The FA Community Shield

ARSENAL 1 (Trossard 90+11)
MANCHESTER CITY 1 (Palmer 77)
Arsenal won 4-1 on penalties

ARSENAL sent a statement to rivals Manchester City this evening (Sunday) as they beat Pep Guardiola’s side on penalties to win the Community Shield at Wembley.

A crowd of 81,145 supporters watched on as the Gunners made it clear they are ready to go toe-to-toe once again with the treble-winners ahead of the new Premier League season, which gets underway next weekend.

The traditional curtain-raiser ended 1-1 with two goals coming from the left-foot of substitutes. After a somewhat cagey 75 minutes Cole Palmer lit up the game with a stunning curling effort that flew past Aaron Ramsdale into the top corner.

It looked like it was going to be enough to earn City the first silverware of the season. But deep, deep into injury-time Leandro Trossard’s last-gasp shot deflected in off Manuel Akanji to send the contest to penalties.

Where City stumbled in the shoot-out, Arsenal shone. Substitute Kevin de Bruyne struck the crossbar before Rodri saw his effort saved by Ramsdale.

The Gunners, meanwhile, were faultless from 12 yards, with Martin Odegaard, Trossard, Bukayo Saka and Fabio Vieira hitting the back of the net to earn Mikel Arteta a rare win over his old mentor.

“It feels great, I don’t think it gets much better than winning a trophy at Wembley against the best team in the world,” said Arteta after the game. “It was really encouraging.

“We knew the challenge today, especially with how often our opponents have played finals. But I think we showed real resilience and determination to fight and we deserved to win the game.”

Arsenal could have taken control of the tie in the opening 45 minutes had new £65million signing Kai Havertz been sharper in front of goal.

The first big chance saw Ben White drive past Akanji before finding Havertz in the box. The German international swivelled and managed to get a tame shot away that was well-saved by Ortega, with John Stones blocking Gabriel Martinelli’s follow-up.

A similar piece of play just before the break saw Saka speed past Akanji before squaring the ball to Havertz, who forced another great save from the City keeper.

Despite holding most of the possession, Guardiola’s team never got close to scoring except for an outlandish attempt from Rodri. The Spanish midfielder took a shot from the halfway line which nearly beat Ramsdale.

In the second half Ramsdale did well again to push away Stones’ header from a corner. But there was nothing the Arsenal shot-stopper could do about Palmer’s sublime opener.

Ramsdale kept the north Londoners in the game as he made another smart save to deny Julian Alvarez. It proved crucial as in the dying seconds of the match Trossard’s drive was deflected in off Akanji to send the game to penalties, where the Arsenal players looked that much sharper as they kept their cool to seal a 4-1 win.

A new season also means new rules, with the FA looking to crackdown on dissent from both players and managers. Referee Stuart Attwell booked Thomas Partey for kicking the ball away, and soon gave Arteta a yellow card, too, for protesting a foul.

The ever-animated Arsenal boss was asked his thoughts on the new rules and whether they would impede his electric and lively managing style. He told the Tribune: “I cannot change my behaviour in three days, it’s a very difficult thing to do. I try my best, I understand the rule, I understand where they’re coming from but we can get frustrated because sometimes we don’t know what part of the technical area we are in – but it’s fine, we will adapt.”

Arsenal: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel (Smith Rowe, 87), Timber (Tierney, 76), Partey, Rice (Nketiah, 81), Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli (Trossard, 75), Havertz (Vieira, 87)
Substitutes not used: Turner, Kiwior, Holding, Tomiyasu

Manchester City: Ortega, Walker, Stones, Dias, Akanji, Kovacic (De Bruyne, 64), Rodri, Silva, Grealish (Foden, 58), Alvarez, Haaland (Palmer, 64)
Substitutes not used: Ederson, Phillips, Laporte, Gomez, Lewis, McAtee