Chelsea vs. Manchester City: 2018 FA Community Shield TV Schedule, Live Stream

Both Manchester City and Chelsea will hope to begin their 2018-19 seasons as 2017-18 ended: with a trophy. Pep Guardiola's Premier League champions face Maurizio Sarri's FA Cup winners in the FA Community Shield at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.

The great blue powerhouses of the Premier League will collide in London as Sarri seeks to land an immediate blow against the champions of England and send a statement to the rest of his new peers.

Guardiola's Citizens ran rampant en route to the league crown last term, while Chelsea clinched the FA Cup. That triumph came under Antonio Conte, but Chelsea's stars will look to ensure their new Italian chief isn't waiting long for his first trophy in south-west London.

City have the advantage of knowing this will be their final fixture before the season gets officially under way. Chelsea, however, face one more 2018 International Champions Cup clash against Lyon on Tuesday, four days before their campaign begins.

Date: Sunday, August 5

Time: 3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. ET

Venue: Wembley Stadium, London

Live Stream: BT Sport app (UK), ESPN+ (U.S.)

TV Info: BT Sport 1 (UK)

Preview

Chelsea lost last year's Community Shield to Arsenal on penalties after drawing 1-1 in normal time, a win that would have given them a fifth win in English football's traditional curtain-raiser—and one more than City have managed.

The two teams are level with four Community Shied wins apiece, a fitting balance considering Sarri's changes at Chelsea have led to comparisons with Guardiola's City. And one can see why considering the Catalan has previously lauded the former Napoli tactician, as Eurosport UK highlighted:

Conte's approach to football was seen as somewhat restrictive by some. So-called Sarriball is a far more engaging philosophy for the neutral, and Sunday's encounter could be an early preview of one title-race scenario that could develop this season.

It would be a wild improvement for Chelsea after last year's run to fifth in the Premier League, and Sarri has spoken glowingly of the competition in England, per journalist Kristof Terreur:

One key component to developing Sarri's style—and a touchy topic entering Sunday's duel—is Jorginho, the £50 million Chelsea recruit from Napoli who was tightly linked with City prior to joining the Blues, per BBC Sport's Simon Stone.

The impact of the Italy international has been clear in his first few outings as a Chelsea player, and the Community Shield clash is a chance for him to further outline the talent City missed out on. TifoFootball examined how the £50 million man could fit in with the Blues:

Aside from any new faces, Sarri has also afforded existing members of the playing staff minutes in pre-season. In particular, centre-back Ethan Ampadu and winger Callum Hudson-Odoi, both 17, have been surprisingly prominent.

City have splurged themselves, spending £60 million to acquire Leicester City wide man Riyad Mahrez. Injury analyst Ben Dinnery recently reported the Algeria international could be fit to face Chelsea after picking up a problem in the recent 3-2 friendly win over Bayern Munich:

As was the case in last year's Community Shield, the competition will adopt the ABBA system in the event the game goes to a penalty shootout. This is rather than using the ABAB format that was changed because of concerns the team taking the second penalty was under unfair pressure.

Chelsea will hope the match doesn't come to that after they fell to Arsenal via penalties in 2017. Sarri will look to inject new energy into his reign by getting his first season in England under way with silverware.