Arsenal vs Man City Community Shield preview: How to watch, kick-off time and team news

Arsenal will face Manchester City on Sunday in the 2023 FA Community Shield.

The Community Shield is English football’s annual match that is contested between the previous season’s Premier League and FA Cup winners. It is the final game before the official start of the Premier League season next week on August 11.

Arsenal are playing City after they finished as runners-up of the Premier League and Pep Guardiola’s side won the FA Cup.

This year’s game will be the first time the two teams have met in the fixture since 2014, where the north London side, then-managed by Arsene Wenger, recorded a 3-0 victory over Manuel Pellegrini’s City, thanks to goals from Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey, and Olivier Giroud. It is also the first time the sides will face each other since City pipped Arsenal to the Premier League title last season.

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When and where is the Community Shield?

Arsenal vs Manchester City kicks off at 4pm BST/11am ET/8am PT. The game will be held at Wembley Stadium.

In the UK, ITV will have live coverage of the game on ITV1 and via the ITV Hub. In the US, ESPN+ will broadcast the match.

What’s the team news?

Arsenal will be without striker Gabriel Jesus after the Brazil international was ruled out for “a few weeks” with a knee injury that will also see him miss the start of the season.

When asked about the severity of Jesus’s latest knee issue after the Emirates Cup victory, Mikel Arteta said: “Unfortunately he had a little procedure this morning. He had some discomfort in his knee that has been causing some issues and he had to go and resolve it.

“It’s not something major but he is going to be out for a few weeks I think.”

The 41-year-old Spaniard elaborated on Jesus’s injury on Friday, reaffirming that the 26-year-old will return to the side soon. He said: “He’s fine. He’s obviously disappointed because he was feeling good and then this issue came up that nobody expected.

“We had to do a little procedure there but unfortunately, it was the best thing to do and the quicker the better. We made that decision. I’m sure he will be back soon and very fit.”

Bukayo Saka also missed out on the Emirates Cup victory, but Arteta confirmed that the 21-year-old England international was suffering from illness but is now feeling much better. “Yeah Bukayo is much better,” Arteta said. “He trained today.”

Full-back Oleksandr Zinchenko has missed the entirety of his side’s pre-season preparations, but Arteta revealed that the Ukraine international is close to returning to the team. He said: “He’s close. I think he’s going to start training with the team and hopefully, we will have him back very soon.”

Man City, on the other hand, have two injury doubts of their own ahead of the game at Wembley.

Kevin De Bruyne has not played a single minute of pre-season as a result of the hamstring injury that he suffered during last season’s Champions League final and is a doubt for the game against Arsenal.

Nathan Ake is also a doubt for the game after limping off during the 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich on July 26 and consequently missing the 2-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid four days later.

What have the managers said?

Guardiola conceded that his team are not at their best despite winning two of their three pre-season games compared to Arsenal, who lost one of their five pre-season fixtures.

He said: “Normally when you win the titles that we won, they give you the chance to fight for new ones. We are going to try. Knowing how we are right now, we finished two weeks later than Arsenal and started two weeks later.

“We are not in the best, best way. We struggle to start every season but it is a final and hopefully, our mentality can help us to be there and compete like we have to against them and try to win the title.”

Arteta, who won the trophy in 2020 after leading his side to a penalty shootout victory over Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, spoke of his excitement at the chance to win the trophy for the second time as Arsenal manager.

He said: “We are very excited to play a final and have the opportunity to win a trophy. We’re playing the team that is the team to beat.

“They’re the best team in Europe last season so we know what the standards are and what we’re going to need to win. Really excited.”

(Top photo: Getty Images)