Reds line up reserve run-out against Chelsea

On the same day United and Chelsea get the season underway with the traditional Wembley curtain-raiser, their respective reserve teams will be stepping up their preparations for the new campaign with a pre-season friendly at the Blues’ Cobham training ground.

While the focus of most United fans will understandably be on the Community Shield on August 8th, the more entertaining clash may well be taking place twenty or so miles away as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer pits his title-winning second string against what promises to be a strong Chelsea reserve lineup under the guidance of Steve Holland.

The two sides played out an entertaining double-header two years ago and will be looking to size each other up ahead of a rare Premier Reserve League meeting later in the campaign, should the competition’s new format be approved.

Tom Cleverley in action at Cobham in August 2008

Back in 2008 the Reds just about got the upper hand on their southern rivals over the two games, pinching a closely-fought home ‘leg’ at the Marstons Arena thanks to a Danny Drinkwater strike before roaring back from a two-goal deficit at Cobham with late goals from Fábio da Silva and Danny Drinkwater.

In addition, Ben Amos, Rafael, Tom Cleverley, Kiko Macheda and Danny Welbeck all played some part over the two games for United, while Chelsea included the likes of Michael Mancienne, Scott Sinclair, Miroslav Stoch and Franco di Santo – an impressive combined talent pool when you assess their progress since. Hopefully those involved this time around can develop in similar fashion (on the red side anyway…).

News of the fixture has thus far only been provided in sketchy fashion by the official Chelsea magazine (and passed along by @chelseayouth on TheChels.net), so we’ll have more details when the clubs get round to confirming date, time, venue and so on. As things stand this seems to be just a one-off game, presumably very much planned to coincide with the Community Shield for logistical reasons, but there’s always the possibility we could be looking at another double-header, so stay tuned.