Sunday, sunny Sunday. It’s the height of the one-week-long English summer and already we are awaiting the start of another frantic 10-month football season.
Arsenal, unbeaten on their way to the Premiership title last season, take on arch-rivals Manchester United, convincing winners of the FA Cup, in the Community Shield ‘friendly†at Cardiff’s Millennium stadium.
And what a strange game it promises to be. The spine of the Arsenal team resembles the Hunchback of Notre Dame’s twisted frame: England centre-half Sol Campbell, superb at Euro 2004 during the summer, is out with an Achilles problem picked up during the tournament, a problem which has left Highbury boss Arsène Wenger fuming with the already troubled FA.
Patrick Vieira, the heart and soul of these glorious Gunners, is set to go to Real Madrid, but only if he can shake off the thigh strain which has dogged him since France’s ignominious exit from the tournament in Portugal.
And, as if those two weren’t about to leave a gaping hole in Wenger’s planned starting line-up, Thierry Henry is also struggling with a sore Achilles tendon after Euro 2004.
I’m told Cameroon midfielder Lauren will fill in for Campbell at the back, with Côte d’Ivoire utility man Kolo Touré moviong up to fill the void left by Vieira … or it could be the other way around, with Lauren playing in midfield and Touré at the back.
With Martin Keown off to Leicester to learn the intricacies of coaching and Ray Parlour sold to Middlesbrough to help pay off his ex-wife’s historic divorce settlement, some of the old hole-pluggers are gone.
Up front, lanky Nigerian Nwankwo Kanu has gone for free to West Brom, leaving Jose Antonio Reyes, the record Spanish striker signed for about £16-million in the middle of last season, to partner the ageless (but less mobile) Dennis Bergkamp.
Hardly what Arsenal would have hoped for at the start of the season.
Manchester United, who beat PSV Eindhoven 1-0 at Old Trafford on Tuesday night, are still reeling from Paul Scholes’s international retirement, though canny Scot Sir Alex Ferguson said his ginger whinger ‘won’t miss much†by opting out of England duty at 29.
I guess the important thing to watch in what remains essentially a friendly will be the new boys.
Robin van Persie, Arsenal’s Dutch winger, will be 21 on Friday, yet already he is hated in his homeland.
As a fiery competitor for Feyenoord, he has attracted a lot of ill-feeling from Ajax fans … apparently Rotterdam and Amsterdam feel the same way about each other as Manchester and Liverpool.
Van Persie, just called in to the Dutch senior squad, is known for being mouthy and arrogant, so he should fit in well at Arsenal, where the team ethic verges on paranoia, though I’m told Wenger has told his youngster to keep calm in the face of likely provocation from United.
But then the Red Devils’s £7-million signing, Alan Smith, can be a little troublesome, too. One of a million players who deserted financially stricken Leeds after their relegation last season, Smith will be glad Vieira is out, but he’s sure to pick a fight with someone, anyone, as he strives to prove himself in a red shirt.
Whatever the outcome in front of 70 000 on Sunday — and I think United will triumph — Arsenal fans are growing increasingly concerned about the quality of their signings this summer. With rumours that Swede Freddie Ljungberg may be off, Mathieu Flamini, the 20-year-old midfielder signed from Marseille, may be about to step up.
And United will be more worried about their opening Premiership clash at Chelsea, which is sandwiched between two Champions League qualifiers against Romania’s Dinamo Bucharest .
There have been great Charity/ Community Shield clashes in the past. In 1974 Kevin Keegan and Billy Bremner were both sent off and threw their shirts away as Liverpool and Leeds drew 1-1.
Best I can recall was 1992, when Leeds beat Liverpool 4-3 and Eric Cantona scored a hat-trick.
Sadly, don’t expect too much on Sunday.