Arsenal beat Man City 3-0 in 2026 Community Shield

Photo: Katie Chan / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Arsenal defeated Manchester City 3-0 in the 2026 Community Shield at Cardiff's Principality Stadium on Sunday, handing Enzo Maresca's side a losing start to the new season.

Riccardo Calafiori opened the scoring inside the first minute, slipped through by Myles Lewis-Skelly and firing past Gianluigi Donnarumma from close range. Kai Havertz headed in a second as the half-hour mark approached, meeting a Martin Odegaard cross via a nod from Christos Tzolis.

Odegaard then made it three shortly after half-time, calmly slotting past Donnarumma to extinguish any hopes of a City comeback. Erling Haaland had chances to reduce the deficit but fired high when well placed and had a close-range effort saved by David Raya.

City introduced a string of substitutes in the second half, with Maresca managing the workload of players returning from post-World Cup recovery. Substitute Rayan Cherki created a late chance for Antoine Semenyo, but Raya got down to deny the Ghana international.

City now turn their attention to the Premier League opener next Sunday, when AFC Bournemouth visit the Etihad Stadium for a 14:00 (UK) kick-off. It will be a meeting of new managers, with Marco Rose having replaced Andoni Iraola at Bournemouth — Iraola now in charge of Liverpool.