Community Shield 2023/24 Preview

The traditional curtain raiser to the Football season sees the winner of the PL take on the winner of the FA Cup and is always played in Wembley Stadium. The PL season then starts the weekend later. This season, it so happens that last season Manchester City won both the league title and the FA Cup, so therefore their opponents in this match will be the runners up in the league, Arsenal. 

Man City – what to expect

It has been less than two months since Manchester City completed a memorable treble, following up their league triumph with FA Cup success and finally the CL too. This season they will be going all out once again to win as many trophies as possible, starting with the first piece of silverware on offer. Manchester City have not added too many to their squad, although some might argue that there is not really a need for many players to be added. They lost captain Ilkay Gundogan on a free transfer to Barcelona and winger Riyad Mahrez to Saudi. New additions to the squad are Mateo Kovacic from Chelsea and Josko Gvardiol to add competition and depth to the squad

Last season, Manchester City only lost one of their last 26 matches in total and it will be interesting to see whether they are able to carry that form on to the start of this season. Their upcoming appearance in this match will be their sixteenth appearance at Wembley since Pep Guardiola took charge, an incredible record. However, they don’t have the best record here and have only won six of their fourteen Community Shield appearances and have lost the last two, including last year to Liverpool. 

Arsenal – what to expect

Arsenal, on the other hand, have a very good recent record in this fixture. They have won their last four appearances in the Community Shield, including a win over Manchester City back in 2014. Should they win this match they would move into second place on the list of all time winners with 17 wins. This match, whilst still regarded by many as a glorified friendly, is a good test to see where each team lies in relation to their opponent. Arsenal will be looking to show City that they can beat them and this will be an early opportunity to get one over on the most dominant team in England over recent years. 

Arsenal have a good record at Wembley, having won two and drawn the third of their recent visits. A battle in a final against City is always a tough task though and they will have to go into battle without key forward and former City player Gabriel Jesus. Arsenal have won only one of the last 16 meetings against Manchester City, so any chance to improve that record even slightly will be a welcome opportunity. 

It is always a tough ask to predict what players will play in this fixture as different managers view it in different ways. Some will say it is no more than another pre-season friendly, whereas others will state that they want to start the season winning silverware. A lot also depends on the levels of fitness of certain players as some are naturally quicker at getting up to speed whereas others are not fully ‘at it’ until a few weeks into the season. Arsenal’s new signings Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber are all likely to be involved though. 

Head-to-head

As already mentioned, Manchester City have by far the better record in this fixture and have won nine of the last ten, with Arsenal’s solitary win coming in the FA Cup in 2020. There have been thirty goals scored in the last ten meetings, making encounters between these two relatively high scoring on average. Six of the last ten meetings have seen three or more goals scored.