It didn’t take long for Joe Hart to realise the writing was on the wall for him at Manchester City under Pep Guardiola. “He said: ‘Of course you’ll be given the opportunity, but …’ As soon as there are any buts at the end you know there’s a decision,” the former England goalkeeper recalled last year. “It was a two‑hour conversation that kind of ended with him saying: ‘I can’t see this working.’”
Hart is by no means alone. Yaya Touré, Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko are some of the big names jettisoned by the City manager in his pursuit of perfection since arriving in Manchester seven years ago. But while Guardiola showed once more this summer that he has no room for sentimentality by allowing Ilkay Gündogan and Riyad Mahrez to depart the treble winners and try “new challenges”, his former assistant and increasingly major managerial rival may have outdone his compatriot in the ruthless stakes.
Not only has Mikel Arteta dispensed with Arsenal’s former captain Granit Xhaka to make space for the club-record signing Declan Rice but he is also intent on bringing in Brentford’s David Raya to provide competition for Aaron Ramsdale. That may have come as a surprise to many given some of Ramsdale’s performances last season and in the Community Shield on Sunday, where his heroics in the penalty shootout enabled Arteta to get the better of Guardiola for the first time since the FA Cup semi-final here in 2020.
Critics of the England goalkeeper would point to the fact that no Premier League player made more errors leading to a shot than Ramsdale’s six last season, compared with two by Raya. Yet in the week that Ramsdale revealed his wife had suffered a miscarriage three days before he was assaulted by a Tottenham fan during the north London derby in January, it felt a particularly harsh call.
Arteta, who admitted he had even asked himself whether he was the right person to push Arsenal forward after coming so close last season – “it took a big reflection, but the answer is yes and I feel with a lot of energy and positiveness” – clearly feels that distribution from the back is an area that needs to be urgently upgraded if Arsenal are to make up ground on the incessant machine that is City.
Ramsdale, under increased scrutiny, did everything asked of him and more during a surprisingly competitive Community Shield in which Arteta was shown a yellow card by Stuart Attwell in the first half. Arsenal supporters behind Ramsdale’s goal had breathed a collective sigh of relief when he cleared the danger just in time when first Bernardo Silva and then Erling Haaland were closing in menacingly. Rodri’s speculative effort from the halfway line just before the break would have set Ramsdale’s pulse racing as the ball sailed towards his net but it went over by centimetres.
Initially City’s Stefan Ortega – the German understudy who made only three Premier League appearances last season and was surprisingly preferred to Ederson here – made the bigger impression with two excellent saves to deny Kai Havertz. In the absence of the injured Jesus, Havertz was thrust into a central position he became all too familiar with at Chelsea and he continues to show the lack of confidence in front of goal that haunted his spell in west London. It may take the return of the Brazil forward to allow Havertz to thrive in a more creative role under Arteta but the addition of Rice and the versatile Jurriën Timber – deployed at left-back in Zinchenko’s absence – appears to have made Arsenal much stronger than last season.
City dominated in midfield during two comprehensive victories against Arteta’s side in the Premier League last season but Rice’s new partnership with Thomas Partey ensured that Arsenal had their fair share of possession here. Partey’s future has been in doubt for most of the summer after reported interest from Saudi Arabia but Arteta’s insistence that the Ghana international still has a role to play was recognition of the importance of maintaining continuity with so many new faces bedding in. That could also apply to Ben White, who was a constant attacking threat down Arsenal’s right but could face a tussle with Timber to play every week.
The arrival of Raya would take Arsenal’s spending close to £250m– only £20m short of Chelsea’s record outlay last year – and increase the growing pressure on Arteta’s young side. They are no longer an unknown quantity.
Ramsdale, never one to shirk a challenge after experiencing successive relegations before his dream move to the Emirates, would fancy his chances of retaining his place ahead of Raya after this display. His hopes of a clean sheet were ended by Cole Palmer’s late, dipping strike that appeared to have secured another piece of silverware for City. But he made two brilliant saves, including a diving stop to deny Rodri at the back post, before Leandro Trossard’s late, deflected shot turned the game on its head.
Arteta will hope that their change of fortune could be a sign of things to come this season.
