Arsenal Thrash Man City in Community Shield as Etihad Squad Gets Gutted by Transfer Chaos

Arsenal needed less than 25 seconds to score against Manchester City in Sunday's Community Shield at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, and City never recovered. Riccardo Calafiori fired the Gunners ahead almost immediately after kickoff, and Arsenal led 2-0 at halftime. It was a brutal first taste of a competitive match for new City head coach Enzo Maresca, who took over this summer.

The scoreline is one problem. City left out two of their more notable names, Savinho and Tijjani Reijnders, for very different reasons. Savinho missed training with illness and didn't recover in time. His absence from the squad comes as he is also linked with a move to Tottenham, though City say the illness, not the transfer talk, is why he sat out. Reijnders wasn't sick. He was in the midst of finalizing an exit.

A £46.5 Million Player, Nearing an Exit

Manchester City signed Reijnders from AC Milan for £46.5 million in the summer of 2025. He is now closing in on a move to Saudi Pro League club Al-Qadsiah for a reported £52 million, a fee that would technically turn a profit for City despite the player lasting roughly a year at the Etihad.

Reijnders is 28 and Dutch, and was viewed as a serious midfield addition when the deal was completed last year. His rapid departure underlines a broader reshaping of the squad under Maresca, who is making decisions on his own terms just weeks into the job.

Beyond the two headline omissions, City were also without Rodri, who is recovering from back surgery — arguably the more significant absence given his importance to the club during its dominant run under Pep Guardiola. Between an early Arsenal goal, a midfielder edging toward Saudi Arabia, a winger felled by illness amid transfer speculation, and a captain still sidelined by injury, Maresca's competitive debut came with almost every kind of distraction a new manager could face.