Sunday sees Manchester City and Chelsea attempt to wrangle attention back off the Olympics as they face one another in the annual Community Shield showdown.
The precursor for the Premier League season, it pits champions City against FA Cup winners Chelsea, but due to London 2012 they will not be playing at Wembley. Villa Park will host the duo.
Excluding Cardiff's Millennium Stadium filling in during Wembley's reconstruction between 2001 and 2006, this is the first Community/Charity Shield match not to be played at the national stadium since 1973, when Burnley beat Manchester City 1-0 at Maine Road.
The fixture should have been Liverpool, league winners, versus Sunderland, fresh from their FA Cup triumph over Leeds. However the Reds declined to play the Mackems, who then decided not to play at all.
Although the Shield matches have invariably been such mundane affairs penalties were re-introduced in 1993 to ensure the honour wasn't shared, there have been some crackers through the years. And unfriendly ones, too.
MANCHESTER UNITED 3-3 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR, 1967
EVERTON 2-1 CHELSEA, 1970
LIVERPOOL 1-1 LEEDS UNITED, 1974
This is divided into five parts, but the money moment came courtesy of Kevin Keegan and Billy Bremner...
LEEDS UNITED 4-3 LIVERPOOL, 1992
MANCHESTER UNITED 3-2 MANCHESTER CITY