Pep Guardiola spots 'incredible' Man City trait vs Arsenal that will help them this season

Manchester City put in an "incredible" performance vs Arsenal, according to manager Pep Guardiola.

City returned to competitive action two months after winning the treble last season and looked on course for a Community Shield win against the 2022/23 Premier League's second-placed finishers. However, a 101st-minute deflected equaliser from Leandro Trossard sent the game to penalties, and the Gunners won thanks to misses from Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri.

Guardiola, though, was more concerned with City's performance levels, praising his players after a reduced holiday period and less-than-ideal conditions during pre-season in Japan and South Korea.

With that in mind, Guardiola said that his players showed the mentality needed to fight for titles again so soon after the highs of winning the treble.

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"We finish an incredibly stressful season, the players went to their national teams and had maybe not even three weeks [off]," said Guardiola at Wembley.

"We came back and trained a little in Manchester then trained to Asia and could not train there because it is impossible to train there.

"We played a decent game against Bayern [Munich] and the other two matches, and after in just a few days they were incredible. I saw that the guys are still here so we cannot complain.

"If we are able to raise mentally to know we can do better after winning together, that is the target we will see."

Guardiola's City side begin their Premier League title defence against Burnley at Turf Moor on August 11 as they look to make it four top-flight title wins in a row.