Treble winners Manchester City meet Arsenal in the Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday.
The Gunners topped the Premier League for most of last season before being usurped by Pep Guardiola’s men en route to their fifth title in six years.
Here, the PA news agency takes a look at some of the talking points ahead of the clash.
City to pick up where they left off?
City finished last season in unstoppable form as they powered to the treble, winning 11 successive games after February’s 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest to pip Arsenal in the Premier League title race.
They also saw off Manchester United 2-1 in the FA Cup final and beat Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Inter Milan to claim Champions League glory.
Sunday brings a chance to see how Guardiola’s side appear to be shaping up as they prepare to hunt down further silverware, with Erling Haaland no doubt eager to open his account for 2023-24 after his astonishing 52-goal haul last season.
The Rice is right for Gunners
Arsenal reacted to their most sustained title challenge in years by getting their transfer business done early in the summer.
Kai Havertz joined from Chelsea and Jurrien Timber came in from Ajax but it was the club-record signing of West Ham captain Declan Rice for £105million that caught the eye – not least because City were also interested in landing the 24-year-old.
Rice will be seen as pivotal in taking Mikel Arteta’s side from nearly-men to trophy winners and what better way to prove your credentials than starring against the might of City’s midfield.
Gundgo-gone
An interesting alteration at City over the summer has been the departure to Barcelona of experienced midfielder Ilkay Gundogan, a key man in the closing stages last term.
The new recruit in that position is Mateo Kovacic, brought in from Chelsea, with City having opted to end their interest in signing Rice after bids reached a certain point.
Kevin De Bruyne proved last season he is one of the best players in Europe while John Stones has also been operating in a midfield role and Rodri – who hit the winner in the Champions League final win – is also a class act.
Eddie ready to go?
While the Community Shield is often referred to as the ‘curtain-raiser’ for the new league season – for Arsenal this is more of a dress rehearsal of their title ambitions.
They will have to perform, however, without first-choice striker and former City man Gabriel Jesus, who underwent minor surgery to address irritation from a more serious knee operation earlier in the year.
It means Arteta has a decision to make as to who leads the line at Wembley, with Eddie Nketiah the likely favourite – although he is without a competitive goal in 14 games, a run that stretches back to January and almost 10 hours of football.
Supporting the Jeff Astle Foundation
The funds raised by the Community Shield have been used to support plenty of causes in the past and this year the Football Association has announced the Jeff Astle Foundation will be one of the main beneficiaries.
Astle, who played for England and won the FA Cup with West Brom, died in 2002 and had been diagnosed with early-onset dementia.
The Jeff Astle Foundation was created in his memory and raises awareness of the impact caused by concussion in football, while also providing support to former players who suffer with dementia.
Flick: Barcelona need to learn how to win without Yamal
Hansi Flick has urged Barcelona to find a way to win without the absent Lamine Yamal, as he misses a second consecutive match with an ankle injury.
The 17-year-old missed their 1-0 loss at Real Sociedad which halted Barca's seven-match winning streak in all competitions before the international break.
Yamal has only missed two LaLiga matches since the start of last season, while Barcelona have lost both games this campaign in which he has not started, after coming off the bench in a 4-2 loss to Osasuna in September.
Flick said that his players need to show that they can win without their teenage sensation.
"Tomorrow I will put the question to the team, it will be a very good question for them [if they can win without Yamal]," Flick told a press conference on Friday.
"Against Real Sociedad, we didn't play well, and it wasn't because of Lamine's absence. He is a very important player for us, but we have options to also play well without him.
"He won't be able to play tomorrow, we don't know when he will be able to go back from his injury, but what is clear for me is that we want him to be back only when he is 100% recovered."
Yamal played a big role in Spain's European Championship title win earlier this year in Germany, winning the best goal and the Young Player of the Tournament award in his breakthrough campaign.
He continued to thrive this season with five goals and seven assists to help Barca to the top of the LaLiga standings on 33 points, six ahead of rivals Real Madrid, who have a game in hand in second place.
