The Community Shield is often dismissed as nothing more than a pre-season friendly, but this year it really is.
It’s incredible that Arsenal are back at Wembley in the same month they were there winning the FA Cup, and that the season curtain-raiser is just six days after the Champions League Final.
Arsenal and Liverpool have barely returned to pre-season and their fast turnaround shows how the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted not only last season’s schedule, but the new term, too.
Indeed, when Mikel Arteta was asked yesterday what shape his squad are in for on Saturday he had to stifle a laugh.
“We’ve had two training sessions,” he said. “So you can imagine that this game comes straight in the middle of our mini pre-season.
“But as well we haven’t had much time to lose a lot of the condition. Obviously, it’s not an ideal moment to play in this final, but the players are motivated.”
As Arteta alludes to, the timing of this game is hardly suitable for Arsenal or Liverpool, nor would it be for any other side.
Clubs are being impacted by players returning from holiday and having to quarantine, while news yesterday that Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba and eight Chelsea players have tested positive for Covid-19 shows the extent the virus is still a threat.
Arsenal and Liverpool are unlikely to be at full strength, with players’ minutes being carefully managed as they begin pre-season.
The Community Shield can fill fans with a sense of anticipation for the new campaign that has been dampened coming so hot on the heels of the previous season.
Instead, Saturday truly feels like a pre-season friendly and a match both Arteta and Jurgen Klopp will hope to come through unscathed.
The one shining light could be that the occasion is an opportunity for a young player to shine, with strikers Eddie Nketiah and Rhian Brewster two contenders.
Both players had spells in the Championship last term, Nketiah, 21, spent the first part of the campaign at title-winners Leeds before returning to feature in Arsenal’s first team, while 20-year-old Brewster made an impact at Swansea.
In truth, though, this match really typifies what football has become in the Covid-19 era — a game with no fans and part of a packed schedule.
That is, of course, no one’s fault and as we begin what promises to be arguably the busiest season ever, we should brace ourselves for what lies ahead.
The end of last season was fast and furious and the fact the new campaign is just 34 days after the Premier League ended suggests this one will be no different.
Arteta and Klopp will just both be hoping they can start it on the front foot on Saturday.
