Former Premier League winner Martin Keown expects there to be a bit of ‘edge’ to Sunday’s Community Shield final between Manchester City and Liverpool.
The two teams who finished first and second in the Premier League will square off at Wembley Stadium with the chance to send an early message to their title rivals. Chris Sutton, however, disagrees with Keown that the players will be bothered about the game.
“They won’t see it as just another outing and chance to stretch their legs,” Keown told the Daily Mail. “These players are professionals and, believe me, they will want to win. They will want to give their title rival an early taste of what they are about. I think there will be an edge to this encounter.”
“I don’t think clubs take it seriously,” Sutton retorted. “Managers just use it as part of their pre-seasons. If you lose, you shrug your shoulders. If you win, it’s a quick hurrah then back to the league. The worst that can happen is one side gets thumped by the other and it comes across as a statement ahead of the new season.”
OPINION
This is an interesting debate, isn’t it? The players and managers involved will obviously say the right things about this being a competitive game and a chance to send an early statement that they are for real in this season’s Premier League title race. However, we know both City and Liverpool will be challenging for the silverware this campaign, and nothing that happens in this game – bar a serious injury to a key player – will likely have any impact on that. Keown, though, expects there to be some ‘edge’ between two sets of players who will be keen to show the others what they are all about. It’s difficult to say whether that will turn out to be true, though. No one will want to go full throttle and risk getting injured for the start of the new season, so we may see something of a glacial pace here compared to what we would see in a proper league or cup game. Still, it’s a chance for silverware and so both teams will be keen to win it, in theory at least.
