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Principality Stadium, Cardiff
Sunday 16 August 2026, 15:00 BST
Arsenal and Manchester City renew their rivalry in the 2026 FA Community Shield at Cardiff's Principality Stadium on Sunday afternoon, with Premier League champions facing FA Cup holders in the traditional English season curtain-raiser, the first time this fixture has been staged in Wales since 2006.
The Gunners arrive as defending league champions after a commanding 2025/26 campaign, but their defensive options are depleted by the absences of William Saliba and Jurrien Timber, while across the divide, the post-Pep Guardiola era begins in earnest as Enzo Maresca takes charge of his first competitive match as Manchester City manager, inheriting a squad reshaped by the departures of John Stones and Bernardo Silva and tasked with proving that City can remain a force without the most decorated coach in the club's history.
Arsenal vs Manchester City form and preview
Arsenal ended the 2025/26 season with four wins in their final five matches, booking their place in the Champions League final with a 1-0 semi-final second leg victory over Atletico Madrid before three straight Premier League victories helped seal the Premier League title.
However, the season ended in disappointment as a 1-1 draw with Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final was settled by a penalty shootout that went the way of the French side.
Pre-season, however, has brought a sharper dose of reality, and the Gunners have looked defensively vulnerable without Saliba at the back throughout summer preparations.
A comfortable 3-0 victory over MK Dons in late July was followed by an impressive 4-1 dismantling of La Liga side Girona, but Arsenal then conceded six goals across defeats to Real Betis and Borussia Dortmund, the latter a 3-2 defeat at the Emirates Cup in front of their own supporters.
Their final warm-up fixture against Como ended 1-1 in normal time before Arsenal prevailed 4-3 on penalties, a result which at least brought a morale boost heading to Cardiff, even if the performance underlined continuing defensive frailties.
Across those five pre-season fixtures, Arsenal have scored 11 goals and conceded eight, keeping one clean sheet against MK Dons but failing to shut out any of the four higher-calibre opponents they have faced since, with both teams scoring in four of five matches, a pattern that reflects both the attacking quality Arteta's squad possesses and the fragility created by the absence of first-choice centre-backs.
Manchester City enter the Community Shield with contrasting momentum, and Maresca's squad have finished their pre-season schedule on a positive trajectory after a slow start to the summer programme.
City's competitive form at the tail end of last season was mixed: they beat Brentford 3-0, Crystal Palace 3-0 and Chelsea 1-0 in the FA Cup final, but drew 1-1 with Bournemouth and lost 2-1 to Aston Villa in the Premier League, results which ensured Arsenal would beat the Citizens to the Premier League title.
Under Maresca, the early pre-season results have been encouraging, particularly the 3-1 victory over Atletico Madrid on 9 August in which Omar Marmoush netted twice, and a 3-1 win against the K-League All Stars, though a 1-1 draw with Inter Milan in their opening friendly showed some of the growing pains of a new tactical system.
City have scored nine and conceded six in their last five outings, with both teams finding the net in each of those matches, and while Arsenal's record of four BTTS results from five is marginally less emphatic, neither side's defence appears to have reached full sharpness ahead of this fixture.
The transfer window has brought significant changes at the Etihad, with Elliot Anderson arriving in a club-record deal worth £116 million from Nottingham Forest, while Stones and Bernardo Silva have departed and Rodri, the World Cup-winning midfielder who has been the heartbeat of the squad for years, appears increasingly likely to leave before the window closes amid strong interest from Barcelona.
Team news: Arsenal vs Manchester City
Arsenal
Arteta confirmed at his pre-match press conference that Saliba remains sidelined with a back problem that has ruled him out of the entire pre-season programme, while Timber continues his recovery from a groin issue that required minor surgery over the summer, meaning the Gunners will be without two first-choice defenders in Cardiff.
