AFCON 2025
Arsenal delivered a statement of intent for the new season, brushing aside Manchester City 3-0 to win the 2026 FA Community Shield at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on Sunday. Goals from Riccardo Calafiori, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard gave the Premier League champions a comprehensive victory over the FA Cup holders in a match relocated from its traditional Wembley home due to a scheduling clash with a concert.
The result also marked a difficult first competitive outing for Enzo Maresca as Manchester City head coach, taking charge for the first time since Pep Guardiola’s departure from the club. City struggled to assert themselves from the opening whistle and never recovered from an early setback.
Arsenal needed less than half a minute to take the lead. Myles Lewis-Skelly split City’s defence with a defence-splitting pass, sending Calafiori clear to finish past Gianluigi Donnarumma inside 24 seconds, sending the Cardiff crowd into raptures and setting the tone for the afternoon. TNT Sports pundit Ally McCoist praised the move afterward, describing the pass as ridiculous and the composure of the finish as even better.
Arsenal doubled their advantage midway through the first half. Odegaard picked out Christos Tzolis with time and space to cross into the box, and Tzolis headed the ball to Havertz, whose effort forced Donnarumma into an error that saw the ball squirm over the line for 2-0. City’s defensive frailties were laid bare again, with Phil Foden’s long-range effort in the 20th minute standing as one of the visitors’ few meaningful contributions in the opening period.
Odegaard added gloss to the scoreline early in the second half, converting to make it 3-0 and effectively settling the contest as a formality. The match finished Arsenal 3-0 Manchester City, with Calafiori, Havertz and Odegaard on the scoresheet, sealing Arsenal’s first Community Shield since their 2023 penalty shoot-out win over City.
The gulf in quality on display did not go unnoticed among observers pitchside. McCoist summed up the mood by noting the scale of the gap between the two sides was as wide as any he had witnessed in a long time, though he cautioned that the fixture carried the feel of a pre-season exercise rather than a full test of City’s credentials heading into the new campaign.
Ahead of kickoff, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta had struck a bullish tone about his side’s prospects across all competitions this term, while singling out summer signing Bruno Guimaraes as a player fans would quickly warm to. Defender Gabriel Magalhaes also spoke of using the pain of Arsenal’s Champions League final defeat on penalties last season, in which he missed a crucial spot kick, as fuel heading into the new campaign.
For City, the defeat offers an early reality check for Maresca as he begins the task of rebuilding after the Guardiola era, with the FA Cup they won under their previous management now their only remaining honour from last season. Arsenal, by contrast, head into the new Premier League campaign with silverware already in the cabinet and renewed confidence after a summer of reinforcement.
