All The FA Community Shield Stats You Needed to Know About This Sunday

Looking for a cure to the pre-season blues? Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho’s persistent flirting in the tabloids got you wondering what will happen the next time Arsenal meet Chelsea? Not up to much this Sunday?

Good news in that case: the first major game of the season is here – finally – as last year’s respective FA Cup winners and Premier League champs go head-to-head at Wembley this weekend for the Community (née Charity) Shield.

Both teams are in red-hot form from pre-season, the blues having just toppled Barcelona on penalties, and should you want some nifty facts and figures to remind you how these sorts of games play out, Myvouchercodes.co.uk have rustled up an all-knowing infographic.

Packed with, stats about the history of the cup, it doesn’t look good reading for Gooners fans: 15 out of the last 23 Charity Shields have been won by the team that won the league, with only six having been won by FA Cup winners - though Arsenal did topple Manchester City in last year's fixture.

But there is good news for everyone in the fact it promises to be a goal-fest - In the Premier League era, the Charity Shield is anything but a dreary affair, averaging 2.91 goals a match since 1992. King Eric Cantona remains the highest scorer in the fixture with five goals, helped by a hat-trick for Leeds back in 1992.

And as for those verbal digs in the press, perhaps Mourinho noticed that Arsenal has a better win rate in the Community Shield, or that winning the charity shield has led to a good chunk of teams taking top position in the Premier League come the end of the season.

We’ll have to wait and see if those stats, ahem, Cech out.