On a more encouraging note, Arteta indicated that Saka, Rice and Zubimendi could all be available after returning to training following their involvement in the World Cup, though it remains unclear whether any of the trio will be risked from the start in what is essentially a glorified friendly.
Summer signing Bruno Guimaraes, who arrived from Newcastle as Arsenal's marquee acquisition, played in the second half of the Como friendly earlier this week and should feature, while Christos Tzolis, signed from Club Brugge to replace Leandro Trossard, has been integrated into the squad throughout the summer programme and is expected to start on the left flank.
Cristhian Mosquera has been deputising in the centre of defence alongside Gabriel throughout pre-season and should retain his place, with Riccardo Calafiori likely to fill in at left-back with Timber unavailable, although Piero Hincapie is another option for that role.
Manchester City
Maresca has a largely fit squad at his disposal for his competitive debut, with his only confirmed absentee being Ryan McAidoo, who suffered a minor pre-season knock but has since rejoined full training.
The major doubt surrounds Rodri, who captained Spain to the World Cup title before undergoing minor back surgery and only returned to club training on 14 August, just two days before the final, making a starting berth unlikely even if he is technically available for the matchday squad.
Grealish has been training individually after missing the Asia pre-season tour and is not expected to be involved, while several other internationals including Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku, Anderson, Marc Guehi, Nico O'Reilly and Rayan Cherki all rejoined the group during the week of the final following extended post-World Cup rest periods.
Maresca could opt to ease Haaland back into action from the bench given his limited pre-season involvement, with Marmoush having impressed during the summer tour and scoring twice against Atletico Madrid in what amounts to an audition for a prominent role in the new manager's system, though the Norwegian remains the obvious focal point of any starting lineup once fully integrated.
Arsenal vs Manchester City predicted lineups
Predicted Arsenal XI (4-2-3-1): Raya; White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori; Guimaraes, Lewis-Skelly; Madueke, Odegaard, Tzolis; Havertz
Predicted Manchester City XI (4-2-3-1): Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, Ait-Nouri; Kovacic, N Gonzalez; Semenyo, Foden, Doku; Marmoush
Head-to-head: Arsenal vs Manchester City
Arsenal hold the advantage across 216 previous meetings between these two clubs, having won 100 of those encounters compared to 67 for City with 49 draws, but the more recent picture tells a starkly different story.
Man City have managed to turn this fixture in their favour in recent meetings, having won each of their last two encounters after enduring a six-game winless run against Arsenal, losing three times during that period.
The two sides met three times during the 2025/26 campaign alone, and City came out on top in both of the last two encounters: a 2-0 victory in the EFL Cup final at Wembley in March, where Nico O'Reilly scored twice, followed by a 2-1 Premier League win at the Etihad in April, which was the last competitive meeting between the clubs.
Arsenal's sole victory in the recent sequence came in February 2025, when the Gunners produced a stunning 5-1 demolition at the Emirates with Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri both on target, a result which proved to be a pivotal moment in that season's title race.
Pertinently for this competition, Arsenal have a strong record in Community Shield fixtures against City specifically, having won on all three previous occasions the sides have met in this match, including in 2023 when they triumphed on penalties after a 1-1 draw, the last time these two contested the curtain-raiser.
Our Arsenal vs Manchester City prediction and tips
- Arsenal have conceded in four of their five most recent outings, shipping eight goals across that sequence with only a clean sheet against MK Dons to show for their defensive efforts
- City have been similarly permeable, conceding six goals in five matches despite boasting greater squad depth at centre-back, with BTTS landing in all five
- Both teams scoring has landed in nine of 10 combined recent matches across both squads, the sole exception being Arsenal's lower-league pre-season opener
- The 2023 Community Shield between these two clubs ended 1-1 before Arsenal prevailed on penalties, and five of the last eight editions of this fixture have been decided by a shootout
Ellis has been working as a freelance sports writer since graduating from University in 2023. He is especially passionate about football, with a particular love for Manchester United.