Manchester City have had a pretty positive pre-season by all accounts. The recruitment of Rodri and Angelino for the first team have buttressed an already strong squad while their results in friendlies have also been good.

Comfortable wins against West Ham, Kitchee, Yokohama F-Marinos and a penalty shootout defeat to Wolves in the Premier League Asia Trophy mean Pep Guardiola’s side head into the new season full of confidence.

They’ve also managed to get by without a number of first-team players due to international commitments, but with Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus and Nicolas Otamendi all back in training following their exploits at the Copa America, the Citizens are raring to go for the Community Shield.

In contrast, Liverpool’s preseason has been pretty unsettled. Sadio Mane is not expected to return to training until after the curtain-raiser at Wembley, following his time away at the African Cup of Nations.

Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Alisson only played their first friendly yesterday so they are also unlikely to start this weekend. In fact, the 3-1 win against Lyon last night was their first friendly win since they won 3-1 against Bradford last month.

They had lost against Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla and Napoli and drawn against Sporting Lisbon in their other friendly matches.

It’s not surprising then that, at the bookies, City are favourites to win the Community Shield with William Hill having them as 10/11 odds-on. A draw after 90 minutes is 14/5 with 888 Sport while a Liverpool victory is currently 29/10 at Sky Bet.