PREMIER LEAGUE WINNER
Arsenal 5/4
Man City 7/2
Liverpool 5/1
Man United 7/1
Chelsea 8/1
Spurs 20/1
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Two facets define Pep Guardiola more than anything: his style of play and the uncompromising intensity with which it is played. His influence on English football is indisputable, but it is somewhat ironic that the first match of the new season saw his two proteges showcase both sides of the Guardiola coin. While Maresca has inherited the football, Arteta carries the ravenous desire to win.
It is rare that the two best sides face each other in this curtain-raiser. More recently the fixture has featured a plucky underdog from the FA Cup (Crystal Palace, Leicester, even Manchester United), facing a Manchester City or Liverpool behemoth.
After 24 seconds on Sunday afternoon, Riccardo Calafiori scored and Arsenal made it plainly obvious they have no interest in any kind of rivalry this season.
For the first time against Manchester City under Arteta, Arsenal played with no inferiority, no fear, no strange feeling that a calamity could bubble over any minute. No Pep in the other dugout. They battered the aptly nicknamed Blues, who looked blunt.
They were tepid, arguably lethargic at times, brushing the ball side to side without their typical scything intent. A cynical interpretation of that style might be that Maresca has a lovely bow without quite knowing how to fire his arrows. A bit boring, basically.
Gabriel manically celebrating a blocked shot at 2-0 up yesterday bore none of the hallmarks of a friendly.
Speculating about the overall trajectory of Maresca based on one friendly would be futile. Anyway, if performances continue in a similar vein, then surely (despite their tactical and even physical similarities) the shadow of Guardiola over Maresca will become too ominous to ignore.
History says Maresca should be okay. Guardiola took time to adjust – his first season was an inconsistent preamble for the next nine years of domination. Maresca has his own successful history in England too, first with Leicester then later Chelsea. Success with Chelsea, especially, is nothing to be scoffed at, but fans bemoaned Maresca’s allegiance to his style of play during a winless run last season.
And that is where it looks as if one Pep disciple has strayed from the other. Early into his time at City, Guardiola said that each match they played was, “the most important 90 minutes of their lives”. The stats say maybe not: Guardiola’s 50% win rate in the Community Shield suggests he hardly saw the occasion as a priority.
Arteta has played three Community Shield finals and won them all. He may not have brought the complete Pep style to North London, but the relentless intensity in every sense is clear to see. Gabriel manically celebrating a blocked shot at 2-0 up yesterday bore none of the hallmarks of a friendly.
It is the first time Arteta has played the Community Shield as champion of England. Arsenal previously arrived fresh from a fever dream pandemic FA Cup win, and most recently in 2023 having an unenviable trip to Wembley for finishing second the season prior.
Attacking those games head-on exemplifies the mentality shift at Arsenal spearheaded by Arteta, where they went from being the Lambert Simnel of the Premier League to the kings of England. Now, when the best team in the country takes such a game seriously, the rest of the league will be taking notes.
We were taking notes too. In the midst of trouncing Manchester City and the news of Rodri departing for Barcelona’s beaches, Arsenal’s odds for an outright league win shifted from 7/4 to 5/4. A price that Fitzdares broker Mark Cancea sees as competitive in this market, “I wouldn’t be surprised if it (Arsenal to win the league outright) was evens after a couple of weeks”.
The Community Shield is arbitrary for the teams involved – unless you win it, obviously. Arsenal have warned the rest of the league, and Coventry will be the first to find out when the Premier League kicks off this Friday.
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