The Group Defend is normally performed between the Premier League and FA Cup winners
Premier League champions Liverpool tackle FA Cup winners Crystal Palace within the Group Defend – however would success at Wembley on Sunday point out a profitable season forward?
Solely one of many previous 14 winners of the season opener have gone on to elevate the Premier League trophy on the finish of the marketing campaign.
And what of the goalscorers?
BBC Sport crunches the numbers of latest Group or Charity Shields to see what we are able to study.
Do Group Defend winners normally win the Premier League?
The reply to this query is surprisingly no.
Within the Premier League period, solely eight of the 33 winners of the Charity or Group Defend have gone on to win the title.
And 5 of these occurred in a six-year spell from 2005 till 2010.
Manchester Metropolis, in 2019, have been the final group to take action – and earlier than that it was Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in 2011.
In truth, since 1992 the groups who lose the Group Defend have received extra league titles that season – 10 in whole, together with Metropolis for 3 years in a row between 2021 and 2023.
Final 12 months Metropolis beat rivals Manchester United to win the curtain-raiser, however ended up having their worst season since 2016-17.
Some 45% of the time (15/33) the upcoming season’s Premier League winners had not been concerned within the Group Defend.
And 55% of the time (18/33) the Defend winners have completed above the losers within the league that season.
On 10 events the 2 groups have completed as the highest two within the Premier League – with 4 of these occasions being the Defend winners prime and the losers as runners-up.
Do Premier League winners normally win Group Defend?
The opposite query is what number of Group Shields are received by the earlier season’s Premier League winners.
The reply is eighteen out of 33 occasions – so 55%.
However a trigger for optimism for Crystal Palace is that the FA Cup winners have received seven of the previous 11 Shields, one thing that had solely occurred 5 occasions within the earlier 22.
And on three events within the Premier League period, neither the league nor cup winners have received it.
Arsenal (1999 and 2023) and Manchester United (2010) certified as Premier League runners-up and beat the Double winners within the recreation.
Do Group Defend goalscorers go on to have good seasons?
Cole Palmer’s breakthrough season got here after his 2023 Group Defend purpose – albeit for a distinct membership
This one is a little bit of a blended bag.
In 2023 Cole Palmer netted for Manchester Metropolis of their recreation towards Arsenal (a match they might go on to lose on penalties after Leandro Trossard’s injury-time equaliser).
He would go on to attain 22 Premier League objectives and be named younger participant of the season… for Chelsea, having joined them for £42.5m.
The earlier season, Darwin Nunez scored on his Liverpool debut – and Erling Haaland didn’t notch on his Metropolis bow.
That led to post-match dialogue about Nunez wanting the higher participant.
Nonetheless, Haaland went on to 52 objectives that season, with Nunez netting solely 15.
Kelechi Iheanacho solely scored 4 Premier League objectives after his 2021 Group Defend winner.
However again in 2019 Raheem Sterling’s Defend strike for Metropolis towards former membership Liverpool kick-started the most efficient season of his profession (31 objectives).
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