First 'shield' duel between Ferguson and Mourinho

Last May, Manchester United and Chelsea brought the curtains down on a long domestic season in the first English FA Cup final played at the new Wembley Stadium with the Blues emerging triumphant 1-0 (Drogba).

Tomorrow, at the same venue, Premier League champions United and FA Cup winners Chelsea will meet again in the season's curtain-raiser - the FA Community Shield match.

This will be the first meeting between Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho in this one-off contest.

Chelsea, the last and first winners at Wembley since the reconstruction of the 'football temple', will be appearing in their third consecutive Shield match.

Since United won 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out against Chelsea in 1997, Ferguson's team lost five out of six of these duels, four of them consecutively between 1998 and 2001.

United, first victors of the 'Shield' in 1908 after beating Queens Park Rangers 4-0, top the all-time winners' list together with Arsenal - 11 honours each. United have also had to share the honours on four other occasions, while the Gunners have done so once.

Chelsea have participated in six Community Shield openers, winning three and losing three.

Since the Shield title was changed from Charity to Community in 2002, the five prizes were won by two London sides, Arsenal (twice) and Chelsea (once), and by the two Lancastrian giants Liverpool and Manchester United, who each won it once.

The last time a side outside London and Lancashire claimed the 'Shield' was when Yorkshire-based club Leeds United beat Liverpool 4-3 in 1992.

Third clash

This will be third clash between Chelsea and Manchester United in the campaign's curtain-raiser.

In 2000, Chelsea beat United 2-0 at Wembley, through goals by Hasselbaink and Melchiot. United's Roy Keane was sent off on that occasion midway through the second half.

None of the Chelsea players from that match are still on their books, but, in contrast, United still have Gary Neville, Silvestre, Scholes, Giggs and Solskjaer.

The other meeting between the two was played in 1997 with the Red Devils winning 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

Ex-United man Mark Hughes put Chelsea in front only for Ronnie Johnsen to draw level barely five minutes later. The match was decided by penalties, which were taken in the following sequence: Sinclair (saved) 0-0, Scholes 0-1, Zola 1-1, Irwin 1-2, Di Matteo (missed) 1-2, Keane 1-3, Leboeuf 2-4, Butt 2-4.

So, tomorrow Gary Neville, Scholes and Giggs have the chance to play in this third duel between the contenders, though Scholes is unlikely to feature due to a knee injury.

Ferguson vs Mourinho

Ferguson remarked that he believed it was time Mourinho changed his attitude and spoke less after the Portuguese himself vowed to stay out of trouble in his comments to the Press.

Since Mourinho took over at Chelsea, immediately after winning the Champions League with Porto in 2004, he crossed swords with Ferguson on nine occasions, being on the losing end only once as follows:

2006-07
(FA Cup): Chelsea-United 1-0
League: Chelsea-United 0-0
League: United-Chelsea 1-1

2005-06
League: Chelsea-United 3-0
League: United-Chelsea 1-0

2004-05
League: United-Chelsea 1-3
League Cup: United-Chelsea 1-2
League Cup: Chelsea-United 0-0
League: Chelsea-United 1-0

Almost £60m

Manchester United have raised many an eyebrow this summer with their lavish spending spree. They have spent a total of £57.9 million for the signing of Portuguese winger Nani (£17.3m), Brazil midfielder Anderson (£20.4m) and midfielder Owen Hargreaves (£20.2m).

This amount is likely to go up when, as expected, West Ham striker Carlos Tevez joins Ferguson's side this month.

Since the takeover by the Glazers, United have become English football's most heavily indebted club. Yet, they embarked on a Roman Abramovich-style spending spree since regaining the Premier League title from Chelsea after a lapse of four years.

United cashed in an astounding £87 million for the 29 matches played at the 76,000 capacity Old Trafford.

New American insurance giant AIG boosted the club's coffers with a cash injection of £14 million in their first season under the new sponsorship.

In contrast to Manchester United and their own spending in recent years, Chelsea have signed just three players on free transfers - Peruvian forward Claudio Pizarro from Bayern Munich, midfielder Steve Sidwell from Reading and Israeli defender Tal Ben Haim from Bolton.

The only fee they have had to pay so far this summer was £13m for French midfielder Florent Malouda, who signed from French champions Lyon.

Best paid Terry

The Chelsea fans were never in doubt that skipper John Terry would sign a new contract and his England team-mate Frank Lampard is expected to follow suit.

Terry signed a new five-year deal, reportedly making him England's highest paid player on wages of around £130,000-a-week.

Former Chelsea manager John Hollins expressed concern about the size of Terry's pay packet and warned the deal could hit the club's wage structure badly.

"What worries me is the others in the team, playing the same number of games - would they settle for £80-90,000 now?" he said.

Meanwhile, the issue of where Dutch winger Arjen Robben's future lies still has to be decided, since Real Madrid are again on the hunt for the Dutchman.