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Manchester City will take on Arsenal in the FA Community Shield match at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, August 6. That match will act as a curtain raiser for the 2023-24 season, with the Cityzens looking to start it on a promising note by extending their recent spell of dominance over the Gunners.
However, it cannot be overlooked that Pep Guardiola's treble-winning side actually lost to Liverpool in last year's Community Shield match. Mikel Arteta's Arsenal will take heart from that and will want to put last season's disappointment of finishing second behind the Cityzens.
On that note, let us take a look at two things to watch out for in the match.
#1 Arsenal's starting formation will be interesting to watch
Arsenal have signed Kai Havertz from Chelsea last month, but Arteta will have to make a difficult decision to accommodate him in the playing eleven. Havertz played as a No. 8 alongside Martin Odegaard in a recent friendly, but doing so against City will likely have its repercussions.
Playing Havertz as a central midfielder in a 4-3-3 will mean that the Gunners will have to drop either Thomas Partey or Declan Rice from the playing eleven, which is not advisable against a team of City's might.
Hence, it will be more practical for Arteta to use Havertz as a substitute and field his strongest team in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Gabriel Jesus upfront and Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli as the two wingers. It remains to be seen as to which formation Arteta decides to start with on Sunday.
#2 Manchester City will want to squeeze possession
Manchester City should stick to their style of playing short passes and thereby squeeze the life out of their opponents, as they do almost every time. With Mateo Kovacic being a new addition to their midfield and the talismanic Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland looking to demonstrate their potency once again, City will take some stopping.
To make matters worse for the Gunners, Rodri and John Stones will pull the strings from the midfield and Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva will try to cut in from the flanks.
The likes of William Saliba and Gabriel do not have fond memories of facing City and will have to be on their toes yet again to keep their team in the reckoning. The Gunners could find it extremely difficult to keep a clean sheet against Manchester City.
