Only did it once last season - The encouraging Manchester United stat from Community Shield performance

It might not have been the result Manchester United wanted, but there were plenty of positives to take from their Community Shield performance against Man City.

Erik ten Hag's side weathered early pressure from City to assert their own dominance on the game and ended it having carved out the better opportunities across the match.

If not for some poor finishing from Marcus Rashford, United could have had the game sewn up well before Bernardo Silva's sucker punch, one of the few chances Pep Guardiola's side created throughout the match. It is also worth noting that only came late on against a makeshift backline which included winger Facundo Pellistri at full-back.

While that might be partly down to the makeshift nature of their own line up at Wembley, a key component was also because of United's improvements in defence as they nullified City's creativity and limited them to only eight shots in total.

It represented a huge improvement on United's average defensive solidity from last season, in fact, only once during the last campaign did they concede fewer shots than that in a single match. That came when they conceded only four in the 3-0 home victory over a second-string Crystal Palace match, which counted for little when the Eagles then won at Old Trafford in the Premier League a few days later.

Ten Hag will be hoping for further improvement when the new season starts proper against Fulham next week, but based on the early evidence of their display against City, there is certainly reason to feel optimistic about this one being a lot more successful.