A potentially serious injury to Eric Garcia overshadowed Manchester City's 3-0 success over Arsenal as the Premier League returned after a three-month absence.
Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta made several changes to their sides, with Sergio Aguero starting on the bench and Gabriel Jesus leading the line.
There was some controversy in the Arsenal camp as Mesut Ozil was left out of the 18-man squad, with Arteta confirming he was not injured.
With both sides lacking match fitness, the first half an hour saw Arteta and Guardiola instruct their respective teams to stay in their shape with chances at a premium.
City began to pepper the Arsenal goal a third of the way through, with Bernd Leno being forced to deny Raheem Sterling, David Silva and Riyad Mahrez in quick succession as Kevin De Bruyne began to pull the strings.
But a calamtious error from David Luiz, on as a substitute after an injury to Pablo Mari, allowed Sterling to fire home on the stroke of half time.
It was the blundering Brazilian who ultimately cost the Gunners their chance of a result just four minutes after the restart. Mahrez touched it past the 33-year-old and he was pulled back inside the box. Penalty, said Anthony Taylor, before pulling out the red card.
Up stepped De Bruyne and the Belgian coolly sent Leno the wrong way from the spot. With that, it was over.
It wasn't to be an entirely satisfactory evening, however, when Ederson came off his line and clattered Garcia, who looked in serious trouble straight away. The 19-year-old was stretchered off after being treated on the pitch and news of his state is as of yet unknown.
City had the luxury of making a host of substitutions, with Phil Foden replacing David Silva and Aguero on for Jesus. And the pair combined in the first of the 11 added minutes to get City's third to compound Arsenal's miserable return to action.
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