Manchester City have no time to dwell on their Community Shield disappointment, with head coach Enzo Maresca already shifting attention towards the Premier League opener against Bournemouth.
City suffered a 3-0 defeat to Arsenal at the Principality Stadium on Sunday, enduring a frustrating afternoon as Riccardo Calafiori, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard found the net for the Gunners.
The result handed Arsenal the first piece of silverware ahead of the new campaign and gave Maresca an early reminder of the work still required at Manchester City.
But rather than allow the defeat to dominate preparations, the City boss wants his players to use the experience as motivation.
The Premier League season begins next weekend, with Bournemouth travelling to the Etihad Stadium for kick-off on Sunday.
Maresca says the Community Shield will be analysed carefully, but the focus must quickly switch to the league.
“We’ll analyse the game, the mistakes we have done and try to improve that. Then from Tuesday, we’ll focus on the Bournemouth game,” he said in an interview with City Studios.
“Now we start a normal plan with a normal week then in two weeks it will start with every three days.”
That change in schedule will be crucial for City. Once the Premier League campaign gets underway, the demands will increase rapidly, with matches coming thick and fast across domestic and European competitions.
For Maresca, the immediate priority is therefore clear: identify what went wrong against Arsenal, correct it and ensure the squad is ready for Bournemouth.
City’s preparations for the Community Shield were also complicated by the number of players who represented their countries at this summer’s World Cup.
Several key members of the squad only recently returned to training, leaving Maresca with limited time to prepare his strongest available side.
The City boss believes the Community Shield nevertheless provided valuable competitive minutes for those players.
“We are the team with most players involved in the World Cup,” he began.
“Some of them [the players] start training just two or three days ago, so it was important for them to get minutes and be ready for the Premier League.”
That factor could help explain some of the shortcomings in City’s performance, although Maresca will know the Premier League will offer little sympathy once the competitive season begins.
The 3-0 defeat to Arsenal was certainly not the opening statement City wanted, but Maresca’s response could prove more important than the result itself.
The new City boss now has a full training week to work on defensive organisation, attacking patterns and the individual mistakes that contributed to Sunday’s loss.
Bournemouth will provide a completely different challenge, but City will be expected to start the Premier League season strongly on home soil.
Maresca’s message is straightforward: analyse, learn and move forward.
The Community Shield may have slipped away, but the bigger prize is still ahead.
Manchester City vs Bournemouth is where the real test begins.
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