Frank Leboeuf makes big change to top-four prediction after Arsenal win Community Shield

Frank Leboeuf has dropped Manchester City from second down to fifth in his Premier League prediction following the side’s Community Shield defeat to Arsenal.

Enzo Maresca was given a rude awakening in his first official match in the dugout since taking over the reins from Pep Guardiola, with his City side falling desperately short of expectations in a heavy 3-0 loss in Cardiff.

Riccardo Calafiori put Arsenal in front inside just 24 seconds and City offered very little by way of response before the Premier League champions further increased the deficit through Kai Havertz on the half-hour mark.

Christos Tzolis provided the assist for Havertz on his full Arsenal debut and the impressive Greek added a second to his name just moments into the second half as Martin Odegaard kept his cool to put the contest to bed.

Maresca, who cut a frustrated figure on the touchline for the most part at the Principality Stadium, will be under pressure to find immediate answers ahead of City’s top-flight opener with Bournemouth on Sunday.

The Gunners, meanwhile, will brimming with confidence heading into their clash versus Frank Lampard’s newly promoted Coventry City on Friday night.

Prior to a ball being kicked in the Welsh capital, ex-France and Chelsea defender Leboeuf backed City to repeat what they achieved last season in the Premier League by finishing second.

But speaking to ESPN in the aftermath, Leboeuf revealed that City had vanished from his top-four prediction – with Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool all jumping up a place behind his favourites Arsenal.

‘Exactly. We are judging on one game, present time and Manchester City are not ready,’ he explained.

‘They are missing players, some are not fit, I don’t see Marc Guehi on the bench, I see maybe Guehi instead of Josko Gvardiol and Gvardiol maybe somewhere else.

‘For sure, Elliot Anderson wasn’t ready and I don’t even talk about Erling Haaland who was a ghost, so they’re not ready.

‘I played in two Community Shields, I never thought it was a friendly game. That’s not a pre-season game.

‘You are one week away from the beginning of the Premier League, it’s not a friendly game. It’s a game you have to win because fans are going to Cardiff to see you playing and it’s not a friendly game because you’re going to be judged.

‘What we are seeing right now is Arsenal are spot on, City are not ready. So City are going to lose points at the beginning of the season which makes me think it can be unbearable for the fans, it can be impossible to catch up for the players under Maresca.’

Leboeuf, a World Cup winner with France in 1998, said Arsenal proved they were ‘ready’ for gruelling season ahead with their performance, while City showed they were anything but.

He added: ‘I cannot be positive. I thought that they could be second and it’s what I thought before the game, but after the game…

‘Maybe new players are going to come in the middle of the park where we know it’s very important so, therefore, it’s impossible for me to see City higher than fifth.

‘I don’t know what’s going to happen to Chelsea, Manchester United or Liverpool but we are judging in the present time and we saw a game where Arsenal are ready and if it carries on like that then they’re going to win the Premier League.

‘We saw another team so far away from them so it would have been outrageous for me to say that they’re going to finish second.

‘They’re so far away from there which is why I say fifth.’

Leboeuf’s former club Chelsea kick off their Premier League away to neighbours Fulham next Monday night.

Chelsea supporters will get the chance to see Xabi Alonso in the dugout for the first time in an official capacity at Craven Cottage and the Spaniard will be desperate to start off on the right foot.

A wretched tenth-placed finish ensured the Blues have no European competition to contend with this term, a factor which has Leboeuf feeling optimistic about the coming weeks and months.

‘Of course, the heart is talking, that’s for sure. You have to expect a good thing,’ Leboeuf said when asked to explain his bold second-placed prediction for Chelsea.

‘They’re not involved in European campaigns so that will be for them maybe a relief and for some players it can be a time to recover.

‘I want to see Chelsea better. They have the individuals for that, they have the squad, they have the coach for that who can do miracles and we saw that when he was working with young players at Bayer Leverkusen.

‘I want to believe that it’s possible and it’s impossible for me to put Manchester United before Chelsea. That’s impossible, I cannot do that, that’s the blood talking.’

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