Pep Guardiola had his hands on his head. So did the Manchester City supporters. They knew that they were in serious trouble. Nathan Aké had collected a back pass on the edge of his own area only to hesitate and how Kelechi Iheanacho, the former City striker, on as a substitute for Leicester, made him pay. Aké, who was City’s last man, felt Iheanacho get to the ball and threaten to pull away from him and so he made a desperate lunge, lifting up his boot to catch his opponent. For a couple of seconds, Guardiola thought that his team might have got away with it. The ball ran to another Leicester substitute, Patson Daka, the popular new signing from Red Bull Salzburg, and his shot was blocked by Zack Steffen, who was the best of a broadly disappointing sweep of City performers. Enter the referee, Paul Tierney. He called back the play to point to the spot for Aké’s foul and, although Iheanacho’s kick was close to Steffen, it was well struck and rising. There were 89 minutes on the clock, Steffen could get no more than fingertips to it and it was Leicester who got their hands on the Community Shield. Not much will rival the celebrations that greeted Youri Tielemans’ FA Cup final winner for them against Chelsea last season but Brendan Rodgers and his players capered about on the Wembley turf afterwards, with the chairman, Top Srivaddhanaprabha, also coming on to lift the trophy. Nothing beats the winning feeling. Leicester’s season is up and running. One pre-match detail had brought a shock factor and it was not that Guardiola was missing “half a team”, as he put it – the result of a host of his players having reached the latter stages of Euro 2020 and the Copa América. It was that the City manager had won 10 of the previously available 15 pieces of domestic silverware. The haul included two Community Shields, which Guardiola maintains are titles, even if there has historically been a question mark in England over whether they truly count as such. There would not be another one here. Aké sunk to his haunches at full time, having in effect blown a big opportunity in the line-up, and there would be no fairytale debut for Jack Grealish, City’s £100m British record signing. Grealish came on as a 65th-minute substitute and he saw plenty of the ball, running aggressively with it, but he was unable to create much as a Leicester defence missing the injured James Justin, Jonny Evans, Wesley Fofana and Timothy Castagne held firm. Daniel Amartey deputised well in central defence for Fofana, who suffered a horrendous knee injury against Villarreal last Wednesday. Rodgers reported that Fofana would have surgery on Monday and be out until the turn of the year, at the very least. It is probably worth listing who Guardiola was without – Kyle Walker, John Stones, Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling, Ederson, Gabriel Jesus, Kevin De Bruyne, Aymeric Laporte and Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has just become a father. Foden and De Bruyne are injured. Guardiola was full of praise for his players but, after a difficult start to last season, the frustration was again evident. “Mentally we are ready but how can you be ready when the players train [for] three or four sessions?” Guardiola said. “I would love to have the Brazilian and English players but they finish last season three weeks ago so they have to rest. At the start of the season, we will try to get results, knowing we are not at our best.” Leicester shaded the first half and it was encouraging for them to have Harvey Barnes back from the serious knee damage that he suffered last February. The left-winger was quick and direct from the outset. Rodgers’ team ought to have been in front at the interval only for Jamie Vardy to miss two excellent chances. The first came when a Barnes shot ricocheted off Rúben Dias’s block to sit up nicely but, under pressure from Benjamin Mendy, Vardy blasted straight at Steffen and the second, on 45 minutes, followed a low Barnes cross. With the ball behind him at the far post, Vardy spun and shot for the opposite corner only for Steffen, who was heading the wrong way, to throw out a hand and tip against the upright. It was a fine save. City’s best effort of the first period came from an early Ilkay Gündogan free-kick, which extended Kasper Schmeichel, and they almost caught a break when Caglar Soyuncu sliced a Mendy cross over his own crossbar. Guardiola had started with the 19-year-old Cole Palmer alongside Ferran Torres up front and the 18-year-old Sam Edozie on the left wing. Edozie had sliced wide when well placed in the 28th minute but Guardiola paid tribute to how he and Palmer continued to fight in the second half, when City played with greater purpose and intensity. Gündogan lifted wastefully high after Riyad Mahrez had worked a short corner routine while their best moment followed a loose pass from Ricardo Pereira, which allowed Edozie to release Mahrez on the break. With Pereira and Wilfred Ndidi in pursuit, Mahrez hammered high. Rodgers withdrew Tielemans, Ayoze Pérez, James Maddison and Vardy on 71 minutes – pushing key players too hard, this early was never going to be a part of the equation – but he could be thrilled when Iheanacho made the difference.