The English season opened in Cardiff, and the champions of England left the FA Cup holders in no doubt. Arsenal won the Community Shield 3-0, claiming the trophy for the second time in three years.
How the match went
The scoring started before anyone had settled into their seat. Riccardo Calafiori scored after 24 seconds, meeting Myles Lewis-Skelly’s pass on the edge of the box and finding the bottom corner.
By the 29th minute it was two. Kai Havertz finished after Christos Tzolis headed a cross towards the back post. Arsenal added a third straight after the break: in the 48th minute Martin Ødegaard went past Joško Gvardiol and Gianluigi Donnarumma before rolling into an empty net. The Norwegian was named player of the match.
Manchester City, under new manager Enzo Maresca, never found a rhythm. Erling Haaland had several openings and took none of them, while Phil Foden’s effort from distance was saved by David Raya. Arsenal controlled the second half completely.
For City it was the first of two blows inside a day — the following day the club accepted Barcelona’s offer and Rodri left for £65.4m.
What it means for FPL: be careful with conclusions
This is where it gets interesting, because the numbers from our engine say something quite different from the scoresheet.
All three Arsenal scorers are players our model does not recommend:
- Riccardo Calafiori — £5.5m, rated 75, Hold
- Martin Ødegaard — £6.5m, rated 67, Risky
- Kai Havertz — £7.5m, rated 60, Risky
The assists rank even lower: Myles Lewis-Skelly is rated 48 with a Sell verdict, and Christos Tzolis 19.
Meanwhile the four highest-rated Arsenal players in our rankings did not score at all: Declan Rice (£7.5m, rated 87), Bruno Guimarães (£7.0m, 86), Gabriel (£8.0m, 85) and Bukayo Saka (£9.5m, 84).
That is not a flaw in the model; it is how it is built. The rating is based on repeatability — minutes, underlying numbers and fixtures — rather than on a single match, however eye-catching. Ødegaard and Havertz have had seasons broken up by injuries, and that is what drags their ratings down. If they start the season playing regularly, the ratings will climb on their own.
The same lesson as the day before
This is exactly what we wrote after Saturday’s United game against Milan in Wrocław: do not rebuild your squad around a single match. The Community Shield is a real trophy, but it is still one game, played before the league starts and worth no FPL points.
There is a signal worth filing away, though. Our model currently has five Manchester City players in its top ten, two of them defenders — and City have just conceded three goals and sold their best defensive midfielder. That is not a reason to panic four days before the deadline, but it is something to watch over the opening gameweeks.
Into the opening weekend
In Gameweek 1 Arsenal are at home to Coventry and Manchester City are at home to Bournemouth. Both are among the kindest openers in the division — so neither the result in Cardiff nor Rodri’s departure changes the fact that players from both sides remain in play.
Score, scorers and match events based on the official Football Association report. Ratings come from our own engine, prices and ownership from the official FPL game — as of 17 August 2026. This article was produced with the support of AI tools. Fantasy PL Edge is not affiliated with the Premier League or the Fantasy Premier League game.