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Enzo Maresca's first competitive game since succeeding Pep Guardiola could hardly have got off to a worse start as Riccardo Calafiori put Arsenal ahead after 23 seconds, and Kai Havertz then added a deserved second for the Gunners before half-time.

Captain Martin Odegaard took advantage of some dreadful City defending to cap the scoring soon after the restart, leaving Maresca with plenty to work on before the Premier League season begins next week.

City was shell-shocked by Arsenal's first attack, with Myles Lewis-Skelly – the subject of transfer speculation in recent days – at the heart of the opening goal. After Noni Madueke kept a deep cross alive and recycled play, Lewis-Skelly slipped a glorious pass straight through City's defence, with Calafiori taking his one-on-one chance.

Gianluigi Donnarumma was sent the wrong way by his Italy team-mate completely, and after David Raya got down to parry Phil Foden's curler at the other end, the City number one was guilty of more suspect goalkeeping in the 28th minute.

Debutant Christos Tzolis nodded Odegaard's floated delivery across goal, and Donnarumma failed to keep out Havertz's downward header despite getting a touch to it.

City's best chance of the contest saw Erling Haaland shoot straight at Raya from a great position, but Arsenal could have gone further ahead before the interval as Calafiori volleyed over and Josko Gvardiol stretched to clear Odegaard's prodded effort off the line.

Jeremy Doku was replaced by Jack Grealish at half-time, with the Belgian subsequently being seen with an ice pack strapped to his leg. And things went from bad to worse for City in the 48th minute as Odegaard danced past Gvardiol, sat Donnarumma down and slotted home.

Maresca withdrew several key players – including Haaland – with the game surely beyond City, and though Raya had to stay alert to thwart Antoine Semenyo, City were lucky not to concede a fourth when Bukayo Saka lifted Piero Hincapie's cutback over.

Mikel Arteta was in no mood to play down the importance of the Community Shield this week, arguing that English football's traditional curtain-raiser was a trophy worth chasing.

His team certainly took Sunday's game seriously, with a dream start setting the tone for their win. Calafiori's goal was the first to be scored in the opening minute of a Community Shield match since 1968, when Bobby Owen netted for City in a 6-1 victory over West Brom.

City is not often on the wrong end of such big scorelines. Since the start of 2025, the only other instance of it going three goals down against a Premier League team also came against Arsenal, in a 5-1 defeat in February 2025.

Havertz also scored in that game, and he now has seven goal involvements against City (four goals, three assists) – his most against any club.

Arsenal's triumph was made even more impressive by the fact Arteta only gave England duo Declan Rice and Saka half an hour off the bench, while France's William Saliba is a long-term injury absentee. Maresca, by contrast, threw many of City's biggest World Cup stars – including Haaland, Doku and new midfielder Elliot Anderson – in from the start.

But what might Sunday's result mean for the Premier League title race in 2026-27? Based on recent history, it may not be a positive omen for Arsenal.

In the previous 34 stagings of the Community Shield in the Premier League era, only eight of the victorious teams went on to become champion of England that season.

None of the last six Community Shield winner has gone on to win the Premier League in the same season, and only one of the last 15 have done so – City in 2018-2019.