Yamal is also the only player across Europe's big five leagues to complete 25+ dribbles (34), create 25+ chances (26), have 25+ shots (39), score 5+ goals (five) and provide 5+ assists (seven).
Flick suggested that he may have to adjust his system, as it is hard to replace a player with such a mixture of speed, technique and finishing.
"We might be a bit limited by the absence of Lamine," Flick said.
"But we have a lot of players with great quality, and they can play in different positions. We'll see what we'll need and we'll design the game plan.
"It's always important after the international break to come back strong and with confidence. That's our goal for tomorrow."
'If we get relegated, I will be here', says Guardiola amid Man City charges
Pep Guardiola insisted he would stay with Manchester City even if the club is relegated as punishment for their alleged breaches of the Premier League's financial rules.
Guardiola, who joined City in 2016, signed a new two-year contract extension on Friday, ending speculation over his current deal that was due to expire at the end of the season.
The deal itself will take Guardiola's tenure at the club to over a decade, making him City's longest-serving manager since Les McDowall in 1963.
During his time in charge, the Spaniard has won 18 trophies, including six Premier League titles and their maiden Champions League crown last year.
He also boasts a 72.04% win percentage across all competitions, which is unsurprisingly the highest of any full-time City manager in history.
However, a hearing into Man City's 115 charges for allegedly breaking the Premier League's rules is also under way, but Guardiola said he will stay regardless of the outcome.
"I said that six months ago. If we get relegated, I will be here and next year we're going to come up to the Premier League. I knew it then, I feel it now," Guardiola said.
He also revealed that he agreed to fresh terms at the Etihad in less than two hours.
"I felt I should stay here. Of course, because they want me. For obvious reasons, for the results and because we've known each other for a long time," he added.
"All my decisions have been like that, what I feel in the moment. I don't pre-convince, I wait. I decided to stay here and in just two hours we did it [agreed the contract]."
City welcome Tottenham to the Etihad this weekend on the back of four consecutive defeats - Guardiola's longest losing run in his entire managerial career.
The Citizens last lost more consecutively between March and April 2006 under Stuart Pearce (six – the fifth game of which was also against Tottenham).
They have also won just three of their last 10 top-flight games against Tottenham (D2 L5) and are looking to win consecutive meetings with them for the first time since April 2019.
Despite their run of form, Guardiola was quick to point out his side's recent success, most notably becoming the first team to win four consecutive Premier League titles.
"When you are here for nine years, with a long time at one club, you live all the scenarios, all the situations," Guardiola said.
"You're able to lose four games in a row, but at the same time, you're able to win four Premier Leagues in a row.
"The difference is that most of the teams are able to lose four games in a row in different competitions, but just one team won four Premier Leagues in a row. So it happened.
"Did it happen in one season? No. When you've been somewhere eight or nine years, yeah, both sides of the run can happen."
Moca FC's Baez, Correa sanctioned by Concacaf Disciplinary Committee for violent conduct in Carib Cup semis clash against Cavalier
The Concacaf Disciplinary Committee has sanctioned players Miguel Baez and Jesus Correa of Dominican Republic club Moca FC for incidents that occurred during their Concacaf Caribbean Cup second-leg semi-final match against Jamaica’s Cavalier FC on Thursday, October 30.
After considering the documentation and evidence gathered during its investigation and based on the competition regulations and the applicable disciplinary code, the Disciplinary Committee has imposed Miguel Baez a six-match suspension and Jesus Correa a three-match suspension for violent conduct.
The sanctions include the automatic one-match suspension for the on-field direct red cards given to each player during that 7-0 beating in Kingston.
Both Baez and Correa must serve their suspensions during the upcoming 2024 Concacaf Caribbean Cup third-place matches and future editions of the competition.
Moca FC is scheduled to meet Haiti's Real Hope FC in that home-and-away tie on November 26 and December 3 to determine the next Caribbean representative that will contest next year's Concacaf Champions Cup. Finalists Cavalier and Cibao FC, also of the Dominican Republic, have secured automatic berths.
Meanwhile, the Disciplinary Committee has also warned the players and the club that more severe sanctions could be taken should incidents occur during future matches.
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