Manchester City and Leicester City to Meet in Community Shield

Leicester City vs Manchester City - 07/08/2021

FA Community Shield | Preview

06/08/21

Manchester City and Leicester City to Meet in Community Shield

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The start of the 2021/22 English Premier League season is fast approaching and on Saturday the 7th of August Manchester City and Leicester City meet in the FA Community Shield.

This is the traditional curtain raiser for the Premier League season and the game will be played at Wembley Stadium between the winners of the Premier League and the FA Cup.

Gundo's back, back again! 🙌🎱

🔷 #ManCity | https://t.co/axa0klD5re pic.twitter.com/eOEVH4se7G
— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 4, 2021

Manchester City have played in 5 of the past 10 Community Shield games, so they know exactly what to expect from the occasion.

The Citizens have played three friendly matches in the build up to the new season and have recorded victories in all three games.

They beat Preston North End 2-0, Barnsley 4-0, and Blackpool 4-1. It is fair to say this match against Leicester City is going to be tougher than any of those matches but player fitness is more important than results in pre-season.

This will be the third Community Shield appearance for Manchester City in four years and they won each of their last two games in the competition.

However, and it is worth noting the most recent match, in 2019 against Liverpool, finished 1-1 at full-time and the game was decided from the penalty spot.

Manchester City have kept just a single clean sheet in their last 8 Community Shield appearances, so strong defensive displays is clearly not their forte in this game.

Leicester City have been busy playing friendly matches in pre-season and they have one more fixture to play, against Villarreal, before this match.

The Foxes will be hoping to record a victory in that fixture as at the time of writing they have failed to win any of their pre-season games.

Leicester City have been held to a draw by Burton Albion and Queens Park Rangers plus suffered a 1-0 defeat at Wycombe Wanderers.

However, Brendan Rodgers will not be concerned by the results and player fitness ahead of this game and the opening fixture of the Premier League season is the priority.

Leicester City last played in this fixture in 2016 following their Premier League title but they were defeated 2-1 by Manchester United.

Interestingly, that is one of 4 Community Shield matches played to have seen both teams score in the last 5 played.

Looking ahead to the team news and Manchester City are expected to be without Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling, John Stones, Ederson, Gabriel Jesus, and Kyle Walker due to their international exploits over the summer. However, Riyad Mahrez, Ilkay Gundogan and Ruben Dias could all play.

Leicester City have the majority of their squad back in training, including Belgian midfielder Youri Tielemans. Patson Daka could start in attack following his £23 million move from Red Bull Salzburg.

As has always been the case in recent Community Shield matches, we expect this to be a close game and both teams to score.