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Arsenal v Chelsea
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By Nick Mulvenney

London - Champions Chelsea plan a statement of intent for one of their main title rivals when they face Arsenal in Sunday's Community Shield match at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

The traditional prologue to the English season between the champions and FA Cup winners also offers Jose Mourinho's side the chance of a first domestic win over Arsenal since their 5-0 League Cup victory in November 1998.

Reinforced by the multi-million pound signings of Spanish defender Asier del Horno and English winger Shaun Wright-Phillips, Chelsea are keen to take more silverware back to Stamford Bridge after their Premier League and League Cup double last season.

'There's a trophy to be won and we want to win it'
"There's a trophy to be won and we want to win it," said their Icelandic striker Eidur Gudjohnsen.

Shield holders Arsenal, no strangers to the showpiece season-opener having been involved for five of the past seven years, start the post-Patrick Vieira era a little less bullish than at the same stage of last season.

Then they were champions having gone through the previous season unbeaten and in their 3-1 victory over Manchester United they showed some of the superb attacking play that lit up the first half of the campaign.

New midfield signing Alexander Hleb should add something to the side going forward but it remains to be seen how their defence will cope without the cover provided by Vieira, who moved to Juventus for £13,7-million (about R160-million).

"He is a world-class player," Chelsea captain John Terry said of the departed Frenchman. "He is obviously going to be a big miss.

'Sunday is an important game for us'
"Arsene Wenger has some great players and has some young players who can maybe step into the hole and maybe be as good as him one day. But I think initially they will miss him."

Arsenal will not be helped either by the likely absence of Brazilian midfielder Gilberto, who scored the only goal in the 2002 Community Shield against Liverpool on his club debut.

"Sunday is an important game for us," said Wenger, whose team visit Chelsea in the league in two weeks. "It sets up where you stand before the season starts."

Terry said Sunday was the perfect opportunity to end Chelsea's winless run against the North Londoners, a seven-year drought broken only by their Champions League victory at Highbury the season before last, with their last Premier League win coming 10 years ago.

"We didn't beat Arsenal last year despite winning the title," said Terry. "I think it's been a few years since we've beaten them in the league.

"It would be nice to get a win under our belt and the Community Shield would be the perfect place to do it and to get one up on them."

The Community Shield has thrown up some fine matches in recent seasons and Gudjohnsen thinks the rivalry between the two clubs will ensure that trend continues on Sunday.

"When you look at the games we had last year between us and Arsenal everything was done on the pitch," he said. "High-quality games, high intensity, no one pulling out of any tackles but handshakes after and get on with it.

"I think that's the way the game should be played."

There will be a period of silence before the match between the two London clubs to pay respect to the victims of the recent bombings in the English capital.
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