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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 2 AUGUST 2015 49 Sport FOOTBALL SPORTTODAY Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho plays down Arsenal record JOSE Mourinho has played down the significance of today's clash with Arsenal in the Community Shield showpiece at Wembley but a chance to strike an early blow against old adversary Arsene Wenger will prove irresistible. The traditional curtain-raiser for the new English season sees Mour- inho's Premier League champions take on FA Cup winners Arsenal and it should offer plenty of clues as to what awaits both clubs over the next nine months. Wenger, who signed Chelsea's stalwart goalkeeper Petr Cech in the summer, believes his squad is now as strong as the 2003-04 Invin- cibles who went through the season undefeated to claim Arsenal's last Premier League title. On paper, at least, Arsenal look well-equipped to challenge Chelsea come next May, but the sooner he ends a dismal record against Mour- inho's teams the better. Today's clash will be the 14th time Wenger and Mourinho have locked horns in opposing dugouts and Wenger is still waiting to get one over the Portuguese. "I think I would ask myself: Why?" Mourinho, who could start with Radamel Falcao leading the line, said in the build-up when con- versation turned to his domination of Wenger. I would try to answer, not because of a mental block but because I want to find solutions to help my team do it -- try to find a different way, try to find the reasons why it goes all the time against my team." As barbed comments go, this one was fairly harmless from a man who once dubbed Wenger 'a spe- cialist in failure'. But it did put the ball firmly in Wenger's court, challenging the wily Frenchman to come up with a new battle plan against his mana- gerial nemesis. Wenger does his best to shrug off his record against Mourinho, treat- ing questions on the subject with a wry smile. There is no doubt though that the Frenchman is irritated by Mourin- ho -- witness the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation in last season's Pre- mier League encounter at Stamford Bridge. "I will leave you with your love story with him to continue with- out interference," Wenger said this week, referring to what he sees as a media love-in with the Chelsea boss. He is far happier talking up his own team's chances of fighting for the title. "We have always had talented teams, but most of the time they were very young," he said. "We have the better balance be- tween talent and experience now. And when you go into April you need that experience. "The expectations are very high. You cannot win the Cup and fin- ish third in the league and then say 'Look, next year we want to do nothing.'" Arsenal will be without last year's player of the season Alexis Sanchez on Sunday, while Chelsea await fit- ness checks on striker Diego Costa. Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho Celtic start season with victory over Ross County Celtic's Leigh Griffiths (second from right) celebrates his opening goal against Ross County CELTIC started the defence of their Scottish Premiership title with an ultimately comfortable 2-0 win over Ross County at Celtic Park. A Leigh Griffiths penalty af- ter just three minutes set Ron- ny Deila's side on their way to an opening-day victory and a Stefan Johansen strike before the half-time break secured all three points. However, the Hoops boss will be concerned over the fitness of Griffiths ahead of the second leg of their Champions League third-round qualifier against Qarabag in midweek after he limped off just 19 minutes in. The striker never seemed to fully recover after being hacked down in the box by new Coun- ty captain Andrew Davies, al- though he did pick himself up to blast his spot-kick under the diving Scott Fox. The former Partick Thistle goalkeeper was called into ac- tion shortly after to deny James Forrest but there was then a bit of controversy surrounding his opposite number down the oth- er end of the pitch. Craig Gordon was perhaps for- tunate to stay on the pitch after 22 minutes when he came rush- ing out of his box to foul Jack- son Irvine after the midfielder had made a bursting run and rounded the Celtic No 1 before being felled. Referee Willie Collum showed Gordon a yellow card despite County protests and the Celtic goalkeeper turned Ian Mc- Shane's resulting free-kick be- hind for a corner. Gary Mackay-Steven then made up for spurning an earlier chance by laying on a perfectly- weighted pass for Johansen to smash the ball into the corner of the net from 15 yards. The hosts dominated after the interval, forcing a number of corners, but they had Gordon to thank for keeping out Craig Curran as County looked to get back into the game. That immediately seemed to spur Celtic back into life as Stu- art Armstrong rounded Fox but was denied on the line by Mc- Shane. However, the visitors con- tinued to enjoy a decent spell in the game and had chances with Michael Gardyne firing just wide from the edge of the box before substitute Raffaele De Vita's powerful effort was palmed away by Gordon. In an end-to-end second half Celtic were keen to find a third goal to wrap up the points and substitute Kris Commons near- ly provided it on a couple of oc- casions but he was denied twice by Fox. Late on Stefan Scepovic, who came on as a first-half substitute for Griffiths, forced Fox into an- other good save with a driving effort from the right-hand side.