Roberto Mancini Expects 'Lucky' Chelsea to Threaten Manchester City for Title

In a recent interview with The Daily Telegraph, Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini revealed that he expects their opponents in tomorrow's Community Shield to be one of their biggest rivals in terms of retaining their Barclays Premier League crown this year.

The Italian, who led City to their first league title in 44 years at the expense of bitter rivals Manchester United last season, also went on to say that Chelsea's victory in the UEFA Champions League was a lucky one.

Mancini said:

"

For sure they will be more of a threat. They have bought young players and also good players.

I said a lot of times that the Champions League is a really strange competition. It is important you have a good team because you play against the best teams in the world.

But you should also be lucky when you arrive from the moment you arrive in the quarterfinal. Maybe Chelsea deserved to win the Champions League five years ago, but they won it last year.

"

Certainly Mancini is not wrong in regards to the greatly strengthened Chelsea side.

This summer has seen a plethora of young and experienced talents brought in to Stamford Bridge, in an effort to improve on the dismal sixth-place finish that saw Chelsea scrape into the Champions League virtue of being defending champions.

Marko Marin, Oscar and the Hazard brothers mean that this has been Chelsea's busiest summer in a fair few seasons.

Fernando Torres also looks to be back on top form ahead of the new season, with several impressive outings for the Spanish national side during Euro 2012—which eventually saw him go on to become the tournament's golden-boot winner.

Chelsea's back-four partnership saw three of England's regular four defenders prove to be a stalwart one from January onwards last season (when Gary Cahill came in to fill the void at centre-back).

As for Midfield talents, new signings aside, Chelsea have the likes of European Champion Juan Mata and Brazilian superstar Ramires to carry them forward. Not to mention Stamford Bridge legend Frank Lampard.

All in all this could be Chelsea's most successful season (in regard to on-field ability, at least) since they last won the Premier League title.

The Blues kick off their season tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. BST (7:30 a.m. EDT) against City in the FA Community Shield.

It is a trophy that both sides will want to win, although as proven by Manchester United last season,  does not necessarily correlate to glory later in the season.

Still, a win is a win. Chelsea and City will both want to get one over on each other before the first ball is kicked in the Premier League on Saturday, Aug. 18.

The season starts now.