Arteta Vows Best Arsenal as Maresca Aims to Close Gap in Community Shield

Enzo Maresca has declared his intention to “close the gap” on Arsenal in his first season as Manchester City manager, with a first test of that ambition arriving in Sunday’s Community Shield meeting between the two clubs in Cardiff.

City finished seven points behind Arsenal in the Premier League last term, and Maresca’s arrival as Pep Guardiola’s successor sets up an early confrontation between the reigning champions and the manager tasked with closing that gap. The fixture also marks the final countdown to the new Premier League season, with Arsenal opening their campaign against Coventry five days later and City following two days after that against Bournemouth.

Sunday’s kick-off, set for 14:00 GMT, takes the Community Shield to Wales for the first time in two decades, with the Principality Stadium’s retractable roof and 74,500 capacity providing a fittingly grand stage for the traditional curtain-raiser to the new English football season. The switch in venue adds an extra sense of occasion to a fixture that, in recent years, has sometimes struggled to hold the attention of supporters used to a full pre-season schedule of overseas tours and friendlies.

Maresca: “No Friendly Game at All”

Speaking ahead of the match, Maresca left no doubt about how seriously he views the opening trophy of the season. “For me personally, it’s a trophy,” he said. “When trophies are there in a final you are there to win the game, no friendly game at all. We want to try our best to win the first trophy.”

Maresca was quick to credit the champions he is aiming to dethrone. “Arsenal have shown over the last few years, they have always been there,” he said. “They’re a fantastic team. Well managed, well coached from Mikel, and last year they win the Premier League. But we are City, we want to close the gap. Pre-season has been good. Now we need to compete, win games, win titles. I want to see high spirit and the right mentality.”

Asked about the fitness of Erling Haaland ahead of the match, Maresca offered a measured update. “He is ok,” the City boss said. “He had a small thing behind the heel. But he’s ok. Everyone is fit, but we know some of them have just arrived two days ago,” he added, referring to players who returned late from their summer break following international commitments.

Arteta: Maresca Is “Just as Good” as Guardiola

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta responded to questions about facing City without Guardiola on the touchline for the first time by giving a generous assessment of his opposite number. “Now it’s Enzo, who is as good as Pep, because I know him well,” Arteta said. “He will provide something different to the club.”

Arteta also made clear that Arsenal are treating Sunday’s match as a genuine opportunity rather than a pre-season exhibition. “The best version of Arsenal has to be on Sunday,” he said. “That’s the intention. The best performance, the best way to start the season by lifting the first trophy. That’s the way we’ve prepared the season.”

On the significance of the Community Shield itself, Arteta added: “It’s a trophy, one that we can have because we earned it last year from winning the Premier League. You can tell how hungry the players are, which is a good sign. I love the way the players have come back, most of them earlier as expected. Really fit, we’ve done all the testing. They all seem in a great condition. The moment they started to look at each other, I said: ‘look at the squad that we have and what we’re building.’ There’s a lot of excitement.”

Team News: Arsenal Have Options to Manage

Arteta confirmed that, aside from the injured Jurrien Timber and William Saliba, Arsenal have a clean bill of health heading into the match, which includes Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi, none of whom have played any minutes in pre-season. That trio’s involvement is one of the key selection questions Arteta faces, given the vast majority of Arsenal’s other players were restricted to short outings of around 30 minutes in their first pre-season appearances this summer.

That pattern would point to Saka, Rice and Zubimendi starting on the bench in Cardiff before being introduced for the final half hour, opening the door for Bruno Guimaraes, who made his Arsenal debut against Como, to occupy a midfield spot from the outset. It would give a wider audience its first proper look at the Brazilian midfielder in the position Arsenal signed him to fill. Christos Tzolis, another summer arrival, is also expected to feature on the left wing in what would be a serious early test of his fit at the club, while Max Dowman’s uninterrupted pre-season means he could be selected ahead of Noni Madueke.

At left-back, Arteta faces a choice between Riccardo Calafiori and Piero Hincapie, with the more defensively-minded Hincapie the possible favourite for a match against City’s attacking talent. Martin Odegaard, meanwhile, arrives with a chance to set an early marker after a stop-start campaign last season, while doubts remain over the long-term future of Myles Lewis-Skelly, with Arteta yet to confirm whether the teenager will remain at the club this summer amid the ongoing transfer speculation surrounding him.

Team News: City Assess Their Options Without Guardiola

City’s preparations have followed a smoother path, with their final pre-season friendly a 3-1 win over Atletico Madrid on 9 August. That performance is expected to inform much of Maresca’s thinking for the starting eleven he selects in Cardiff. Rayan Ait Nouri looks set to continue at left-back if he is fit enough, while the futures of some fringe players remain unresolved. Tijjani Reijnders, subject to persistent transfer speculation, appears unlikely to feature for City again given the uncertainty hanging over his position at the club.

In central midfield, Maresca’s options are Nico Gonzalez or Rico Lewis, with England internationals Nico O’Reilly and Elliot Anderson still short of match fitness after missing the entirety of pre-season through their involvement in the World Cup this summer. In attack, Omar Marmoush scored twice against Atletico Madrid, both assists supplied by Antoine Semenyo, and looks likely to lead the line through the middle while Haaland eases his way back after his recent fitness scare. Phil Foden, who was absent for the international portion of the summer, begins his own route back to full sharpness with a genuine opportunity to make City’s number 10 shirt his own.

Arsenal’s Community Shield History

History favours Arsenal in this fixture. The Gunners have won all three of their previous Community Shield meetings with Manchester City, including a penalty shootout victory in 2023, giving Sunday’s match an extra layer of narrative ahead of what both managers expect to be an intense new rivalry developing between them over the coming Premier League season. According to Sky Sports’ predictor, Arsenal go into the fixture as favourites to retain their Premier League title this season, sitting four points clear of Manchester City in the projected standings, adding further context to why Maresca is so determined to make an immediate mark against the champions.

For Arsenal, successfully defending their record in this fixture would offer an ideal way to open the new season, extending an unbeaten run against City in the Community Shield and sending an early signal that last season’s title triumph was no one-off. For Maresca, even a narrow defeat delivered with the right performance could still represent progress in the project he has been tasked with building at the Etihad, the first meaningful indication of how City intend to compete for major honours in his first season without Guardiola in the dugout.

Setting the Tone for the Season Ahead

Beyond the silverware itself, Sunday’s match at the Principality Stadium stands as the first data point in a title race both clubs expect to contest deep into next spring. Arsenal know that a positive result would extend their dominance over a rival preparing for life after Guardiola, while City know that a strong showing, result aside, would offer early evidence that Maresca’s rebuild is heading in the right direction. Both managers have been careful in their pre-match language to describe the occasion as a genuine trophy rather than a pre-season exhibition, and neither is likely to treat the eventual outcome lightly once the whistle blows in Cardiff.

What happens on Sunday will not decide the Premier League title, but it will offer the first real evidence of how the two clubs measure up against each other under new management on one side and continuity on the other. Arsenal supporters will want to see the champions pick up where they left off last season, with a settled squad and clear tactical identity built up over Arteta’s long tenure at the club. City fans, meanwhile, will be looking for signs that Maresca’s ideas are already taking hold, even against opponents who have had a full season’s head start on the version of the team he inherited from Guardiola.