As far as season curtain-raisers go, Manchester City left a lot to be desired in their sorry defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield.

“We knew already before the game the things we need to do,” Enzo Maresca said afterwards, when asked if the manner of the defeat highlighted the need for signings. “We have it quite clear what we need to do, and for sure we are going to do something before the transfer window closes.”

City have entrusted Maresca with continuing Pep Guardiola’s work in Manchester, and they entered the summer with the full intention of backing the Italian in the transfer market. But with a fortnight left of the window, there is a sense that things have not gone to plan so far, and the manner of their 3-0 loss to Arsenal in Cardiff will inevitably lead to questions.

City’s three pre-season games in Asia suggested that Maresca will bring Guardiola football but sped up, with fast passing between the lines and a succession of dribbles from talented wide players. Sunday suggested stilted build-up play, an uncertain midfield and only sporadic opportunities for the wide men to get involved.

Antoine Semenyo and team-mates underwhelmed in the Welsh capital (MB Media/Getty Images)

They will probably end up somewhere in the middle, with the hope at City being that there is far more of the former. The biggest problem they have right now is that the squad is far from complete, and that many of their biggest difference-makers only returned from their post-World Cup holidays on Wednesday.

Facing a settled side such as Arsenal brutally exposed those facts, and the additional complicating factor is that Guardiola was so successful, and set such high standards, that it is difficult to work out exactly what we should be comparing City to.

“In general, I am always concerned — even when we win games. So imagine it now that we did not win the game,” Maresca said with half a smile post-match when asked about how easily City conceded their goals. “But it’s just the beginning; we have many things that we need to do better.”

“The first two goals we conceded, I didn’t like,” he added. “The first one because it was after 25 seconds; the second one, I think there was no pressure on the ball. I don’t know if it’s for physical condition; we had more players at the World Cup. I don’t know the reason why, but the first two goals that we conceded, I don’t like.

“In terms of things that I like, I think after the first goal we conceded, the reaction was very good, at this level… when you concede a goal and you are able to react the way we react, then it’s good, but after the second goal I think it was more complicated.”

City players react to Arsenal taking the lead after 23 seconds (Ian Cook – CameraSport via Getty Images)

There was a period between Arsenal’s first two goals (scored by Riccardo Calafiori and Kai Havertz) where City looked somewhat settled and created some openings, although that was largely after 25 minutes. Before that, there were plenty of passes around the back, and while they were not always flustered, they were hardly incisive.

For the first two goals, Abdukodir Khusanov, Ruben Dias and Gianluigi Donnarumma were all poor, and the third goal somehow looked even worse for City, with Martin Odegaard strolling through the penalty area.

It has never been wise to make sweeping judgments on the Community Shield — anybody who remembers Erling Haaland’s goalless debut in 2022 will know that — and while it is tempting to believe that everything will go wrong without Guardiola at the tiller, it would be foolish to overlook the fact that the Maresca era is about three weeks old, and half the midfield is missing.

As much as there was plenty to be encouraged by in Hong Kong and South Korea, there are some obvious concerns. Some of them go back further than pre-season, to Maresca’s time at Chelsea.

One regards the build-up. So far we have seen that City are going to rely on several set patterns for getting the ball out from the goalkeeper, and they will use Maresca’s trusted 3-2 shape, made up of three defenders behind two midfielders.

Under Guardiola, there was an ever-evolving set of solutions that could be executed by players such as Bernardo Silva, Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan, who were good enough to interpret things on the fly.

Things are different now, and that is an inevitability of losing top players who have been at the club for years, and the finest manager of his generation. The worry is that by coaching certain patterns when City are trying to build out from the back, opposition coaches will be able to come up with a plan to stop them.

City obviously have work to do in the transfer market, with Rodri and Tijjani Reijnders set to move on, after Bernardo left at the end of last season. Ayyoub Bouaddi is still expected to come in, and is best suited to replicate the Rodri role, but at 18 years old he simply cannot be expected to do everything the Spaniard does.

Enzo Fernandez is a player who has split the City fanbase, not just in terms of his ability but also in terms of the controversy following his singing of a racist song in 2024. Maresca wants him, but he is not seen as a Rodri replacement — the idea is that he would play further forward — and even if there are concerns about his contributions off the ball, he does certainly have fight in him, and that is a trait that City need.

It would be unwise to ignore Fernandez’s defensive deficiencies considering the extra need to win a duel and track a runner in this ultra-physical Premier League. That is also important because Maresca is, so far, asking his wingers to press the opposition centre-backs, which means the midfield needs to be ready for battle if the opposition move the ball past the first line of the press. They were too lightweight on Sunday in that regard.

