Manchester City’s New Era Requires 24 Seconds To Encounter Its First Problem

Manchester City’s first competitive match since the departure of Pep Guardiola began with a new manager, a new era and considerable optimism about what might come next.

Arsenal scored after 24 seconds.

Riccardo Calafiori provided the opening goal as the Premier League champions went on to beat City 3-0 in the Community Shield at the Principality Stadium, giving Enzo Maresca a considerably more difficult introduction to competitive football as Manchester City manager than he might have preferred.

Calafiori’s early goal was followed by a second from Kai Havertz in the 28th minute, before Martin Ødegaard added another shortly after half-time to complete a convincing victory for Mikel Arteta’s side.

For Arsenal, it was an impressive continuation of the form which carried them to the Premier League title last season and an early indication that very little rebuilding was required over the summer.

City are at a rather different stage.

Maresca arrived following Guardiola’s departure after ten years in charge and has been tasked with overseeing the next version of a team which became the dominant force in English football under his predecessor.

His first competitive afternoon provided several areas to begin with.

City struggled to create opportunities against Arsenal, Erling Haaland was largely kept quiet and a side adapting to changes in personnel and management rarely looked capable of recovering once they fell behind.

There will naturally be considerably more important matches to come, and the Community Shield has rarely provided a reliable forecast for an entire Premier League season.

It has, however, provided Manchester City with an unusually efficient assessment of the work ahead.

The post-Guardiola era is 90 competitive minutes old.

Arsenal have already found three things for them to look at.