Aged 21 years and 92 days, he became the youngest since Cesc Fabregas for Arsenal against Chelsea in 2005.
The Spanish midfielder was 18 years and 95 days old at the time.
While Palmer‘s strike wasn’t enough to seal the win on the day, it was a memorable moment for the Academy graduate.
Receiving the ball on the right of the box, he stepped inside and curled it beyond Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale. That was his fifth senior goal for the Club, with two coming in the FA Cup, one in the Champions League and one in the League Cup.
Ultimately, a deflected strike deep into added time took the game to a shootout before Arsenal ended up 4-1 winners from the spot.
It meant our third straight defeat in the match, having lost before our incredibly successful campaigns of 2021/22 and 2022/23.
Pep Guardiola‘s side tend to grow into the campaign, and given our late finish last season, we are a couple of weeks behind most of the Premier League in terms of pre-season training.
Despite the difference in preparation time between the teams, it was a close encounter at Wembley.
City had 55% of the ball and a total of eight shots, compared to Arsenal’s seven efforts with 45% possession.
Our shots produced an xG of 0.95, slightly ahead of the 0.78 that Arsenal created.
Our 522 successful passes, compared to their 428, and six corners to Arsenal’s five, also demonstrate that we perhaps had the edge in open play.
While Stefan Ortega Moreno was forced into two huge saves by Kai Havertz, that was two fewer than Ramsdale in the Arsenal goal.
The deflected strike that levelled the scores for Arsenal and took us to extra time was only the eighth goal Ortega Moreno has conceded in 15 competitive appearances for the Club.
Rodrigo had more shots than anyone else on the pitch, including a deflected drive and an attempted halfway line lob that had Ramsdale scampering back to his own line.
As we’re well used to seeing, Ruben Dias (105) and Rodrigo (102) led the way in terms of touches of the ball.
Mateo Kovacic made his competitive debut for the Club, performing alongside Rodrigo in a deeper midfield role.
He kept it neat and tidy, completing 54 of his 61 attempted passes.
Speaking after the match, Guardiola was impressed with the application shown by his Treble winners.
“The team behaved unbelievably,” he said in his press conference.
So while we didn’t come away with the shield, there was still plenty of encouragement for City fans ahead of the return of the Premier League this weekend.
