The Community Shield, the much-anticipated pre-season feast of the English Premier League, is about to kick off with the much-anticipated "Manchester City Clash". The showdown between Premier League champions Manchester City and English soccer champions Manchester United will take place at Wembley Stadium. Both sides have been performing moderately well in their pre-season warm-up matches, especially in the defensive end, but the number of goals scored in recent matches has improved significantly, and both sides are expected to break their goal drought again in today's match and achieve the 3.5-goal mark.
Currently, the City lineup is being tweaked a lot. Defensive players such as Stones, Rubin Dyas, Keir Canada, Niton Aki and Lodikas Jandy have been rested after playing in European national competitions. If they can avoid playing in any warm-up matches, their form is expected to pick up quickly. However, the rookies have been guilty of a lot of defensive lapses in City's recent matches, with the team relying heavily on Aynin Xalant to initiate the offense while being slightly weak on the defensive end. In the past four warm-up matches, City scored more than four goals in total.
In comparison, Manchester United's performance was slightly better. Newly joined French defender Yoro has yet to recover from surgery, while Vidal and Dilouf also missed pre-match training due to injuries. After returning from the Copa America, Martinez is expected to quickly integrate into the team, but the defense will still face a shortage. Nonetheless, United's counterattacking ability should not be underestimated, and new striker Joshua Shukes is expected to set the team up for a fierce confrontation with City in the match, with a big value of 3.5 goals to look forward to.
