Arsenal beat Manchester City 4-1 on penalties to claim the Community Shield after a 1-1 draw at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.
Leandro Trossard’s heavily deflected equaliser 11 minutes into extra time at Wembley forced Mikel Arteta’s team to go to a shootout.
Cole Palmer’s great curler gave City the lead late in the second half, but Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri missed their penalties before Fabio Vieira scored the game-winning kick in the annual Premier League season opener.
City’s first penalty kick, taken by De Bruyne, hit the bar, and Rodri’s shot was saved by Aaron Ramsdale. On the other hand, all four of Arsenal’s kicks went in.
Arsenal’s celebrations were much more wild than you would normally see in a “glamour friendly,” but their joy showed how painful the last few months have been since they missed a great chance to win their first championship since 2004.
City made history last season when it became only the second English club to win the Premier League, the Champions League, and the FA Cup all in the same year.
Their fifth Premier League title in six years came at the expense of Arsenal, who lost an eight-point lead at the beginning of April and ended up five points behind the winners.
Declan Rice, Kai Havertz, and Jurrien Timber, who signed for £160 million, showed that Arsenal had something to prove to City. They went into tackles with the kind of speed that usually comes with a title decider.
While Arteta and his players ran around the pitch and enjoyed the loud cheers of their fans, they might want to remember that the winner of the Community Shield has only won the Premier League title once since 2011.
In 2018, City was the only team to go against this trend, and it is way too early to say that Arsenal will do the same.
Arsenal led the table for 248 days last season, but they still didn’t win. Arteta said that they will need a “unheard of” number of points to beat the champions this season.
Pep Guardiola’s team wants to win the Premier League four times in a row, which has never happened before. They start defending their title against newly promoted Burnley on Friday, while Arsenal hosts Nottingham Forest the next day.
After his £105 million move from West Ham, England midfielder Declan Rice played a calm game that gave Arteta hope.
Timber, another new player, played well at left back. Havertz, on the other hand, wasted Arsenal’s two best chances to take the lead, which was typical of him.
Havertz will be expected to lead the attack for Arsenal while Gabriel Jesus recovers from knee surgery. This was not the best way for the inconsistent German to start with his new team.
Mateo Kovacic’s City debut was full of energy after he moved from Chelsea, but fellow Croatian Josko Gvardiol couldn’t play because he had just moved from Leipzig on Saturday.
Palmer took over for Erling Haaland in the second half, and the young player scored in the 77th minute.
City broke quickly, and when Kieran Tierney carelessly lost the ball, De Bruyne’s header found Palmer, who curled a beautiful shot from the edge of the box into the far corner.
But because of the new rules about not wasting time, there was a lot of stoppage time, and 11 minutes into the extra time, Arsenal scored to tie the game.
It was a very lucky goal, as Trossard came in from the right and shot straight at Manuel Akanji, but the ball went off the City defender and past Stefan Ortega, who was caught off guard.
Arteta was still upset about Arsenal losing the league title last season, so he celebrated as if Arsenal had won it.
The Spaniard let his feelings show again when Vieira scored the winning penalty, setting off a title race that had been building up.
Photo by EPA/TOLGA AKMEN
