The curtain-raiser to the Premier League season, the Community Shield, pits the reigning league champions against the FA Cup winners. However, historical statistics indicate that winning this prestigious fixture does not guarantee a successful campaign, particularly in terms of securing the league title.
Since the Premier League's inception in 1992-93, only eight of the 34 Community Shield winners have gone on to win the league title in the same season. This trend is even more pronounced in recent years, with only one of the past 15 Community Shield victors achieving league championship success. Manchester City in 2019 was the last team to accomplish this feat. Prior to that, Alex Ferguson's Manchester United did so in 2011.
Conversely, teams that have lost the Community Shield have a better track record of winning the league. They have secured 10 league titles in seasons where they were defeated in the Shield match. Manchester City achieved this three consecutive times between 2021 and 2023.
In some instances, the Community Shield result has had little bearing on the subsequent league performance of the participating teams. Last year, Crystal Palace defeated Liverpool in the Community Shield, yet they finished the Premier League season in 15th place, although they did win the Conference League. Liverpool, the Shield losers, finished fifth in the domestic league.
Furthermore, a significant portion of Premier League champions have not even participated in the Community Shield. Approximately 47% of league winners since 1992 have not featured in the season's opening fixture. For example, Arsenal did not play in the Community Shield in the 2025-26 season when they won the league.
Analysis of league standings also shows that in 53% of cases, the Community Shield winner has finished above the loser in the final league table. On 10 occasions, the two teams that contested the Community Shield have ended up as the top two finishers in the Premier League, with the Shield winner finishing as champion and the loser as runner-up in four of those instances.