Unfurl the bunting! Prepare the open-topped bus! Paint the city blue! Or perhaps not. This time it was City who won the second Manchester derby at Wembley inside 80 days and, while the Community Shield hardly competes with May’s FA Cup final, it does means that a potential quintuple is on. For a team as successful as Manchester City, every new goal is worth highlighting.
City didn’t seem overjoyed at the final whistle, United didn’t seem devastated. Why would they? Having lost in each of the last three Community Shields, City more than anybody know how little bearing the curtain-raiser has on the show to come. Only one of the past 13 Community Shield winners have gone on to win the title; were City to do so this season they would become only the ninth side to claim both the Community Shield and Premier League in the same season. “It is what it is,” as a resolutely sober Rúben Dias sagely confirmed. “Another trophy.”
Four weeks after England’s defeat by Spain in the final of Euro 2024, English football returned with a sense of spiky reluctance that flickered into a contest that was disjointed but occasionally fun. Is 27 days a long enough break? The weather, close and clammy, seemed to reflect the slightly cloying atmosphere, the sense of overkill, that everybody could have done with a week or two more off. More football, yet another game, felt like gorging. Nobody, not the fans, not United, and certainly not City, felt ready.
If United’s lineup looked a little more like the sort of team they would be expected to pick for a game they were taking seriously, that was only because injuries and inept squad-building have meant they regularly field bafflingly unbalanced XIs. With another few days, Erik ten Hag might have been able to choose Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui, both likely to sign soon, rather than plumping for a 36-year-old Jonny Evans in the centre and Lisandro Martínez at left-back.
But then with a few more days, Pep Guardiola might have been minded to start Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Nathan Aké or their only signing of the summer, Savinho, rather than playing four players with squad numbers higher than 50. Rodri, Phil Foden, Kyle Walker and John Stones are still on holiday until Monday.
Fifty years ago to the day, Kevin Keegan and Billy Bremner were sent off for scrapping in what was then called the Charity Shield. As Leeds lost a penalty shootout – at the time a spectacle of thrilling novelty – setting Brian Clough on the path to dismissal a little over three weeks later, there was a palpable sense of the game mattering, the FA vindicated in their decision to switch it to Wembley for the first time, albeit probably not in the way they would have liked. On a soporific afternoon, there was little prospect of a repeat, even if Bernando Silva did go in needlessly late on Alejandro Garnacho, a show of frustration with City a goal down that he soon channelled into an equaliser.
City are as City does, their domination of the opening half-hour a reminder of just how unstoppable their machine can at times seem, even when it is staffed by kids. Even missing eight regular first-teamers – nine if you count the injured Jack Grealish – they are still outrageously good.
But in terms of clues for the season ahead, this was more about United. They remain a considerable distance behind City, but there were perhaps some encouraging signs. Having clung on through an extremely difficult first half-hour, some of their combinations, rat-a-tats of passes involving Bruno Fernandes, Amad Diallo and Mason Mount, were excellent. If Diallo were prepared ever to shoot with his right foot, they might have had a half-time lead, but even six yards out he opted to square it – a centre-forward would possibly have anticipated the pass, but if Mount was startled by it he could hardly be blamed.
Then there was Marcus Rashford, who offered a performance that gave with one hand and took away with the other. His movement was good, he looked sharp, he offered an outlet when United broke – and he missed two extremely presentable chances. For the second he was perhaps slightly unfortunate, hitting a post; his first, though, was the nervous jab of a player still trying to remember where he mislaid his form.
Yet perhaps most importantly for the season to come, there was no sign of the United doughnut, that midfield vacuum that meant so much of last season was spent with Kobbie Mainoo running shuttles while Casemiro looked exhausted beside him. Even under the cosh early on, United remained relatively compact.
All of which means what exactly? None of it is particularly revelatory, nor from what feels increasingly just another pre-season friendly is it likely to be, but City will probably win the league again and United might be a little better than they were last season.
