In a parallel universe, it might be Mikel Arteta succeeding the departed Pep Guardiola as Manchester City manager this season.

But it is another coach who worked under the Catalan at City, former Leicester and Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, who has been entrusted with the daunting task of taking over and continuing the success enjoyed at the Etihad Stadium over the past decade with Guardiola.

Is the Italian the right man for the job? We will find out this season, and we may get a first indication of what his version of City will look like when they take on Arteta’s Arsenal in the Community Shield today (Sunday) at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.

This is the annual summer meeting of the previous campaign’s Premier League champions (Arsenal, in this case) and FA Cup winners (City) and is considered the traditional curtain-raiser for the new English season.

Does the Community Shield count as a major trophy? It depends who you ask, but this game has historically been viewed as a friendly, albeit one with silverware at the end of it — even if it takes a penalty shootout to decide the winners.

Arsenal writer Nnamdi Onyeagwara and City correspondent Sam Lee discuss what we can expect from the game.

How has your club’s summer been?

Onyeagwara: Arsenal fans have spent the past three months revelling (and rightfully so) in the fact they finally got over the line and are Premier League champions again. People working within the club have been attempting to strengthen the squad to ensure there is not another 22-year wait for their next domestic title.

Piero Hincapie’s loan move from Bayer Leverkusen a year ago was made permanent and Illan Meslier has joined on a free transfer after leaving Leeds United. Leandro Trossard has moved to Besiktas and been replaced by Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge. Then there was the blockbuster signing of Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle United.

However, the champions have been unsuccessful in their pursuit of Morgan Rogers (joined Chelsea) and Vinicius Junior (signed a new contract at Real Madrid). They have also struggled to sell some of their fringe players, as Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira, among others, are still at the club.

All in all, a celebratory summer in north London, but also a frustrating one.

Lee: Slow, so far. Granted, City have made a club-record signing in Elliot Anderson, and he is expected to make a huge difference, but everything else is pending. Rodri could go, Enzo Fernandez could arrive. Tijjani Reijnders could go, Ayyoub Bouaddi could arrive. Savinho could go, a fellow winger could come in.

About 80 per cent of City’s existing first-team squad went on the pre-season tour to Hong Kong and South Korea, meaning Maresca has been able to get his ideas across to most of the players. The rest, including Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki, Jeremy Doku and the England players, have been getting up to speed since Wednesday. A lot more is to come.

How much does this match matter to your club?

Onyeagwara: Over the years, the Charity Shield/Community Shield has been important to Arsenal.

After ending a nine-year trophy drought with the FA Cup in 2014, they continued the positive vibes that had consumed the club that summer with a 3-0 win against City in this fixture a few months later.

The 1-0 defeat of Chelsea the following August saw Arsene Wenger secure his first victory over managerial rival Jose Mourinho at the 14th attempt. The Frenchman later talked about how it felt to “get that hurdle out of the way”.

The 2020 win against Liverpool, via a penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw, was Arteta’s second trophy in charge, having taken charge in December 2019. Twelve days later, he was promoted from head coach to manager.

Arsenal’s most recent Community Shield meeting with City in the summer of 2023 saw them start new signings Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber against the team who pipped them to the title a few months earlier. It was another shootout victory for Arteta and company, which provided a psychological boost as they got one over on a fierce rival.

As with that game, today will not be seen as a “friendly” in north London. This is emphasised by Viktor Gyokeres’ comments after the pre-season match against Borussia Dortmund last weekend.

“(The game) against City? A friendly?” the Sweden international said. “I don’t know what other people think, but we want to win that game, of course; for sure. When you win titles, you get confidence, you get a boost with everything that comes with it.”

Lee: The rivalry with Arsenal has really exploded recently, and that will add extra spice.

City are well accustomed to playing the Community Shield, and cup finals, at Wembley, to the extent that some victories there can feel routine. But the manner of the Carabao Cup final defeat of Arsenal there in March — City were considered the underdogs — meant that it was one of the most memorable trips of the many they have had to that stadium in the past 15 or so years.

This being a Community Shield, it inevitably matters less to supporters than other competitions, and there is even the idea of the Community Shield curse (just eight of its 34 winners in the Premier League era have gone on to win the title that season), so it is probably one of those fickle ones: it doesn’t matter if you lose, but it’s very nice if you win. But it’s not especially important either way.

Erling Haaland shows City fans the Carabao Cup last season (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

How do your club view today’s opponents?

Onyeagwara: The Athletic has previously reported that, in the boardrooms, Arsenal and City do not get on. That feeling is mirrored between the two sets of fans.

