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Community Shield Chelsea vs Manchester United

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Guest Randy Orton

Guest Randy Orton

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The winners of England's top flight take on the winners of the FA Cup, as they have done since 1908, although on Sunday Manchester United's opponents, nearly one hundred years after the first Charity Shield are Chelsea rather than their west London rivals QPR.It is our first chance to cast an eye over the two teams priced by the bookmakers to be frontrunners in the new Premier League campaign.Manchester United have been very busy in the transfer market since winning the league back in May and potentially every single one of their new players will turn out to be a great signing. Sir Alex Ferguson aims to secure United's future.When you think of the age of Owen Hargreaves (26), Nani (20) and Anderson (19), Sir Alex has signed players that he will hope to have at the club for at least another five or six years.It appears that he has asked his board to give him the money for the long-term future and from here on it will be a case of tinkering, bringing in the odd player or squad player to keep them ticking over, but this will be the nucleus of the squad that he hopes will be another great United side.Fire powerWhile the strength in depth is increased by these signings the one worry that I have about United is their fire power - with potentially long-term injuries to Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, and Alan Smith seemingly on his way out of the club behind Guiseppe Rossi.Wayne Rooney's quality is beyond doubt and we will have to wait and see if Carlos Tevez joins him at Old Trafford, although I am not so sure that they make an ideal partnership. They are very similar types of players.If Saha can't sustain 20 plus games in the Premiership then there would be a worry that United would rely, not so much on Rooney, but on players like Ronaldo. Rooney didn't get all of the goals last year, it was Ronaldo and to ask the kid to have the same sort of season that he had last year is a massive demand on him.To score another 15 plus goals is asking a great deal of Ronaldo and if I were a United fan, looking at my team for the season, I would feel that the manager has done a great job by getting three very good players in, and maybe a fourth in Tevez, but what about up front? Where is the variation? Where is the crutch for Rooney?It could be that Sir Alex and Carlos Queiroz have devised a formula of playing with Rooney alone up front, supported from deep by Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, Nani, Anderson, Michael Carrick, Hargreaves and Ryan Giggs. Sunday will be our first chance to see how they shape up and I look forward to seeing that.African absenteesThe debate in the Chelsea camp is less about options up front and more about strength at the back and what effect a couple of injuries to the back four would have on their hopes again.I am less worried about that eventuality than last season with Tal Ben Haim now at Stamford Bridge. I like him; he is a fantastic player who did a brilliant job at Bolton, playing right across the back four.Chelsea would be very unlucky to pick up the same sort of injury problems as last year. They were very unlucky to lose the goalkeepers and the centre backs. It would be too much of a coincidence for that to happen again. They might have the odd injury to John Terry or Ricardo Carvalho and they might pick up the odd suspension at some time in the season, but unless something goes drastically wrong and they are unlucky, they will have those two for most of the season.What worries me more about Chelsea is the African Cup of Nations. It pops up again this season and will deny them of two of their best players in Didier Drogba and Michael Essien, and maybe Salomon Kalou as well.If I were Jose Mourinho I would be more concerned about definitely losing those players than maybe sustaining injuries.Claudio Pizarro will take on the Drogba role but will he be good enough and have the influence that Drogba has enjoyed? I would doubt that he will be as good as Drogba was last year.They will be looking for a hugely improved contribution from Andrei Shevchenko and Michael Ballack. Their two big hitters had really poor first seasons, but I think Drogba had a poor first season too, and Mourinho will telling them both that they have had their chance to stick their toes in the water.They have had a season in England, they are both hugely experienced players - two of the best in Europe - now it is time to show the Premiership why they were bought.Steve Sidwell will do well to play a lot of games as he has been brought in to bolster the squad. It is a big move for him and whether he will get enough football to satisfy his drive, I don't know. If they have a fit squad, I don't see him being in the side.I like Florent Malouda; he is fabulous footballer and has had a good upbringing at Lyon and should Arjen Robben leave, they have a wide player who can just step in. I would try to keep Robben because over the last two years the best Chelsea team has been the one with two, genuine wide men playing... Robben and Damian Duff.We will see how the new signings work out and we will see on Sunday, for the first time, whether Jose Mourinho will be true to his word and be more mellow. I don't know about mellow, although it would be nice if he were more humble.I like him though, I always have done, the good and the bad. Sometimes he has let himself down but I think he knows that and he has learned from it. I hope he doesn't stop all the mind games though because we love it!Let Fergie and him and Benitez and Wenger keep going. Mourinho has started it already by telling Benitez he has to win the league or he will get sacked. It is part and parcel of the game here and you don't get it anywhere else in the world.Beating the big fourI am looking forward to the new season more than I have for a long time. The big boys are going to be tough to break in to but I like what teams such as Tottenham, Newcastle, Blackburn, Everton and Pompey with Harry are trying to do to break into the quartet.They have made big investments, looking for improvement, and I am impressed with how they are trying to close the gap on the big four. My hope, for the neutral's sake, is that the big boys don't get it all their own way this season because it would be brilliant to see them scrapping for the title and the Champions League places nine months after this weekend's curtain raiser

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