Less than five months have passed since Manchester City comprehensively beat Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, a performance that laid out a gulf in quality between the two clubs, that promised to launch City to the title, that landed a damaging psychological blow to brittle Arsenal minds.
In the following days it was hard to imagine how Mikel Arteta’s team would recover from being so comprehensively outplayed. We know how that turned out. Here, on an August day in Cardiff, the two teams met again in a game that could not have been more different. Arsenal ripped City apart in a dominant 3-0 victory to win their third Community Shield under Arteta and 18th overall, behind only Manchester United’s 21.
Just as too much was read into that Carabao Cup final, we should resist the urge to hand Arsenal the Premier League trophy before a ball is kicked. This was a glorified friendly and captain Martin Odegaard lifted the trophy with all the faux enthusiasm it deserved.
But in their slick interchanges of passing, in their ability to keep City’s dangermen at bay, in the peerless performance of new signings Bruno Guimaraes and Christos Tzolis, in the sheer strength in depth available to Mikel Arteta, there were undeniable signs that this Arsenal team might be as strong, perhaps even stronger, than last season’s title winners.
It took Riccardo Calafiori only 24 seconds to score Arsenal’s first goal, finishing a clever pass by Myles Lewis-Skelly. It took Kai Havertz only four touches to add their second, heading home Tzolis’s headed pass. By the time Martin Odegaard had added a brilliant third, taking Tzolis’s pass in his stride before tricking Gianluigi Donnarumma into diving too early to leave the goal half empty, City were utterly beaten.
In those moments the mind drifted back to another previous meeting: five days before Arteta was appointed Arsenal manager in December 2019, they were beaten 3-0 by Manchester City. Kevin De Bruyne was majestic at the centre of a City performance full of telepathic cohesion, and the size of Arteta’s task was laid bare in a humiliating first half. This was not only about competing with elite quality on the pitch and financial might in the transfer market. It was about toppling a City team built on longevity and consistency under Pep Guardiola, just as Liverpool were growing under Jurgen Klopp.
Nearly seven years later, new City manager Enzo Maresca might look upon Arteta in much the same light. Arteta is the longest serving manager in English football, a rare beacon of stability in a turbulent Premier League summer where most of the wealthy clubs – Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham as well as City – are embarking on new or nearly-new managerial journeys.
And despite the rehiring of Maresca, Guardiola’s former assistant, City’s restart feels particularly seismic. They are rebuilding a midfield that may yet lose a Ballon d’Or winner, should Rodri get his desired move to Barcelona. Perhaps just as important, they are attempting to establish a tactical identity after a final season of experimentation by Guardiola, who evolved his side into a more narrow, “vertical” team in his final months.
Does Maresca undo Guardiola’s evolution, or return City to something more akin to the side he worked with? The signs from pre-season are closer to the latter, with Maresca’s own imprint on the side, keeping his wingers high and wide to take on their full-backs in one-on-one battles.
Yet City found themselves blunted. Jeremy Doku and Antoine Semenyo were ineffective whenever Arsenal dropped into a low block. Jack Grealish made his first City appearance for 15 months and found the same problems as his teammates.
At the other end, Arsenal punctured City’s defensive shape repeatedly. Maresca’s defence held a passive line on the edge of their own box and Arsenal could take their pick: a slide-rule pass by Lewis-Skelly, a deft dink by Odegaard, a deep cross by Noni Madueke.
And perhaps the most ominous sign for Arsenal’s Premier League rivals was the depth of choice available to Arteta. Declan Rice played only the second half, Eberechi Eze only the final 10 minutes. Mikel Merino went unused after a summer spent winning the World Cup with Spain, while Martin Zubimendi was a late substitute.
Calafiori was outstanding and yet late in the game, his understudy Piero Hincapie was surging down the left wing to fire in threatening crosses. In the middle, Bukayo Saka was getting on the end of the supply after coming off the bench for Madueke, a bench where England’s most exciting teenager, Max Dowman, stayed put.
None of which gives Arsenal a head start when the Premier League begins this week. It is a one game that matters little – Community Shield winners tend not to win the Premier League, according to recent history. But it served to underline the journey from defeat by City seven years ago, and again by City five months ago. Now Arsenal are the team landing the telling psychological blows.