The new English season begins the same month that the last season ended.
For Arsenal, in particular, change has been swift.
In the last national match of the 2019–20 campaign, extended during the pandemic, Arsenal won the FA Cup by beating Chelsea 2–1 in an empty stadium at Wembley on 1 August.
And it’s at the national stadium, still without spectators, where Arsenal players return four weeks later to face Liverpool in the Community Shield, the classic updrop of the season between Premier League winners and the FA Cup.
“We’re in a position to go,” Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta said. “We have no choice.”
To say that this “is not an ideal time to play this final” is the euphemism of Arteta, who reported on Thursday that Arsenal had so far had two educational sessions in what he called a “mini pre-season”.
For the Spanish coach, this is just one example of how his team, and the rest of the Premier League, is heading into the unknown in an upcoming season that will be in a hurry for a month due to last season’s extension following the coronavirus outbreak.
“The slow COVID era, then full of gas,” said Arteta, whose positive coronavirus control led to the Premier League suspension in March. “You may see the injury rates and everything has gone mad. So we don’t know (what’s going to happen this season).
“We will protect players as much as possible and give them everything we can from a clinical and physical point of view to put them in the most productive conditions imaginable.
But even then, who can prepare the groups for what they will face in the coming season? Take a look at the calendar and a little more midweek for clubs that need to explore as many competitions as possible.
These clubs come with Liverpool and Arsenal. So they may have done so with a few more weeks to, as Arteta says, “take our minds away from football.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said Friday that he would preferably have liked six weeks to prepare for the new season. Instead, it’s a four-week preseason for English champions that is interrupted by a break abroad for the League of Nations qualifiers.
“I’d be very surprised if it’s the most productive game we’re going to play this season,” Klopp said.
“No one complains,” he added, referring to the global pandemic situation, “because we are pleased to be able to play.”
After all, a trophy is in play on Saturday, and for Liverpool, it’s not a new position to occupy. Winning the Champions League in June 2019 started a 13-month era in which Klopp’s team also won the Club World Cup and then the English League for the first time in 30 years.
The vision of Jordan Henderson’s cutlery, with his now iconic stuttering steps, along with his jubilant Liverpool teammates, is what English football enthusiasts are getting used to.
Henderson won’t be on the court at Wembley, not as a player, anyway, as he hasn’t had a full education since he injured his knee in the final weeks of last season.
Otherwise, it will be the Liverpool team that everyone knows about, being Klopp’s only low-season signing Kostas Tsimikas of Olympiakos, who will be the replacement for Andrew Robertson.
Arsenal is more active in the play market, as it hired Brazilian winger Willian in a single play after leaving Chelsea and about to bring Brazilian central defender Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille. Defenders Cedric Soares and Pablo Mari have also teamed up to secure permanent settlements, while central defender William Saliba is in the team after joining Saint-Etienne last July before being loaned to French club for the season.
The biggest “signature” for Arsenal, however, would be for striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to reach a new deal, the current one expiring at the end of next season.
After all, it was Aubameyang who scored the goals in the FA Cup final, which means Arsenal is back at Wembley this weekend.
“Players are motivated,” Arteta said. “It’s a chance to win a trophy and we’re leaving.”
The Liverpool-Arsenal setting will be preceded at Wembley through the women’s Community Shield between Manchester City and Chelsea. This is the first time men’s and women’s fites have been played in a row, and this is the first time women’s fites have been played at Wembley.
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Steve Douglas is in https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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