After Maresca’s departure from Stamford Bridge in January, Arteta said: “I really like Enzo as a person, as a professional. I think he’s done a terrific job at Chelsea.”

But unlike the mutual respect those two seem to share, Arsenal and City supporters do not get along. Not in the stands, nor on social media.

For example, the ‘bottle’ shenanigans that started during their Premier League match at the Etihad in April. Bukayo Saka even referred to the social media storm that was caused by those images in interviews following Arsenal’s league title victory a month later.

Then there are the mini-stories: Haaland vs Gabriel, Myles Lewis-Skelly vs Haaland, how Arsenal pipped City to the signing of Rice from West Ham three summers ago, City returning the favour with the signing of Brazilian defender Vitor Reis in January 2025, Cherki juggling the ball and taunting Arsenal fans at the Carabao Cup final, Arsenal fans’ disdain for Rodri due to comments from the midfielder after City’s title win in 2024. The list goes on.

Lee: At boardroom level,  relations are not especially warm, and it is fair to say it is a similar story on the pitch. Arsenal’s style of play has not won many admirers at City, either under Guardiola or now with Maresca in charge, and their string of title battles over recent years means this is probably the biggest — in terms of being the most relevant — rivalry in English football right now.

What starting XIs can we expect?

Onyeagwara: With Saka and Rice only just having returned from their post-World Cup breaks and yet to play a minute of pre-season action, I do not expect them to be risked. Other late returnees after the tournament, such as Martin Odegaard, Gabriel, David Raya and Noni Madueke, have featured in the friendlies, so I expect them to be in line to start.

Don’t be surprised if you see cameos from the likes of Ethan Nwaneri, Max Dowman and Marli Salmon, who have all played significant minutes in pre-season and impressed when called upon. I also think we will see a first Arsenal start for Guimaraes in midfield. William Saliba misses out with the back injury that ended his World Cup.

Possible XI (4-2-1-3): Raya; White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Hincapie; Guimaraes, Lewis-Skelly; Odegaard; Madueke, Havertz, Tzolis.

Lee: City will likely throw in some of their late-returning World Cup stars, but the majority of the team in Cardiff will probably be made up of those who went on the tour to Asia.

Possible XI (4-2-3-1): Donnarumma; Nunes, Khusanov, Dias, Gvardiol; Kovacic, Anderson; Semenyo, Cherki, Doku, Haaland.

What is your match prediction?

Onyeagwara: Arsenal have won all three of their Charity Shield/Community Shield matches against Manchester City, but I think that run will end on Sunday. City 2-1 Arsenal.

Lee: Arsenal to win on penalties — did you see the state of City’s spot kicks in the friendly against Inter in Hong Kong?

Why is this year’s Community Shield in Cardiff, not at Wembley?

This game is usually played at Wembley but was moved in March because of a schedule clash with The Weeknd’s concerts at England’s national stadium.

The 74,000-capacity Principality Stadium (formerly known as the Millennium Stadium) hosted this fixture six times between 2001 and 2006 during Wembley’s renovation works.

How can I watch?

The Community Shield is being broadcast live on TNT Sports/HBO Max in the UK. In the United States, the game will be shown live on ESPN. Kick-off is 3pm BST/10am ET/7am PT.

As Matty James gazes up at the new Kop stand that already dominates Wrexham’s historic home stadium, despite it still being a year away from opening, a broad smile lights up his face.

He has plenty to be happy about, not least the start of a new season that once again promises plenty at the Racecourse Ground.

“My wife says how fortunate I am to be at a club like this,” the 35-year-old tells The Athletic when sheltering from the sun in the main stand on Thursday, which turned out to be the hottest day of the year.

“I joined Leicester at 20; they were a really ambitious club that went on to achieve so much. And now, at this stage of my career, I’m at another ambitious club to really get the fire burning in my belly.”

Two years ago, James was in a very different place.

Released by Bristol City after three seasons as a mainstay of their team in the second-tier Championship, the former Manchester United academy kid unwittingly found himself in limbo.

Despite playing a pivotal role in Leicester’s promotion to the Premier League in 2014 and then the great escape to avoid relegation a year later that paved the way for surely the most unlikely title success of all-time in 2016, James had no offers.

Even as the 2024-25 season hoved into view, the phone failed to ring, prompting James to wonder if this really was it for a senior career that, up to then, had been spent exclusively in the top two divisions of the English game.

“I had something in my own head that I didn’t really tell my wife, my dad or my mum,” he says. “Just kept it to myself, that I was going to finish playing. Not through choice, more through others’.

