Summer signing Mateo Kovacic makes his official debut, starting in midfield in place of Phil Foden who played our final games of the 2023 Asia Tour in Seoul.
Stefan Ortega Moreno will start in goal for the third consecutive game at Wembley following his FA Cup appearances with Ederson on the bench, while Manuel Akanji replaces Aymeric Laporte.
New defender Josko Gvardiol completed his move on Saturday but the Croatia defender is not part of today’s matchday squad.
Teams
ARSENAL XI: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Partey, Rice, Odegaard (c), Saka, Martinelli, Havertz.
Subs: Turner, Tierney, Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Holding, Vieira, Trossard, Smith-Rowe, Nketiah.
CITY XI: Ortega Moreno, Walker (c), Stones, Dias, Akanji, Rodrigo, Kovacic, Bernardo, Grealish, Alvarez, Haaland
Subs: Ederson, Phillips, Laporte, De Bruyne, Gomez, Foden, Palmer, Lewis, McAtee.
Tactics
As ever, it will be fascinating to see how Guardiola evolves his tactics throughout the season and he now has Juanma Lillo back alongside him in the dugout.
John Stones’ role of switching between defence and midfield was one of the standout successes last season, particularly on the run to the Treble.
It would be expected he would take on that role again alongside Ruben Dias in the centre of defence with captain Kyle Walker and Manuel Akanji as our full-backs.
With Rodrigo in the holding midfield slot, Kovacic and Bernardo Silva are likely to take on the attacking midfield positions.
But the Portuguese star could potentially move out to the right allowing Julian Alvarez to play closer to Erling Haaland as the spearhead, with Jack Grealish reprising his role on the left.
Back at Wembley
After an exciting tour of Asia in preseason, it will be the first chance to see the Treble winners on the pitch in England since that dramatic win over Inter in Istanbul.
City will be making our third visit to Wembley in the space of four months following the 3-0 FA Cup semi-final victory over Sheffield United and the 2-1 win over Manchester United as we completed the second part of the Treble.
With Riyad Mahrez who scored a hat-trick against the Blades and Ilkay Gundogan, who hit both goals against United, moving on in the summer, the last current City player to score at Wembley was Bernardo in the 2022 FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool.
This will be the 18th time that Guardiola has taken charge of City at the national stadium, with the Catalan winning on 12 occasions including the 2018 and 2019 Community Shields.
Stats and facts
This will be the third Community Shield meeting between City and Arsenal, with the Gunners winning the previous two – 4-0 at Highbury in 1934 and 3-0 at Wembley in 2014.
After scoring in last season’s Community Shield, Alvarez could become the first player to score in consecutive years since Adrian Heath did so for Everton in 1985 and 1986.
In the Premier League era, the seven previous league/cup double winners have won five of their seven appearances in the following campaign’s Community Shield, with the exceptions being Manchester United in 1999 and Chelsea in 2010.
City have lost our last two Community Shield matches, losing 1-0 against Leicester in 2021 and 3-1 against Liverpool last year. The only team to lose the match in three consecutive years before are United, who lost four in a row between 1998 and 2001.
Arsenal have won the Community Shield on the last four occasions they’ve participated in it since losing 2-1 against Chelsea in 2005. The last time they failed to win the Shield when the final was played at Wembley was in 1993.
The Gunners have lost just two of their last 15 games at Wembley, with both of those defeats coming in February 2018 (against Spurs in the Premier League and City in the League Cup final).
No current Arsenal player has scored for the Club at Wembley– the Gunners’ last five goals at the ground have all been netted by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
