Arsenal scored after 23 seconds, and Maresca’s Manchester City never recovered

Enzo Maresca had been Manchester City’s manager for seven weeks when his team kicked off in Cardiff on Sunday. Twenty-three seconds later he was a goal down. By the time Martin Odegaard finished the job three minutes into the second half, the Community Shield had become the least useful kind of introduction. Arsenal won 3-0, and the scoreline was the kind part.

Twenty-three seconds

Riccardo Calafiori scored it. Myles Lewis-Skelly slid the ball to him on the edge of the penalty area, Calafiori took a touch and rolled it into the bottom corner, and the clock had not reached half a minute. It is the fastest goal in the history of the fixture. The previous mark belonged to Bobby Owen, who scored in the 35th second for Manchester City against West Bromwich Albion in 1968, which tells you how rarely this competition starts in a hurry.

Kai Havertz headed in the second on 28 minutes, Gianluigi Donnarumma clawing at the ball as it crossed the line. Odegaard’s goal in the 48th is the one that will be replayed. He ran into the area, shaped to shoot, sat Donnarumma down with a dummy the goalkeeper bought completely, and passed it into an empty net. He was named man of the match and completed 55 of his 58 passes.

Two assists on debut for a player who arrived last month

Christos Tzolis set up both of those goals. Arsenal paid Club Brugge 34 million pounds for the Greece winger this summer, signing him as the replacement for Leandro Trossard, who left for Besiktas last month, and no Arsenal player had made two assists on debut since Willian against Fulham in 2020. Tzolis created three clear chances in all, and the ones Arsenal missed were as instructive as the ones they took.

Mikel Arteta was without Gabriel Martinelli and Ethan Nwaneri, neither of whom was injured. Both were left out of the squad while their futures are being negotiated, Martinelli with a bid from Galatasaray on the table and Nwaneri wanting the minutes Arteta cannot promise him. Arsenal still played like a team that had been together all summer. “A really good performance so early in the season,” Arteta said. “To play at that level and to show the desire that we showed.”

What Maresca has walked into

City appointed Maresca on 29 June on a three-year contract and paid Chelsea a compensation package reported at around 17 million pounds to release him. He knows the place. He ran City’s elite development squad in 2020 and spent a season as Pep Guardiola’s assistant before Leicester hired him, and the pitch to supporters was continuity after ten years of Guardiola.

Sunday was not continuity. Erling Haaland, barely back in training after the World Cup, was substituted on 53 minutes having touched the ball seven times. Antoine Semenyo’s effort from twelve yards in the closing stages was the closest City came, and David Raya held it. Rodri did not play at all with his move to Barcelona in the final stages of negotiation, and Savinho was left out as Tottenham press on with a deal for him. That is a first-choice midfielder and a first-choice winger absent from a showpiece, in a squad that is being rebuilt while it plays.

“We have many things that we need to do better,” Maresca said. He had spent the build-up talking about closing the gap on the champions.

Cardiff, and then the league

The match was in Wales because Wembley was booked. The Weeknd is playing five nights there between 14 and 19 August, so the fixture moved to the Principality Stadium for the first time in 20 years, in front of 58,056. Between 2001 and 2006, while the new Wembley was being built, the game was held in Cardiff six seasons running.

There is a neat symmetry in the result. The last time Arsenal won a Community Shield by three goals it was also 3-0 against City, at Wembley in 2014, except that time Arsenal were the FA Cup holders and City were the champions. The roles have swapped since. Arsenal, champions of England for the first time in 22 years, begin the defence against Coventry City on Friday, which is a 12.30am IST kick-off in the small hours of Saturday. City, FA Cup winners in May, start at home to Bournemouth on Sunday at 6.30pm IST.

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