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Ah, the FA Community Shield is here again. It’s the calm before the storm or the spark before the fire or the trailer before the movie. Well, you get the drift, don’t you? The Community Shield is a curtain raiser to the Premier League season.Although it is played as a ‘friendly’ between the League winners and the FA Cup winners of the previous season, there is pride at stake and therefore, the match usually promises to be an entertaining one. Why so? This is because, since 1995, there hasn’t been a Community Shield match without one of Arsenal, Manchester United or Chelsea. That’s two decades and counting.Will the Community Shield match between Arsenal and Chelsea promise to be an engaging affair or will it be a drab encounter? Let us hope that the match will be as exciting as these five memorable matches from Community Shield History -
#1 Manchester United 3-3 Tottenham, 1967
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When the opposition goalkeeper who conceded three goals against a Manchester United team comprising of Sir Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law steals the limelight, you can be certain that he must have done something amazing.
Manchester United found the back of the net thrice courtesy of a brace from Sir Bobby and one from Law. Charlton’s first goal was mesmerizing, but his second goal was beyond superlatives. Now you must be wondering how Tottenham’s goalkeeper Pat Jennings managed to steal the show.
The match is famous for Tottenham’s second goal, which was scored by Jennings! Yes, back in 1967, the goalkeeper scored a goal from his own half. With the ball in his hand, Jennings punted it forward and it landed in front of United’s counterpart Alex Stepney, bounced over his head and into the goal. This was quite remarkable back then because the balls were not as good as they are now.
Eventually, the Londoners managed to level the score at 3-3 and the shield was shared by the two sides.
#2 Liverpool 1-1 Leeds (6-5 on penalties), 1974
This particular match was a very important because of the two managers who have achieved a legendary status. The first was Bill Shankly who was leading his Liverpool side out for one last time as the club’s manager and the second was Brian Clough taking charge of Leeds United for the very first time during his short spell at Elland Road.
The game was the first Charity Shield match held at Wembley and also the first time that penalties were used to determine the winner. Liverpool emerged as winners in the shootout after the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
However despite the importance of the match for both managers, the game is remembered for what happened on the pitch.
Brian Clough had requested his team and especially Billy Bremner to play “good, clean attractive football, starting next week at the Charity Shield” as mentioned in the novel Damned United. Despite this Bremner got into a fight with Liverpool’s Kevin Keegan and they were both sent off, but not before Johnny Giles of Leeds punched Keegan. Bremner and Keegan missed 11 matches, as a result, but Giles got away with nothing but a bruised knee.
#3 Nottingham Forest 5-0 Ipswich, 1978
After his horrendous spell as the manager of Leeds, Brian Clough took charge of Nottingham Forest in 1975 and made them league champions in 1977/78.
Forest faced FA Cup winners Ipswich Town in the Charity Shield match in Wembley. Clough returned to the ground after four years and his side romped to a 5-0 win over Ipswich. Forest’s emphatic win is the biggest margin of victory in a Community Shield game.
Clough’s amazing run with Nottingham got better from there on as he made them back to back European Champions in 1979 and 1980. What is to be remembered is that when he took the job as Forest’s manager in 1975, they were 13th in the Second Division!
#4 Manchester United 1-1 Arsenal (5-4 on penalties), 1993
The 1993 Community Shield match was contested between Manchester United, the winners of the 1992/93 Premier League season and Arsenal, the winners of the 1993 FA Cup.
The game also marked the debut of Roy Keane who partnered the man of the match Paul Ince in midfield. United started the game brightly and scored within eight minutes through current Stoke City manager, Mark Hughes. However five minutes before the break, Arsenal capitalized on a mistake by Ryan Giggs and Ian Wright fired in a stunning volley to level the score.
The score remained unaltered at the end of ninety minutes and penalties were required to decide the winner.
Arsenal scored from their first four attempts while United missed the third kick taken by Denis Irwin, but converted their remaining kicks, which meant that Ian Wright could have won the game for Arsenal with the final kick, but Wright missed from the spot and the game went to sudden death.
Robson scored for United in sudden death and Arsenal’s goalkeeper David Seaman stepped up to take the decisive penalty. Seaman’s penalty was saved by his opposite number Peter Schmeichel and the Red Devils won the Shield.
#5 Manchester United 3-2 Manchester City, 2011
Fans of Manchester United like to remember Luis Nani as the prolific winger who could make world class defenders look like Sunday League players with his dribbling, a player who could put in crosses that ask to be converted into goals and a player who could also score amazing goals. In 2011, the Nani who didn’t get taken off at half-time was on display as Manchester United played their cross-town rivals in the Community Shield match.
David de Gea was making his Manchester United debut and got a good taste of English football as he was beaten twice by City in the first half through Joleon Lescott and Edin Dzeko.
United responded in the second half with a goal early in the half through Chris Smalling and then leveled the score in the 58th minute after Nani finished a brilliant passing move in style.
Then with penalties looming, Dzeko missed a late chance to head home and the resulting clearance was not dealt with by Clichy and Kompany at the other end. Nani latched on the ball, ran almost the entire length of the pitch, rounded off the keeper and tapped the ball into the net in the 94th minute to seal the victory.