James played 115 matches across three seasons with Bristol City from 2021-24 (Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

“I was baffled, to be honest. I’d played 43 games in the season I left Bristol City, and yet they didn’t offer me anything. They had their direction, and that’s fine. What I didn’t think would happen is that I’d then be having the same conversation pretty much everywhere — how, basically, there was a focus on youth and a need for players to have value.

“I was 32, about to turn 33, and thinking, ‘This is mad’. I started to speak to people directly, directors and so on, and the same things would be coming back. Whether it be data, whether it be youth, whether it be adding value to a squad, whether it be a club not wanting to sign anyone over the age of 27 and not wanting any players in the squad over the age of 28.

“I’d played 120-odd games in three years. Every day, I was committing to recovery, I was committing to eating well, committing to everything someone at the age of 20 was committing to.

“It was really hard mentally, because I wasn’t ready to retire.”

That stint as a free agent, which finally ended when Wrexham, then of third-tier League One, came calling in late October 2024, was not the only time James has had to dig deep into his resolve.

There was also the horrific run of setbacks at Leicester, starting in May 2015 with a ruptured cruciate ligament in his left knee, that kept him out for 18 months, including the famous season when Claudio Ranieri’s side stunned football by winning the Premier League title.

A desire and determination that James credits his parents, Maxine and Lynton, with instilling in him ultimately proved to be the salvation of his career. Along with, it should be said, a timely offer from Leicester in the summer of 2024 to train with the then top-flight club to keep his fitness up.

“Leicester were unbelievable,” he says. “I had nine or 10 weeks training with them in the end. Really looked after me, ensuring I kept a level of fitness that meant, if a chance did come along, I’d be ready.

“Four or five days a week, I’d drive down there (from his home south of Manchester). I’d speak to my family and they’d be saying, ‘Just leave it today. One day won’t make a difference’, but I couldn’t let myself think like that. I had to be all-in.”

James (front right) was part of the Leicester side that earned Premier League promotion in 2014 (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

“I needed to be ready to prove people wrong. My thinking was, ‘If I give up by not going in to Leicester, how can anyone else ask me to play a League One or Championship match?’

“Don’t get me wrong, it was hard at the end of July, it was hard at the end of August, hard at the end of September. Same at the start of October. I’m driving down there on my own, working hard on my fitness but then having nothing to build towards at the weekend.

“On Saturdays, I’m watching my kids play football, which was brilliant, but then getting home and following the scores on TV. Someone would get an injury and I’d be, ‘I wonder?’ That’s not healthy.”

The offer of a trial from Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson that eventually turned into a short-term contract until January 2025 proved the merits of all that hard work. Two further extensions have since followed, the latest in January being an 18-month deal to take James to the end of the 2026-27 campaign.

Considering the standard of his displays last season — and how badly Wrexham missed him during a nine-game absence through injury during the spring — few would surely bet against another contract being offered to further underline the folly of those who wouldn’t take a chance on him a couple of summers ago.

“To be sitting here with you now, looking forward to a new season and a big Welsh derby at Cardiff on Monday, it feels like another time,” adds James, who just before Wrexham came calling did field a tentative offer from Major League Soccer.

“I was close to calling it a day. Which would have been a travesty, really, as I was nowhere near ready (to retire). And I’d have missed out on all this.”

There is a telling moment during the latest, fifth, series of Welcome To Wrexham that shines a light on the art of leadership in a dressing room dotted with players who have captained their former clubs.

Inside just five days in April, Parkinson’s side had lost 5-1 at home to Southampton and then 2-0 at Birmingham City, the latter such a flat performance that Wrexham failed to muster even one shot on target. With just four games of their regular season remaining, their challenge for the promotion play-offs seemed to be slipping away without much of a fight.

Cue forward Josh Windass revealing on camera how James, as one of those who had worn the armband during the season, had approached him about setting up a meeting with just the players present.

“It’s very uncommon to have a meeting with only the players,” Wrexham’s 16-goal league top scorer last season explained to the documentary team, “but Matty and I felt we had to do anything possible to turn things around.”

James joined Wrexham in October 2024 (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

Four months on from a players-only gathering that was followed by back-to-back wins against Stoke City and Oxford United, James explains his rationale at a time when the season could easily have tailed off.

“For me, there were certain things creeping in,” says the midfielder, who helped win promotion from League One in his first season at the Racecourse. “Certain thoughts, certain processes, certain words. There was too much chatter about where we were trying to go, whereas we needed to be in the present.

