The 2023/24 curtain raiser between the two best teams in England at Wembley Stadium – it doesn’t get much better than that.
Well, until the 75th minute it seemed like it couldn’t get much worse than that.
A rather tepid Community Shield clash between treble-winners Manchester City and Premier League runners-up Arsenal finally sparked into the life when Cole Palmer scored a stunning goal, before a 111th-minute deflected Leandro Trossard strike took the game to a penalty shootout.
The Gunners would then capitalise on Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri missing their spot kicks to win the season opener at Wembley.
Here are the key talking points from the game.
Signed as a back-up for Erling Haaland, Pep Guardiola did begin to play around with the idea that Julian Alvarez could be utilised as an attacking midfielder at the tail-end of last season. And it’s clear now heading into the 2023/24 campaign that Guardiola explicitly sees Alvarez as a potential replacement for Ilkay Gundogan at the tip of City’s midfield.
The Argentine showed an understanding of the position on Sunday, finding pockets of space in front of the Arsenal backline on occasion and working his socks off as he always does.
With rumours continuously swirling about his future, finding a way to get Alvarez regularly into the starting lineup could be the key to keeping hold of the World Cup winner in the long term.
Playing in the role he largely struggled in during his time at Chelsea, as expected Kai Havertz didn’t excel as a false nine for Arsenal on Sunday.
In the first half the new signing missed two very, very good chances to give his side the lead and, when you’re up against a team as brilliant as Man City, you can rarely afford to miss those sorts of opportunities.
While new signing Havertz failed to impress, new signing Declan Rice did.
With Rice in the lineup, the Gunners were actually able to compete with Manchester City’s midfield at Wembley Stadium – something which they were not able to do at all last season.
The England international’s combativeness in the middle of the park and quality on the ball are going to pay dividends for Arsenal during the 2023/24 campaign.
Automatic yellow cards for kicking the ball away after a free kick is given, yellow cards for dissent, a billion minutes of additional time, and players who receive treatment not being allowed to come back on the pitch for 30 seconds.
They were the new referee guidelines on show at Wembley Stadium on Sunday and it’s fair to say some of them didn’t make a whole lot of sense. It’s also fair to say that games will be way too long this upcoming season. And it’s also fair to say that there will be too many bookings and too many sendings off too.
There were plenty of big money signings on show on Sunday, but it was an academy graduate who gave the game it’s only moment of true quality.
England Under-21 star Cole Palmer has been one of the most talked young players in England for quite a while and he showed exactly why at Wembley. After coming off the bench, the youngster immediately added both incisiveness and class to the City attack.
He capped off a brilliant cameo appearance with a brilliant goal in the 77th minute.
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