It is not often that Manchester City fans will be nervous before a game nowadays, with the treble-winners now seemingly unbeatable when it comes to big occasions, but there is one more blemish they would like to fix.
City finally conquered the Champions League last season, after years of hurt in what was the only mark against Pep Guardiola during his time at the club, having dominated nearly every other competition.
The Community Shield, however, tells a very different story to the League Cup, Premier League and FA Cup.
City have competed in the Community Shield five times in the last 10 years. In these five occasions, they have won just twice, and have lost their last two in a row under Pep, giving the Spaniard a 50% win rate in the competition.
Sunday’s game will see Guardiola’s side face Premier League runners-up Arsenal, but despite City’s incredible record against Mikel Arteta’s side, there may need to be some caution at Wembley given Guardiola, and City’s poor recent record in the competition. Here’s how City’s last five Community Shield matches unfolded.
Arsenal 3-0 Man City, 2014
Manuel Pellegrini’s first and last Community Shield saw City annihilated by FA Cup winners Arsenal, with Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud all scoring for the victors.
City have since lost to Arsenal at Wembley in the FA Cup twice, but did beat the Gunners in the 2018 League Cup final. However, City will be very wary of a repeat result on Sunday.
Man City 2-0 Chelsea, 2018
Man City’s centurions had stormed to the Premier League title, whilst Antonio Conte’s Chelsea won the FA Cup shortly before his dismissal.
Maurizio Sarri took charge of his first Chelsea game at Wembley, but City proved too much for them on the day, with Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva setting Sergio Aguero up in each half to secure a brace.
Man City 1(5)-1(4) Liverpool, 2019
City had seemingly mastered the competition when they beat the reigning European Champions on penalties to kick off the season.
Joel Matip cancelled out Raheem Sterling’s early opener, and City found themselves under a lot of pressure, with Claudio Bravo delivering a player-of-the-match performance in the game as well as saving the vital penalty from Georginio Wijnaldum.
It was all downhill from here though…
Leicester 1-0 Man City, 2021
FA Cup winners Leicester had provided yet another shock when they ran out winners in a half-empty Wembley as fans began to return to stadiums.
Former City star Kelechi Iheanacho scored a brutal 89th-minute penalty to stun the Champions, in what was a below-par display on the day, but City were missing Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Raheem Sterling through injury.
Nevertheless, this was not a good day.
Liverpool 3-1 Man City, 2022
Perhaps the biggest indicator of why too much should not be read into Community Shield results, FA Cup winners Liverpool ran out 3-1 winners last year at the King Power Stadium in what was a fiercely competitive tie.
Julian Alvarez scored on his debut to equalise after Trent Alexander-Arnold had opened the scoring, but goals from Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez meant City had suffered yet another defeat in the competition.
Erling Haaland notably missed a golden chance in what was his debut, but he would have the last laugh…
