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Manchester City

From yet another Manchester Derby weekend this time for the pre-season Community Sheid trophy at Wembley Stadium, this match went the other way round via penalty shootouts between two of the recent English Football champions – 23/24 Premier League winners Manchester City and 23/24 FA Cup winners Manchester United.

Man Utd as always got away with the scoresheets first that late thanks to substitute winger Alejandro Garnacho off the right flank. But then a fellow attacking sub at the opposite end of Bernardo Silva went on to quickly rebound a few mins later for Man City that held their Manchester rivals back after a long 90-100 mins of normal time followed by another half-hour’s play as the game had to be decided via penalties at 1-1 apiece. 

Man City were so close towards closing out another FA triumph when they capped off their inconsistent season with the FA Cup back in May that would mean a direct entry into the Europa League group stages, but then a series of late penalty misses unfortunately paved the way for Man City to end their years-long drought with that trophy plate since 2019 by 8-7. That was close there by Man Utd who thought the Community Shield trophy would be theirs that would mean yet another trophy for head coach Erik Ten Hag after all the stick he’s getting since he first took over back in the summer of 2022. There’s still a long way to go when it comes to winning back the Premier League title with Sir Richard Ratcliffe onboard as their minor owner and Man Utd hasn’t done that since Sir Alex Ferguson retired after he finished his long decorated career on a high back in 2013.

Meanwhile, great to see Man City lift the Community Shield plate having bounced back from behind when things were so quiet for the most part on what has been a terrific comeback to enter the new Premier League season with a trophy. Gotta say the late subs as well as their excellent penalty kicking options after holding back Man Utd worked well on their favour. 

Yes, it won’t an easy one for sure as seen over the last few Premier League seasons when you got Arsenal sniffing around top spot thanks to his student Mikel Arteta. But they’ve been there and done that by covering themselves in glory over the last decade or so and Man City will surely want to be the best by winning every completion they’ve got available across the whole of England, then Europe and also the World, especially with the proper Club World Cup happening in mid-2025.

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It’s been a very different FA Cup Final on this Manchester arch-rivalry overnight at Wembley Stadium in London – also host of next Sunday morning’s UEFA Champions League Final between Borussia Dortmund & Real Madrid. It’s not Manchester City who couldn’t defend their crown but instead it went to Manchester United whose great start with two goals in the first half was enough to stop City from catching up as the game goes on despite seeing the late opposition goal in the end 2-1.

Interestingly enough, Man Utd now won both men’s and women’s tournaments all in the same season after the women also went one better a few weeks ago v Tottenham Hotspur 4-0. Surprise, Surprise there as City thought they can win this but seems they really need to hang on that Premier League trophy that left Arsenal settle second best once again after another Champions League shortcoming run in the Quarter-Finals. So no European Football at least for the Conference League spot unfortunately for Newcastle United despite finishing 7th with Chelsea getting the nod in 6th despite parting ways with their head coach. And Man Utd will be back alongside Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham (who finished 5th) in the Europa League for the first time since 2022-23 having played in the Champions League last season (unfortunately last in their pool group).

However, an underwhelming league performance still in 8th and a change of hands within minor upper management recently meaning they could see a brand new manager next season. Someone who won this and then get given the flick has happened before, so no surprise if this will happen again but this is a club who is a long way off from the good old glory days.

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