Pep Guardiola and Man City sort of expelled some demons after the FA Cup final loss as they overcame the Red Devils in the kick-starter to the 24/25 campaign.
City and United played out to a 1-1 draw in the 90 minutes after two late goals first by Alejandro Garnacho and then Bernardo Silva. There is no extra-time in the Community Shield so the game went straight to penalties which United lost.
Of course, losing a game isn't nice (especially against that lot) but the result didn't really matter in this match - unless it happened to be a hiding which, thankfully, it wasn't.
For the opening 25 minutes, it was all City. The game seemed to take on a familiar pattern between the two and indeed, whenever City face anyone.
They had more of the ball with a lot of it in United's half, they played some good stuff on the edge of MUFC's box and managed to create some good openings but without that end product.
Pep Guardiola would've been happy with what he saw from his makeshift team as they were without Rodri, John Stones, Phil Foden, Kyle Walker (all of whom the manager decided to exclude from this game to give them extra rest after their exploits in the final of the Euros), and Bernardo Silva and Kevin de Bruyne who were on the bench.
This early City dominance saw them hit the post with a shot from youngster James McAtee.
However, after the 25 minute mark, things swayed to ten Hag's team.
A sinuos run by Amad off the right-wing was followed by a shot that went wide of the target. However, that seemed to boost the confidence of United not least the young Ivorian.
Amad was a constant menace down that right flank for United as every time he got the ball, he made things happen.
There was a beautiful period of play involving the 22-year-old and the 32-year-old Casemiro as a quick one-two was played on the edge of City's box before Amad was through down the right.
He then played a simple cross across box but unfortunately, there was no one on the end of it for what would've been a tap-in.
We saw similar pieces of play a couple of times but a familiar issue was clear to see and that was not being clinical enough in attack.
Marcus Rashford was particularly guilty as he missed two guilt-edge opportunities.
He was played through down the left by Casemiro after another great move by United with the number 10 looking for a curler in the bottom corner. His shot was probably closer to the corner flag than the bottom corner as he was way off the mark. That's an overexaggeration but you know what I mean.
Way off the mark is apt for Rashford because that is how he looked throughout the game.
The rest of the first half saw United in the ascendency although they didn't produce any output.
The second half began in a pretty flat manner before MUFC continued from where they left off in the first period.
ten Hag's team started to play some decent football again but once more, didn't make the most of it.
The Man Utd boss then made four changes as Alejandro Garnacho, Toby Collyer, Scott McTominay and Facundo Pellistri all came on for Amad, Mason Mount, Harry Maguire and Kobbie Mainoo.
Some pretty odd substitutions if I'm honest after what I thought was a pretty surprising team selection.
Anyway, Rashford was played in for a one-v-one after a great first-time cross by Garnacho from the right.
Dr Marcus Rashford MBE then made a cockup of his shot as he shinned it with his left leg which end up hitting the upright. With his two chances and the cross from Amad in the first half, United really should've got the job done in normal time.
And then it did seem like they had won it in the 90 as star boy Garnacho came in off the right to place a left-footed shot in the bottom corner in the 82nd minute.
But much like the issue up front, another area that caused United problems last season was switching off not long after scoring.
Not long after scoring, we switched off and City substitute Bernardo Silva made it 1-1 in the 89th minute sending the game to penalties after some poor defending by United.
The shootout itself looked as if it was going the way of MUFC as Silva missed his spot kick thanks to a simple save for Andre Onana.
Jadon Sancho - who came on for Rashford - then missed his take, something that he's done in a shootout at Wembley before.
That allowed City to get back into it.
Neither side made any errors before then and so, sudden death followed.
We missed, they didn't.
Jonny Evans with perhaps one of the most centre-back-esque penalties in a penalty shootout you'll ever see as he placed his kick over the bar.
Manuel Akanji didn't make any mistakes with his spot kick and gave City the win.
Erik ten Hag will be relatively pleased with his side's performance but disappointed with the result. The familiar issues of not putting the ball in the back of the net, a midfield that was open a little too often, and a defence that was somewhat shaky, will have been a concern for the manager.
However, getting some game time for a few important players would have been a positive as well. The fact that they didn't look too bad either would've made the manager happy too.
But there were some performances that would've made ten Hag a little frustrated as they didn't perform at the level required.
Ratings:
Onana - 6
Dalot - 6
Maguire - 6
Evans - 6
Martinez - 6
Casemiro - 6.5
Mainoo - 6
Amad - 7 MOTM
Bruno - 6
Rashford - 5
Mount - 5
Collyer - 6
Pellistri - 6
McTominay - 6
Garnacho - 7
Sancho - 6
Erik ten Hag - 6
Final Thoughts
Not the result we wanted but in the end, who really cares about who won and lost?
More than anything though, I thought that the performance was better than I'd hoped for. I believe we were the better side for most of the game even if it wasn't utter dominance from United.
With the chances we created and the lack of opportunities for City, we should've won that game comfortably in the 90 minutes.
But I think there were a lot more positives to take away from this game than negatives. It is a performance to build upon but not without it's problems. Not taking our chances, an open midfield, a shaky defence, are all issues we saw throughout last season and hasn't seemed to been improved upon in pre-season.
If we truly want to get better, we have to get better at these aspects of our game.
Let's hope we see that improvement come Friday.
Background Image: Man Utd team to face Man City in the Community Shield | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)