Manchester City's New Managers and Arsenal's Struggles: A Tale of Two Premier League Teams
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Nine Premier League clubs will have new managers when the season kicks off on Friday, but few will feel the heat quite like Enzo Maresca, Andoni Iraola and Xabi Alonso.
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NDTV SportsPremier League's New Bosses Brace For Battle Nine Premier League clubs will have new managers when the season kicks off on Friday.
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But on the evidence of City's lacklustre 3-0 loss to Premier League champions Arsenal in the Community Shield on Sunday, Maresca faces a huge task to win the club's first league title since 2024.
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The Guardian SportMikel Arteta said his Arsenal players demonstrated their hunger to defend the Premier League title in their Community Shield triumph over Manchester City. Arsenal, who ended their 22-year wait last season and are seeking to win back-to-back top-flight titles for the first time since 1934-35, beat City 3-0 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff in Enzo Maresca’s first significant match in charge.
Sky SportsMonday 17 August 2026 13:29, UK Enzo Maresca spoke of his desire to "close the gap" between Manchester City and Arsenal before watching his side suffer a painful 3-0 defeat in the Community Shield on Sunday. Perhaps the gaping holes through the spine of his team should be more of an immediate area of focus.
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There was a brief moment last autumn when Maresca’s former side looked most capable of challenging Arsenal before his squabbles with the hierarchy brought an end to the Italian’s tenure. It will take some time to make his imprint on a squad that was so heavily devoted to Guardiola, although Arteta said this week that he believes his newest rival has “the personality, the character and, especially, the knowledge” to be successful. For the Arsenal manager, the question is now whether he can build a legacy that could one day rival Guardiola’s. This was a good way to start.
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Yahoo Sports'It's a privilege' - Catching Arsenal while finishing the rebuilding job started by Guardiola, who began to replace his ageing stars with younger recruits, is a daunting prospect for Maresca.
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By then, Kai Havertz had already made it 2-0 after a beautifully crafted goal involving Ødegaard and Tzolis, and City were hanging on for dear life. Seeing Declan Rice emerge for the second half was another reminder of Arsenal’s plethora of options, although the wisdom of Bukayo Saka returning so soon after England’s World Cup exploits remains to be seen in the long term. “He said it’s not done,” sang the Arsenal fans in reference to Rice’s post-match team talk at the Etihad Stadium after they were beaten in March, when he was introduced.
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The re-emergence of Ødegaard as an attacking force is yet another reason for Arsenal to feel optimistic. The captain’s campaign was severely hampered by injury last season but, after excelling for Norway at the World Cup, he was at the heart of Arsenal’s best moves and capped an excellent performance with a cool finish to round off the scoring. That was also greeted with chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” directed towards Maresca, who was seen deep in conversation with his players and staff at the full-time whistle.
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Better get cracking, then. Watch Manchester City vs Bournemouth live on Sky Sports Main Event on Sunday; kick-off 2pm
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Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 NDTV Sports Arsenal Primed For Premier League Title Defence As Rivals Face Questions Arsenal will start a campaign as English champions when they host promoted Coventry on Friday.
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02 Yahoo Sports Arsenal and Manchester City find themselves in unusual positions heading into the Premier League season, but there is no question which of the title contenders feels more comfortable with their new status.
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03 The Guardian Sport Last season’s position: 14th Prospects Pretty bright. A team’s second season in the Premier League following promotion is traditionally regarded as hazardous but all the indications are that Daniel Farke’s side will not merely harbour a high degree of immunity to this syndrome but could debunk it as a lazy cliche. The spine of the side looks extremely robust and has been reinforced by the club record £40m signing of James Trafford from Manchester City and the £34m acquisition of the Bosnia and Herzegovina centre-half Tarik Muharemovic from Sassuolo.
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04 BBC Sport Episode details Available for over a year Joe Hart, Chris Sutton and Adam Crafton are with Mark Chapman to look ahead to the Premier League season, can they cover all 20 clubs in this episode of the Monday Night Club? That depends on whether you count Chris Sutton’s predicted Premier League table. They reflect on Manchester City’s performance in their Community Shield defeat to Arsenal, what it takes to defend a Premier League title, and whether Xabi Alonso can repeat Antonio Conte’s feat of taking Chelsea from a club that finished tenth to title winners in the following season.
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05 Sky Sports Monday 17 August 2026 15:29, UK Liverpool's home matches against Manchester City and Arsenal, plus Manchester United's trip to rivals Leeds United, are among the 21 Premier League games being shown live on Sky Sports in October and November.
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