brought them fond memories in May.
However, their opponents Manchester City are a different class to the Wigan Athletic and Hull City sides that the Gunners defeated at the home of English football last season. The Premier League champions have a squad overflowing with stars and their squad depth is a great danger to Arsenal.
That said, Manchester City were unconvincing last season and the title eventually went down to who made the least mistakes. Arsene Wenger believes his side are no longer poor comparisons to the City squad and will be looking to back up his claims tomorrow afternoon.
Arsenal and Manchester City seemed to have swapped roles this transfer window, with the Citizens bringing in a few players without making much of a splash, while the Gunners spend big and add top names to their squad- most notable a Chilean by the name of Alexis Sanchez.
Wenger’s new-look side faces a baptism of fire tomorrow and the have only played three pre-season games, with many of their squad lacking match fitness. This game may come one week too early for Arsenal but with a potential 120 minutes and possibly a penalty shoot-out in front of them, they have a chance to secure another trophy.
Key Stats
Arsenal have won just one of their last eight games against Manchester City in all competitions, drawing just three of those and losing the other four.
In the past eight league meetings between the two giants there have been six red cards, four of which belong to Manchester City.
Arsenal have not contested a Community Shield at Wembley this side of the millennium, with their last coming in 1999 where they beat Manchester United 2-1- whilst City have never won the trophy at Wembley.
The Gunners have lost four of their last six games at Wembey stadium, with the only two positive notes in that run coming last season with the penalty shoot-out victory over Wigan and the final against Hull City.