The Guardian’s fans’ network looks ahead to the new season: fresh talent, weak links, and who will be sacked first.

Elliot Anderson has admitted ­England’s World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina still pains him, but is hoping to use the confidence from his performances at the ­tournament to inspire the start of his Manchester City career.

Anderson will probably make his debut when City play ­the Premier League winners, Arsenal, on ­Sunday at the Principality ­Stadium in ­Cardiff for the Community Shield.

“It’s really hard,” Anderson said of England’s loss. “I’m still sort of ­struggling with that. There are highs and lows in football. It’s about how you bounce back.

“I’ve had three weeks to reflect on it, but now is a new season, you have to move forward.”

Phil Foden says he is excited about working under Enzo Maresca, his new manager at Manchester City. We should call this exactly what it is: a very obvious barefaced lie. No doubt Foden is excited about playing football again, about challenging for trophies with his boyhood club, the new Premier League season, his new contract, a fresh start, etc, etc.

But let’s be real. Holidays are something you get excited about. Birthdays. Weddings. Amazon deliveries. The new Charli xcx album. Christmas. Playing for Enzo Maresca inspires plenty of emotions, but excitement would probably feature pretty low down a list. At best, you brace for Maresca. You steel yourself. You look in the mirror every morning and ask yourself whether you’re man enough for him. But if you’re excited, then he simply isn’t doing his job.

The small print

• No extra-time; a drawn match goes straight to penalties

• Six substitutions per team in three substitution windows

• Three falls and a submission

“So, the thing that never went away is back,” writes Krishnamoorthy V. “I’ve never taken the Community Shield as a serious contest. But if Jonathan Wilson writes 2000 words about it, I should sit up and take notice.”

Manchester City did not make a £120m bid for Enzo Fernández before Chelsea’s 5pm deadline on Friday but Enzo Maresca still expects a busy end to the transfer window, as the club seek incomings and outgoings. Chelsea, meanwhile, now expect the Argentina midfielder to stay at Stamford Bridge.

Maresca takes charge of City for the first time in a major match on Sunday against Arsenal in Cardiff in the Community Shield but is a long way from finalising the squad he will have for the season. Fernández, who played under Maresca at Chelsea, remains a target for City, who could still test the water despite missing the deadline.

Mikel Arteta loves the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It’s a Championship Manager reference, don’t worry about it.

Mikel Arteta has said he is relaxed about his Arsenal contract expiring at the end of the new season and believes his side will need to be better than last year to defend their title successfully.

The Premier League champions will face Enzo Maresca’s Manchester City in the Community Shield in Cardiff on Sunday and are heavy favourites to win back-to-back league titles for the first time since the 1930s. The departure of Pep Guardiola from their traditional rivals City means Arteta is now the Premier League’s longest-serving manager, with the Spaniard having joined in December 2019.

He signed a three-year contract extension in September 2024 after Arsenal finished as runners-up to City and had been expected to agree a new deal over the summer that would make him one of the highest-paid managers in the world. Arteta acknowledged on Friday that his priorities have been elsewhere this summer as he attempts to strengthen his squad before the new season but reassured supporters that he is fully committed to the club.

The doubt for anyone when a long-strived-for goal has been achieved is hunger. Arsenal waited 22 years for their 14th league title and, compounding the yearning, finished second three times in a row before finally lifting the Premier League trophy in May. The physical exertions of last season were immense – as seen by Declan Rice’s clear exhaustion and Bukayo Saka’s intermittent contributions at the World Cup, where William Saliba picked up a back injury – but so too was the emotional strain.

The first weeks of a new season after a major tournament, especially the World Cup, are often a little erratic anyway, but this feels like a particularly unpredictable start to a campaign. Nine of the 20 Premier League clubs have changed manager this summer. For the first time in 40 years, none of the five big managerial beasts of the Premier League era – Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsène Wenger, José Mourinho, Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola – will be in charge of a club. There are unknowns and uncertainty everywhere, even at Arsenal. Mikel Arteta may be the longest-serving manager in the league but there are questions even there; it would be no great surprise if Arsenal were to start slowly.

Bruno Guimarães has broken a very niche record. His £75m move to Arsenal is the most expensive transfer for a midfielder aged at least 28. This should not be taken too seriously given the previous record holder, Zinedine Zidane, moved 25 years ago from Juventus to Real Madrid, and would have cost far more in 2026 money. But it shows how highly the Gunners rate the Brazilian to have spent so much on a player who will be in his 30s before the end of next year. It is a transfer for today, not tomorrow.