Back home for Shield encounter

The City kit boss and former Latics star writes every week for Chron Sport

AFTER whistle-stop tours of Austria and Asia, all eyes are now on Sunday’s Community Shield clash with Chelsea at Villa Park.

It is sure to be tough against a Chelsea side packed with world class players.

They have added to their FA Cup and European Cup-winning squad over the summer and it should be a good match.

The friendlies were played on two different fronts this summer due to many of our players’ involvement in Euro 2012.

They returned later than the others after well-deserved breaks, which meant several high-profile lads were training and playing in this country while others were on the tours.

I missed the game against my old club, Athletic, but I believe it was a good atmosphere at Boundary Park.

I am sure it was nice for the supporters to see the likes of Joe Hart, Joleon Lescott and James Milner in action, along with Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy and Nigel De Jong.

As for the two overseas trips, the standard of opposition improved in Asia following the Austrian fixtures.

We enjoyed a particularly good 2-0 win over Barclays Premier League rivals Arsenal, with Yaya Toure and Pablo Zabaleta on target.

It is easy to forget that ‘Zaba’ actually got on the scoresheet on the day we won the title with that surreal 3-2 victory over QPR in May.






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