Premier League champions Manchester City take on FA Cup winners Arsenal in the Community Shield match at Wembley Stadium, tomorrow.

The season’s curtain-raiser will be the first for City manager Manuel Pellegrini while Arsene Wenger, his Arsenal counterpart, is starting his 19th season with the London club. This will be the Frenchman’s fifth Community Shield match.

The Community Shield rep-laced the Charity Shield in 2002 but the contest was moved to the start of the season in 1959.

If City win, the Shield will end up in Manchester for the fifth year running.

2013 – Man. United vs Wigan 2-0.
2012 – Man. City vs Chelsea 3-2.
2011 – Man. Utd vs Man. City 3-2.
2010 – Man. Utd vs Chelsea 3-1.

Tomorrow’s showdown in north London will be the 15th encounter between teams from Lancashire and London in the last 18 years.

Arsenal have won the Shield outright or shared it on 12 occasions, the last in 2004 when they beat Manchester United 3-1 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. City held it aloft on four occasions.

City and Arsenal have only met in the season-opener once before, way back in 1934. On that occasion, league champions Arsenal trounced FA Cup winners City 4-0 in Highbury.

In the Premier League last season, the Citizens won 6-3 at home and the spoils were shared (1-1) at the Emirates Stadium.

Both City and Arsenal have protested with the FA after being allocated 26,000 tickets only for a combined total of 52,000 in a stadium that has a capacity of 90,000.

While the rush for new signings is still going on in the Premier League, two new players can make their official debut tomorrow.

Arsenal have beaten Liverpool in the race for the signature of Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona.

The Chilean forward, born in December 1988, cost the Londoners £25m.

After making his senior debut with Cobrolea, Sanchez was transferred to Serie A club Udinese in 2006. In his 95 appearances for the Italian side (2006-2011) he scored 20 goals.

In 2011, Udinese sold Sanchez to Barcelona for £25m, a record transfer fee for a Chilean player.

Manchester City are likely to parade Fernando, the Brazilian midfielder who joined the Premier League champions from Porto for £12 million last month.

Fernando had also been linked with City in January but the transfer failed to materialise.

UK soccer fixtures

The Championship
Brentford-Charlton
Brighton-Sheffield Wed.
Derby County-Rotherham
Huddersfield-Bournemouth
Ipswich-Fulham - 18:15
Middlesbrough-Birmingham
Millwall-Leeds
Nottm Forest-Blackpool
Watford-Bolton
Wigan-Reading

Tomorrow:
Wolves-Norwich - 17.00

League One
Barnsley-Crawley
Bradford-Coventry
Colchester-Oldham
Fleetwood-Crewe
Leyton Orient-Chesterfield
MK Dons-Gillingham
Port Vale-Walsall
Preston-Notts County
Rochdale-Peterborough
Sheff. Utd-Bristol City - 13.15
Swindon-Scunthorpe
Yeovil-Doncaster

League Two
Accrington-Southend
AFC Wimbledon-Shrewsbury
Bury-Cheltenham
Cambridge-Plymouth
Carlisle-Luton
Dagenham-Morecambe
Exeter-Portsmouth
Newport-Wycombe
Northampton-Mansfield
Oxford-Burton
Stevenage-Hartlepool
Tranmere-York

Tomorrow - Community Shield
Manchester City-Arsenal - 16.00 (at Wembley Stadium)