Could Fernandez add the necessary bite to City’s midfield? (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

City are building a team for these kinds of individual battles, and it means that the football is likely to be a lot more rough and ready than under Guardiola, but that would have been the case, even if to a lesser extent, had the Catalan remained in charge.

With players who are better suited to beating a man rather than passing a team to death, that is necessarily going to affect the type of football they play. As much as there are players whose weaknesses could be isolated, there are plenty who appear to fit Maresca’s system like a glove — Nico O’Reilly, for example, could be a major attacking weapon from left-back.

The game was up for City at 3-0, but there were flashes of Elliot Anderson’s ability on his debut, not least his desire to look for an early ball in behind, which suggests that Haaland could get the kind of passes that only Kevin De Bruyne used to try.

If games come down to a series of individual battles, City do have players in both attack and defence who can thrive, even if there will probably be some painful afternoons as they find their feet. Sunday in Cardiff was one of them, and it will inevitably raise questions about how many more could follow.

Even if there are areas to be concerned about, it is still very early days, with plenty of time for those ideas to be improved upon, for the players to become used to them, and for tweaks and evolutions to be made.

There will inevitably be doubts about life post-Pep, but it cannot be denied that the midfield is in urgent need of a makeover and the football is likely to be pretty different. Still, it is too early to make any judgments.

A powerful forward is still on Nottingham Forest’s shortlist of targets this summer, a signing that has become all the more pressing after supporters at the City Ground on Sunday bid an emotional farewell to a player who embodies all the qualities of a goal-getting battering ram.

Despite starting only six Premier League games over the past two seasons, Taiwo Awoniyi was given a guard of honour on the City Ground pitch at half-time, his team-mates lining up to hug him by way of a send-off before his switch to newly-promoted Coventry City.

The 10 goals the Nigerian scored in the 2022-23 campaign helped stave off the threat of relegation in the first season after winning the Championship play-offs. They were the foundations on which Forest have built.

As they head into their fifth consecutive season in the top flight, Forest will miss Awoniyi’s ever-present smile, his bubbly demeanour and positive influence in the dressing room.

His departure will, however, make room in the squad for Forest to sign another forward, with Chelsea’s Liam Delap still among their attacking possibilities. The 23-year-old – who was also a Forest target prior to his £30million ($40.6m) move to London from Ipswich last summer – has dropped down the Blues’ pecking order after Chelsea signed Danny Welbeck from Brighton & Hove Albion.

Head coach Oliver Glasner still hopes Forest will make two or three additions before the window closes, with a wing-back and a central midfielder also on their shopping list.

Glasner believes the evidence of the past few Premier League seasons – when those higher up the top-scorers list have all been of a similar ilk — is enough to underline the value of powerful forwards. Erling Haaland, Alexander Isak, Ollie Watkins and Jean-Philippe Mateta, who Glasner had at Crystal Palace, have all thrived.

He likes his sides to have goal threat from numerous areas, including the two No 10 roles within his preferred 3-4-2-1 formation. But he puts great stock in having a figurehead up front, a role that Mateta – who is not among Forest’s targets – very capably fulfilled in south London.

In the meantime, Glasner is relaxed about the possibility of starting the new campaign with Chris Wood and Igor Jesus as his two main options for the No 9 role.

Wood converted from the penalty spot with typical confidence as Forest defeated Brest 2-0 in their final pre-season outing at the City Ground. It was a dominant display that saw him lead the Forest line with great purpose and poise.

Igor Jesus found the net as Forest claimed a 2-0 win over Coventry City behind closed doors on Saturday, with Neco Williams getting the other goal for a Forest side that included many of the squad’s big-hitters, including Matz Sels, Murillo, Morgan Gibbs-White, Ibrahim Sangare and James McAtee.

“We have Chris and Igor — he has scored in almost every game he played in pre-season, with the exception of Barcelona. Chris, you can see the impact he has on the game; his physical presence. He was ruthless with the penalty,” said Glasner in an interview with gathered journalists. “We have two great strikers and we also have other players scoring goals. Our wing-backs are getting into dangerous positions.

“And we have great players in the No 10 role who can score goals. We feel well prepared. But we always look at what is possible, at who is available. If we can add a player who gives us something we do not have in the squad, and it makes sense from a financial point of view, then we will try to do it. We have two or three additions in the pipeline.”

Chris Wood scored from the penalty spot against Brest (David Rogers/Getty Images)

Glasner has been happy with the £35million addition of Ousmane Diomande from Sporting CP and the capture of Xaver Schlager on a free transfer following the end of his contract at RB Leipzig. There is no sense of crisis over further new additions, with Glasner feeling he has two players to compete in every position. Equal importance will be given to trimming the squad, with one or two players – including defender Tyler Bindon – likely to leave on loan.