“There were four games left and I said to the lads, ‘Look, we have an opportunity here — I get there is expectation here, but let’s not think about that; let’s approach it as a group of lads who need to deliver in that next training session, and the next match’.

“It was a little reminder, not just for the lads but for myself, that we can’t be looking too far ahead because then you lose the focus on the present.

“This club is very difficult in that sense. We were in touching distance and then after losing one game, it had gone. Or that’s what we were being told from the outside. We needed to take a step back. And if others wanted to write us off, so be it.”

Wrexham’s push for the play-offs and a fourth straight promotion would ultimately come up short.

A 3-1 defeat at champions Coventry City on the penultimate weekend was followed by a dramatic final day of the regular season that saw Parkinson’s side initially drop to eighth in the ‘As things stand’ table before then briefly shooting up to sixth, which would have meant a play-offs spot, and finally finishing seventh, one win shy of extending their season.

James admits to being devastated at missing out via that 2-2 draw at home to Middlesbrough, who ended up fifth. “Seventh is probably the worst place to finish in football,” he says, “other than relegation.”

In pre-season action for Wrexham against Liverpool at New York’s iconic Yankee Stadium (Angela Weiss/Getty Images)

“Missing out really hurt, even though we had another very good season. I do believe this group, had we got in the play-offs, would have been a very, very good team. But we took it to the 46th game, and I was proud of everyone for that.

“In a league competition, you finish where you deserve to finish. And we deserved to finish seventh. But it showed good character from the group not to let it fade away. And we learn from it. Did we lose a little bit of focus? Did we lose a little bit of balance and start to talk about certain things we didn’t need to?

“What’s great is this group has so many leaders. There’s almost 11 of us out there some days. That’s down to the gaffer (Parkinson) and the profile he likes in a player. It’s part of the reason why we are so excited for the season.”

Wrexham have a tough start to the new campaign on paper. Cardiff is the first of four away trips leading up to the September/October international break that also includes Millwall, Swansea City and West Ham United.

Things are no less difficult on home soil, with Watford, Birmingham, Burnley and Southampton all due in north Wales during those first eight matches.

“It’s such an exciting time,” adds James. “Cardiff is a great way to start, a Welsh derby and a great occasion. It’ll be great here, too. Just look at the new stand — the sheer size of it shows the club’s ambition.

“I’m sure it’s the same for Callum Doyle at 22 as it is at my age. Or Bailey (Cadamarteri) at 21. Opportunities like this just don’t come along very often in a career. The train is moving and you want to be on it.”

Need help with today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle? You’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.

A quick public service announcement before we continue: The bottom of this article includes the answers — and hints — for the four categories. So if you want to solve the board hint-free, we recommend you play before continuing.

You can access today’s game here. And when you’re done, try out our limited-edition Connections: Soccer Edition for an extra challenge.

Today’s difficulty

Game No. 692’s difficulty: 3 out of 5

Connections: Sports Edition hints for Aug. 16, 2026

Scroll below for one answer in each of the four categories.

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Yellow: CAL

Green: BO

Blue: CEASE

Purple: BACK

Connections: Sports Edition answers for Aug. 16, 2026

Scroll below for the full answers to each of the four categories.

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Yellow

ACC schools, abbreviated: BC, CAL, CUSE, PITT

Green

First names of AFC West QBs: BO, FERNANDO, JUSTIN, PATRICK

Blue

Toronto Blue Jays: CEASE, BIEBER, GUERRERO, SPRINGER

Purple

DEFENSIVE _____: BACK, END, INDIFFERENCE, TACKLE

What is Connections: Sports Edition?

Connections: Sports Edition is The Athletic’s first-ever game, a daily puzzle designed for players to find connections between 16 words on the game board.

The game’s objective is to group words or objects into four groups of four based on commonalities within each group as quickly as possible. Find the groups without making four mistakes. Each puzzle has exactly one solution, so watch out for words or items that seem to belong to multiple categories!

Category examples:
Sports ____ : Fan, Car, Bar, Radio
U.S. Summer Olympians: Biles, Phelps, Ledecky, Lyles

Each category group is assigned a color, revealed as you solve, ranging from straightforward (yellow) to medium (green) to challenging (blue) to tricky (purple).

Who creates the puzzles for Connections: Sports Edition?

That’s me! My name is Mark Cooper, and I create Connections: Sports Edition and work as a managing editor for college sports here at The Athletic. I was previously The Athletic’s managing editor for breaking news.

The next puzzle will be available at midnight in your time zone. Thanks for playing — and share your scores in the comments!