Arsenal v Manchester City to open Community Shield in Cardiff as athletics action continues in Birmingham
Arsenal and Manchester City meet in the Community Shield at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff this weekend, while the penultimate and final nights of athletics take place at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, with live coverage across the Guardian’s Matchday and athletics blogs.
The Community Shield is being staged at the Principality Stadium for the first time since 2006, when Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-1, and this year pits the league champions against the FA Cup winners in Cardiff rather than Wembley because four nights of concerts from the Weeknd were more lucrative. Last year’s curtain-raiser at Wembley saw Liverpool lose on penalties to Crystal Palace after a 2-2 draw, an outcome that featured Mohamed Salah missing the opening kick and followed the death of Diogo Jota.
Matchday live will carry comprehensive football coverage across the leagues, with Emillia Hawkins reporting on the fallout from Friday night’s Wolves v Blackburn Championship opener and offering transfer updates for men’s and women’s football. Scott Murray will file reports from the Riverside and other grounds, with early League One action including Leicester’s second season at that level starting at playoff-winning Notts County.
Saturday’s lower-league schedule includes a Bolton v Preston derby and a broad set of League One and League Two fixtures, with Middlesbrough v Lincoln highlighted among the Championship pick of the day; Lincoln have not played at this level since 1961. Readers are invited to send thoughts and tips to matchday.live@theguardian.com, including on Watford v Southampton and Burnley v West Ham.
Sky has labelled the weekend’s Championship fixture a claret-and-blue derby and Burnley’s opening league game will be the first in English football for their new manager, the Belgian Nicky Hayen, described in the coverage as taking up his 12th role in 13 years. Nuno Espírito Santo is noted as taking charge in the away dugout for West Ham, with the report saying Burnley have spent five years moving between the top two divisions and that the visitors face turmoil both in the boardroom and on the pitch; Tim de Lisle and Will Unwin will contribute reporting.
Athletics in Birmingham reaches its climax across the last two evenings, with the men’s 100m relay scheduled for 9.33pm following a British one-two in the individual sprint by Romell Glave and Jeremiah Azu. Amy Hunt, described as the women’s double sprint gold medallist, is set to target relay success a quarter of an hour later. Other British entries named in the coverage include Amber Anning in the women’s 400m at 8.10pm, Jake Wightman in the men’s 1500m at 9.07pm and Georgia Hunter Bell in the women’s 1500m at 9.13pm.
Relay events slated for the final night include the mixed 4x100m at 8.35pm, the women’s 4x400m with Amber Anning expected to feature 15 minutes before the men’s 4x400m, which is scheduled for 9.48pm and notes Britain has the individual champion in Matt Hudson-Smith. Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis is listed for pole vault action starting from 7.30pm. Sean Ingle and Luke McLaughlin will report from Birmingham, with Billy Munday running the live blog.
Emillia Hawkins will return after her Saturday morning shift to review the day’s action and preview an afternoon that includes the Community Shield in Cardiff; Rob Smyth will provide minute-by-minute coverage of Arsenal v Manchester City while Ben Fisher and Ed Aarons report from the Welsh capital.