Like city commuters waiting for London buses, Arsenal fans wait nine years for a trophy, then two come along at once. Yes, it’s only the FA Community Shield, but nevertheless the Gunners start the year as they finished the last: with victory at Wembley.
Neither team was at full strength for the traditional curtain-raiser to the English domestic season, though City were much weaker. While Arsenal were missing their pair of World Cup winners, Mesut Ozil and Per Mertesacker, Manuel Pellegrini had to make do without three-quarters of his first-choice defensive line: Kompany, Demichelis and Zabaleta all watched from the stands. Up front, there was no Sergio Aguero or Alvaro Negredo (already ruled out for at least three months with a broken metatarsal), while David Silva only joined the game at half time.
That shouldn’t detract from a convincing 3-0 victory for Arsenal, however. In the 60 minutes when the game mattered, before Arsenal retired for the afternoon and City accepted the inevitable, Arsene Wenger’s men were by a considerable distance the better side: sharp, energized and full of running. Time and again the Gunners broke menacingly from deep with the ball at their feet, Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla and debutant Alexis Sanchez tearing at speed through the middle of City’s abject midfield and pouring into the opposition’s half.
Arsenal’s first goal on 21 minutes was slightly fortuitous, the ball breaking from a tackle on the edge of City’s box and arriving at Cazorla’s feet, who deftly shifted it onto his left before hooking the ball low and to the left of City’s new goalkeeper Willy Caballero. The second, however, was a magnificent piece of play the encapsulated all that Arsenal did well on what was a sunny but wet afternoon in London. As he did throughout his 45 minutes on the pitch, Alexis Sanchez broke out of defense down the right, before delivering a low hooked cross into Yaya Sanogo. The Frenchman held the ball up on the edge of the 18 yard box before digging out a square pass to Ramsey who, dinking the ball over the advancing Koralov, then proceeded to lash the ball into the net off his right boot. Arsenal took the ball from defense to the back of City’s net in the blink of an eye, and were 2-0 up by half time.
As with so many pre-season contests, the flow of the match was interrupted by a slew of substitutions. Making three changes at half time, including the withdrawal of the excellent Sanchez, Arsenal ceded the initiative to City, who grew into the game and began to create chances through Jovetic and David Silva. But their progression was obliterated on the hour mark by a swinging, dipping snorter of a strike delivered from the left foot of Olivier Giroud, the ball curling over a rooted Caballero from 25 yards out. Three-nil to the Arsenal.
With such a one-sided scoreline, incessant substitutions and pre-season fitness levels taking hold, the game ceased to be a contest after 60 minutes, with City enjoying greater possession but doing little with the ball. The18 wrote last week that the sky blues look light in defense, and this afternoon proved us right. There is little title-winning quality lining up to take the places of Kompany, Demichelis, Zabaleta and Clichy. Only one of that quartet was on display today at Wembley, and it showed. Pellegrini will be crossing fingers, toes and any other digits he can get hold of that his defensive foursome remain fit and healthy this season.
Arsenal will complete their final preparations for the start of the Premier League next weekend in considerably finer fettle. Their attacking play in the first half was magnificent to behold, with a mobile, fluid and technically gifted midfield playing the ball out of defence through crafty footwork and neat one-touch passing. Of the many debutants on display in North London this afternoon, it was Sanchez that really caught the eye: always available to take the ball and run with it. It’s how we know Arsenal can play; It’s whether they can maintain that level consistently for a whole season that is still unclear.
Perhaps, though, the Community Shield is a poor place from which to draw too many conclusions: it is, after all, still a pre-season friendly. That said, there was one undeniably momentous event that all who witnessed will cherish for the rest of their days: At 3:38pm on the 10th of August 2014, vanishing spray was used for the very first time on English soil. Glorious.
