Sunday, 12 August 2012

Community Shield Preview - MCFC v CFC


New Chelsea signing Marko Marin will miss the Community Shield against Manchester City on Sunday.

The summer signing from Werder Bremen has been suffering with a hamstring injury for several days and will sit out the curtain-raiser at Villa Park.

Chelsea have no other injury concerns for the match.

Gareth Barry and Micah Richards are ruled out of the Manchester City squad due to injury but Vincent Kompany is expected to recover from a calf injury.

Midfielder Barry, 31, has failed to recover from the hip injury that kept him out of Euro 2012.

He had a hernia operation last month and is hopeful of being fit for the start of the new Premier League season.

Defender Richards hurt his ankle in Great Britain's Olympic quarter-final defeat by South Korea.

Kompany was forced to fly home from his club's Far East tour with a calf complaint.

Manchester City go into the traditional season curtain-raiser as champions for the first time in 44 years and boss Roberto Mancini has his focus set on the Premier League opener against Southampton.

"If in the end we win the Premier League it is better we lose against Chelsea, but it is important that we try to win because we have not won this cup for a long time and we want to start the season with a victory.

"We know it will not be easy. Chelsea are a strong team."

Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo is keen to claim more silverware following his side's Champions League final win over Bayern Munich in May.

"There are plenty of trophies to win this season," he said. "We have a very driven team of players and they are never satisfied with what they've done in the past.

"It's a fresh start for us. It won't be a problem from that point of view. There are a couple of trophies our players have never won, and challenging for the Premier League, too.

"We finished sixth last season and I don't think anybody is happy with that. We certainly have to do better."




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