Elliot Anderson is relishing the opportunity to win a trophy on his very first outing for Manchester City, with the Sky Blues facing Premier League champions Arsenal in the Community Shield at the Principality Stadium on Sunday.

The midfielder completed a £116m move to the Etihad Stadium from Nottingham Forest in July, following two outstanding campaigns at the City Ground after leaving Newcastle United. His first appearance in Sky Blue could now come in the traditional curtain-raiser to the English season, with silverware immediately on the line.

A fairytale start

Last season, even as Forest battled against relegation and ultimately finished 16th, Anderson's numbers stood up against any player in the division. He recorded the most touches (3,300), won possession the most times (306), won the most duels (297) and drew the most fouls (80) of any player in the Premier League.

He then played a key role in England's run to the bronze medal at the World Cup, leading every other player in Thomas Tuchel's squad for duels won (50), tackles (21), tackles won (18), interceptions (eight) and possession regains (42).

Anderson believes Sunday's game represents a chance for City to lay down an early marker against the team that denied them the Premier League title in 2025-26.

"A chance to win a trophy in your first week is quite good, so hopefully I can get minutes there and show what I can do," Anderson said. "It's really important. I think every game is important, all the pre-season games have been important, so that's all we'll try and do – win that game.

"It'll be a difficult game. Obviously, they're the champions from last season, so it'll be tough, but every game is going to be tough this season. We'll just play in our style and try and win the game."

Stats suggest Arsenal edge it

The Opta supercomputer makes Arsenal favourites for Sunday's game, with a 44.8% likelihood of victory inside 90 minutes, while City's hopes are rated at 29.7%.

Gunners boss Mikel Arteta won both his Community Shield matches as a player, in 2014 and 2015, and has also won both so far as a manager, in 2020 and 2023, with both managerial victories coming via penalty shoot-outs. City, for their part, won on their last appearance in the showpiece, beating Manchester United on penalties in 2024. However, they have been runners-up in the match nine times, with only Man Utd doing so more (10).

Maresca's detail excites Anderson

This will be City's first season under a manager other than Pep Guardiola for a decade, but in Enzo Maresca – who previously had two spells as part of the backroom staff at the Etihad Stadium – Anderson feels they have found a tactically astute successor.

"I had a bit of work with him today and you can see the detail he goes into; I'm looking really forward to that," he said of the Italian.

Manchester United had been linked with Anderson's signature before City made their move, but when asked whether he was ever close to moving to the other side of Manchester, Anderson simply replied: "No."

History offers City encouragement too: on the last 10 occasions where the Community Shield has been between the league champions and the FA Cup winners, the FA Cup holders have won eight times. City – the FA Cup holders this year – were the only side to win the match as league champions during that time, doing so in 2018 and 2024.