An afternoon to forget at Wembley

City's return to competitive action ended in a 3-0 reverse against Arsenal in the Community Shield, a result that will sting less for the scoreline itself than for the manner in which it unravelled. Riccardo Calafiori, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard all found the net for the Premier League champions, who collected an eighth Community Shield with an efficiency that suggested pre-season rust is not a problem they share.

The Blues, by contrast, looked every bit a side still finding its feet.

Goalkeeping questions refuse to go away

The decision to stick with Gianluigi Donnarumma as the club's preferred goalkeeper, rather than hand the role to James Trafford before his £45m move to Leeds United, invites scrutiny after an afternoon the Italian will want to forget. He was at fault for all three goals: reacting too quickly for the first, palming the ball over his own line for the second after an initial save, and then being wrong-footed by Odegaard's feint for the third.

It was the kind of display that makes you wonder what the recruitment team saw in pre-season that the rest of us missed.

Grealish makes his case, however quietly

Jack Grealish, once Britain's most expensive player, has spent the summer being loaned out in search of regular football. Maresca handed him the entire second half in place of Jeremy Doku, and the response was quietly encouraging: an 88% pass completion rate, two crosses and two key passes. It was not a performance that screams "undroppable", but it was a reminder that the talent has not evaporated entirely.

Whether it changes his immediate future remains to be seen.

Haaland's quiet return

Erling Haaland made his first appearance of the summer after missing pre-season, and it showed. Seven touches in 53 minutes is a remarkably low number for a striker of his calibre, though he did force David Raya into a save in the first half. The sharpness will come; the concern is whether the service will match it.

Phil Foden, overlooked for England's World Cup squad, at least looked busy: one missed pass in 34 attempts, two crosses and four recoveries. Small consolations on an afternoon when the bigger picture felt rather bleak.