Kevin De Bruyne shines as Manchester City beat Liverpool to the Community Shield at Wembley
They say you can’t read too much into the Community Shield, especially when it’s won through the lottery of penalties, but Manchester City’s victory over Liverpool at Wembley still meant something.
The two sides returned to action after battling it out last season, matching each other goal for goal and result for result, only for City to clinch the trophy by a single point.
Only six of the last 20 Community Shield winners have gone onto win the league in the following season, but you certainly wouldn’t bet against Pep Guardiola’s side doing so in 2019-20.
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With both managers picking strong teams – Liverpool’s contained nine of those who won the Champions League final in May – it was a keenly fought contest from the start.
Both sides scored through well-worked set pieces – City through Raheem Sterling and Liverpool through substitute Joel Matip – but Mohamed Salah had more than enough chances to win it for Liverpool, having 10 of his team’s 16 attempts.
The worth of the piece of silverware is debatable, but the worth of laying the first punch on your closest competitors is undoubtable.
Sterling makes his mark
Sterling had failed to score against his former club in 10 attempts, but he was in the right place at the right time to turn in from David Silva’s pass early on.
The England forward was unaffected by the boos, looking sharp throughout as City dominated the opening stages.
After enjoying an incredible last season, in which he scooped multiple individual awards, he picked up where he left off at Wembley – a stone’s throw from where he grew up.
Rusty Reds defence
As good as Sterling and his City cohorts were, the open ebb and flow of the game owed a great deal to Liverpool’s creaky defence.
City ran amok time and again, sprinting clear only to spurn chances, or see some last-ditch defending deny them.
Liverpool have concluded their pre-season having kept just one clean sheet – against Tranmere in the first fixture – and while Jurgen Klopp won’t be overly worried, it is an area which clearly needs improvement.
The Reds conceded a league-best 22 goals last season and will hope to tighten things up when they begin their Premier League campaign against Norwich on Friday.
Kevin’s comeback
Manchester City managed to win the Premier League last season without one of their best, most influential players for the majority of it.
Kevin De Bruyne suffered a campaign blighted by injuries, missing 29 matches in 2018-19 through a mixture of problems.
At Wembley he was supreme, reminding Guardiola and City fans of his talents by constantly drifting into space and using the ball well to pick up the man of the match award.
His link-up play with Bernardo Silva down City’s right was a thorn in Liverpool’s side, with City exploiting the space afforded by Divock Origi, who was playing slightly out of position on the left of Liverpool’s 4-3-3.
If City can keep De Bruyne fit for the entirety of the coming campaign he can be the creative fulcrum alongside the two Silvas.
VAR taster menu
The spectre of new rules – and in particular the video assistant referee – looms large ahead of the Premier League season and we were treated to a taster of what’s to come at Wembley.
Guardiola became the first manager to receive a yellow card after lambasting referee Martin Atkinson for not spotting a high foot by Joe Gomez on David Silva. If the City boss picks up another three this season he will get a one-game touchline ban.
The Catalan coach’s emotional display came before a goal line technology check after a strike by Virgil van Dijk hit the crossbar and bounced down and a VAR check for a possible red card.
In the stadium nobody was any the wiser as the big screen announced no red card, before a minute later the screen showed it was Trent Alexander-Arnold who had received a let-off.
VAR felt the need to delay kick-off after Matip’s equaliser too. This season, get ready for a different kind of football.
Main image credit: Getty Images