It is the proverbial curtain raiser to the Premier League season, and defending champions Arsenal were the ones who were ready to perform.
Their 3-0 win over Manchester City in the Community Shield on Sunday was inevitably going to raise eyebrows, and in this week’s SVQ, we’ll discuss one player who produced something (or two things) we had not seen in the fixture in 30 years.
The EFL also kicked off, and it was not short on drama. We’ll look back at a seven-goal thriller in League One that made some unwanted history for someone who couldn’t really have done any more.
Our five-question quiz is back looking ahead to the Premier League’s start, and we have an Ask Opta query on opening-day goals.
Before we begin, though, attention all Fantasy Premier League players. Before you finalise your teams for the 2026-27 season, check this out…
📊 Solio Analytics
Solio is an FPL tool that helps you turn your football knowledge into a plan, and that plan into actionable decisions. Their philosophy is simple: “beliefs backed by data”. The result is less guesswork and, hopefully, more fun.
The Solio projection model combines historical data with current information and live market signals. It blends betting-market movements with Opta data and other inputs to estimate team and player outcomes.
They place a particular focus on expected minutes. Solio continually reviews playing-time expectations and makes player-level updates before, during, and after each Gameweek. Its model considers factors including team strength, expected goals and assists, playing time, clean-sheet probability, cards and other likely outcomes.
Importantly, the aim isn’t simply to describe what has already happened. Solio is built to understand what is most likely to happen next. In a game where decisions are based on future results, that approach can be game-changing.
A practical, real-world example is the Erling Haaland decision: start with him or not? Rather than stopping at your gut feeling, Solio’s planning tools help you understand the risk and reward of leaving him out of your Gameweek 1 team. Once you’ve done that, their optimisation engine lets you explore different routes to bringing him back into your squad in Gameweek 3 without having to wildcard.
Earlier this summer, Opta and Solio entered into a multi-year collaboration. The partnership strengthens Solio’s data pipeline, gives paid subscribers access to Opta data directly within the Solio FPL tool, and allows us to tell more interesting, data-driven FPL stories together.
If you want to try the tool for yourself, Solio offers both free and paid subscriptions. You can plan your Gameweek 1 team and beyond at fpl.solioanalytics.com/theanalystnewsletter.
😲 STAT: Bend it Like… Tzolis?
The Community Shield is a glorified friendly, but there will be those who believe it can be an indicator of how the coming season will pan out.
As we mentioned in last week’s SVQ, across the 34 Community Shield matches in the Premier League era, dating back to 1992-93, only eight of the victors have gone on to lift the Premier League title that season (23.5%), while Manchester City in 2018-19 are the only team of the last 14 to have done so.
However, it was difficult not to get carried away by Arsenal’s impressive showing against City in Cardiff on Sunday. Mikel Arteta’s men ran out 3-0 winners, the biggest margin of victory in a Community Shield since 2014 when the Gunners beat City by the same scoreline.
In what was Enzo Maresca’s first competitive outing after replacing Pep Guardiola, he suffered the joint-heaviest defeat by a Man City manager in their first game, with Harry Newbould in 1906 the only previous gaffer to lose by 3+ goals. Funnily enough, that was a 4-1 defeat to Arsenal.
The Gunners picked up where they left off last season when they won the Premier League title, but it was a new face who particularly impressed.