The pain and passion shared by Liverpool and Crystal Palace in an intriguing Community Shield | OneFootball

It was fitting that both Liverpool and Crystal Palace finished last season together, both on the highest of highs. One ending a 35-year wait to lift the Premier League in front of fans, the other ending a 164-year wait to win a first-ever major trophy.

They now begin the new campaign against one another, the Community Shield on the line, albeit off the back of two respective summers that have paled in contrast.

Three months on from their Wembley miracle, besting Manchester City to win the FA Cup, Palace’s off-season has been plagued by the ongoing battle to keep their subsequent Europa League dream alive. The club were found to have breached multi-club ownership rules for Uefa competitions, crucially missing the March 1 deadline to demonstrate that then co-owner John Textor, also part-owner at Lyon, had no control or influence over more than one club in the same competition.

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Crystal Palace qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup but they have now been demoted by Uefa (Getty Images)

It led to a European demotion for the Eagles, who have been ordered to play in the Conference League, while Nottingham Forest have been the ultimate beneficiary - bumped up to the continent’s second-tier tournament after voicing their own concerns about Palace’s Europa League place. Palace are vehemently fighting the decision, launching an appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which will culminate with Monday’s legal verdict.

Fear of injustice has stunted morale at Selhurst Park. "If you get punished when you feel innocent it's tough," said Palace manager Oliver Glasner. "And it feels like this. If we play Conference League it feels like we are punished, but being innocent. On the other side, if we had ended the season on position seven and go straight into the Conference League, we all would have celebrated.

“So these are the two feelings we have. But again, if you haven't done something wrong and you feel punished, you never feel good. So I think it's all of us, it's the same, and this is how we feel, or how we felt about the Uefa decision."

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Oliver Glasner feels the “innocent are being punished” following Palace’s European demotion (The FA via Getty Images)

But before they discover their ultimate fate, Glasner will have to lead his side into battle at the same stomping grounds where history was achieved in May. Up for grabs is another piece of silverware which could be added to a proliferating trophy collection at Selhurst Park.

Glasner insists ongoing off-pitch matters has not affected their pre-match preparations as they return to Wembley.

"No, not at all," he said. "The first meeting we had after, when we met, it was just mentioned once. One slogan for us is 'we want to focus on the things we can influence', and so we can't influence the decision of Uefa, we have no influence on the decision of CAS.

"So it just makes no sense, and the players really did very well the whole pre-season and training, worked very hard. We said, OK, on the 11th of August we will get the final verdict, and we will accept it, so it's the only thing we can do."

Another famous outing under the arch could do wonders for Palace ahead of the new season, picking them back up and potentially sparking a late-window recruitment drive, with it said that Glasner has been frustrated by his side’s distinct lack of business this summer. Only the free transfer of Walter Benitez and arrival of Ajax left-back Borna Sosa - neither of whom will be expected to start - have been sanctioned. On the transfer front, it’s been a quiet summer in Croydon.

The same cannot be said in L4.

Arne Slot surprised even his own fans by propelling the Reds to league glory in his first season, doing so with the tools and resources he inherited off Jurgen Klopp. Liverpool have now followed that up by adopting a “galacticos” policy, pumping nearly £300m – which could soon rise to £400m - into an already superior side.

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Liverpool’s record signing Florian Wirtz in action against Athletic Bilbao (REUTERS)

The statement arrivals of Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong - on top of Giorgi Mamardashvili, who joined last summer but was sent back to Valencia on loan - indicate Liverpool are not resting on their laurels. They are at the top to stay there.

Off the back of a decent pre-season, in which the new quintet showed glimpses of what they had to offer, Slot hopes Liverpool can start the new term how they mean to continue.

"It's nice if you can start the season with the chance of winning something,” the Dutchman said. Normally you have to play numerous games before you can win something. If it's the League Cup, FA Cup, let alone [the] Premier League or Champions League, normally you win something in the end of the season. Now we have a chance to win something in the beginning of the season.”

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Arne Slot is relishing the opportunity to kick his season off with silverware (Getty Images)

Yet of course, there will be an air of distinct sadness to Sunday, as will be the case for every Liverpool game for the foreseeable future. The Community Shield will act as the club’s first competitive game since the tragic passing of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva in July.

“The tragedy impacted us, of course, the most,” Slot said. “But again, it impacted far more his wife, children and parents. The tributes that have been done since were all very emotional and impressive, every time we were somewhere.”

His number 20 shirt rightly retired, tributes will continue for the entirety of the season and beyond, as was witnessed from Preston to Hong Kong in pre-season. And on Sunday, Wembley will no doubt come together when the clock strikes 20. It should be the lasting memory of the afternoon.

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Liverpool fans pay tribute to Diogo Jota outside Anfield (PA)

The game will also bring the biggest congregation of Reds fans since their ill-fated Premier League title parade - a day of celebration that turned into one of terror when a car driven by a 53-year-old Liverpudlian ploughed into his own people. Miraculously, nobody died following the incident. It nevertheless shook the city and the nation.

Yet after all this anguish, focus now abruptly turns back to football. A new season is on the immediate horizon. The stakes, the excitement, the anticipation - it’s taking over the mind in an almost callous way, considering wider circumstances. But whether its sadness or anger, these deeper emotions will not simply be extinguished when a whistle is blown.

What happens in the Community Shield isn’t going to define the campaign that follows. More intriguingly, it will offer a glimpse into the psyche of two teams who have been through so much since they last met.