Wood is of a determined mind after suffering a frustrating campaign that saw him impacted by a knee injury that sidelined him from mid-October to early April — and believes Forest have the options to be competitive up front.

Glasner thinks highly of the 34-year-old New Zealander, who scored 20 goals as Forest finished seventh and secured Europa League qualification in the 2024-2025 season – and Wood believes he can thrive in the role Glasner likes his centre-forward to play.

“Both myself and Igor can do that role, no problem. We will have to fight it out for that starting berth. We might have to share it throughout the season. We will have to do a job for the team,” Wood told journalists including The Athletic. “Igor has great ability.”

“Taiwo was an integral part of the dressing room. You can see the love we have for him and the fans love him. He will be sorely missed. He works hard for the team and is just a great lad. I am sure he will do great things (at Coventry).”

Whether there are new additions before next weekend or not, Glasner will hope the team he selects to face Leeds will be just as capable of achieving the levels he believes Awoniyi can.

Playing twice within 48 hours was an inconvenience Crystal Palace could have done without last season.

Competing in the UEFA Conference League alongside a run to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup and a congested festive period in the Premier League, their success caused a fixture pile-up.

But it offered an opportunity. Then-manager Oliver Glasner chose to name a completely changed starting XI for the Conference League game against Finnish side KuPS in December, with a Premier League fixture away at Leeds United to follow two days later on the Saturday night and the Carabao Cup tie with Arsenal on the following Tuesday.

That meant a chance for two youngsters in particular. The youngest of them was Joel Drakes-Thomas, a 16-year-old forward who can play as a wing-back. Also in the starting line-up for his debut was 17-year-old left wing-back Dean Benamar. Both impressed, but Drakes-Thomas was especially bright, subsequently becoming Palace’s youngest Premier League player when coming off the bench in what was a heavy 4-1 defeat by Leeds.

There was a brief appearance from the bench against Newcastle United on January 4 before a start in the 2-1 defeat by Macclesfield in the FA Cup, a game on which he struggled to impose himself.

Joel Drakes-Thomas playing against Newcastle in the Premier League in January (George Wood/Getty Images)

But the teenager is viewed with great promise at Palace. The Athletic reported in December that he had agreed to sign a professional contract when eligible to do so on his 17th birthday, with that being confirmed in June.

His efforts in that 2-2 draw with KuPS did not go unnoticed, and while Glasner later warned that Palace would have problems if they were to rely on a 16-year-old, those comments did not reflect his view of Drakes-Thomas but acknowledged his inexperience and age.

He had praised Drakes-Thomas’ confidence after the KuPS game. Glasner, not a manager to prioritise youth, was demanding of his players and age made no difference. “He has a nice personality,” Glasner said. “I like it if (young players) take responsibility and if they just do (rather than think too much). You can make a few mistakes, but I like the way he played today.”

The arrival of Brennan Johnson in January for a then-club record transfer fee of £35million put Drakes-Thomas’ first-team prospects on hold, while Evann Guessand’s arrival from Aston Villa on loan further set his chances back.

There had been a sense at the club that he would debut last season. This year he may prove to be Palace’s breakthrough player, but that is unlikely to be as a regular in the first team.

Realistically, there is no space for any of the academy talent to make their mark at this stage. 

Goalkeeper Lucca Benetton is highly regarded but is 15. If he continues to stand out, he may step up to play under-21 football this season and he was part of the travelling squad for the Como Cup as Palace try hard to convince him that he should stay at the club as one of their brightest talents.

Palace will hope that holding onto Drakes-Thomas despite interest elsewhere, combined with minutes as he develops, highlights a pathway for others. They have lost several academy players to other clubs in recent seasons, including forward Jesse Derry and the more highly-regarded midfielder Reggie Watson, both to Chelsea.

Not all of those who have been left were considered to be highly likely future first-team players, but Palace’s only realistic way to compete with bigger clubs is to show a future in the senior setup sooner.

Under new manager Pierre Sage, who prefers his No 10s to move the ball wider, more quickly, Drakes-Thomas should benefit. He is naturally more suited to the role of a traditional winger but demonstrated in the under-21s and those fleeting senior appearances that he is adaptable.

With Palace in the Europa League this season and that guaranteeing at least eight league-phase games, he stands a chance of being given further chances to impress. The most important thing is that he is not stunted by a lack of games at any level and he still plays regularly for the under-21s.

Drakes-Thomas will benefit from being a more established part of the first team setup — learning, improving and becoming a more rounded player.