Photo by Mordechai&Mags

Today marks the ceremonial start to the 2011-12 Premier League season with the annual Community Shield match played at Wembley between Manchester City and Manchester United.

Viewers in the United States can watch the match live on FOX Soccer at 9:30am ET today. But no matter where you live in the world, feel free to use the comments thread below to post your rants, raves, questions and observations.

The starting line-ups for both sides have been announced:

Manchester City: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov, Y Toure, De Jong, Milner, Balotelli, Dzeko, Silva.

Manchester United: De Gea, Smalling, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Anderson, Young, Rooney, Welbeck.

Kun Aguero is on the bench for City and may come on as a second half substitute. For Manchester United, Ferguson’s surprise move is starting Danny Welbeck up front while Berbatov is on the bench. Ryan Giggs, meanwhile, isn’t even on the substitute’s bench.

Here’s hoping that today’s 2011 Community Shield will be an exciting one.