Arsenal beat Man City on penalties to win Community Shield
Soccer Football - Community Shield - Manchester City v Arsenal - Wembley Stadium, London, Britain - August 6, 2023 Arsenal's Martin Odegaard celebrates with the Community Shield during the trophy presentation REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
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Arsenal
lifted the Community Shield to end Manchester City's silverware streak with a
4-1 penalty shoot-out victory after a 1-1 draw against the treble winners on
Sunday.
Mikel
Arteta's side forced the shoot-out thanks to Leandro Trossard's heavily
deflected equaliser 11 minutes into stoppage time at Wembley.
Cole
Palmer's superb curler had given City the lead late in the second half, but
Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri missed their penalties before Fabio Vieira converted
the decisive kick in the annual curtain-raiser to the Premier League season.
De Bruyne
hit the bar with City's first spot-kick and Rodri's effort was saved by Aaron
Ramsdale, while Arsenal converted all four of their kicks.
Arsenal's
celebrations were far more frenzied than would normally be seen in what in the
glamour friendly, but their jubilation underlined the months of anguish endured
since they blew a golden opportunity to win their first title since 2004.
City made
history by becoming only the second English club to lift the Premier League,
Champions League and FA Cup in a single season last term.
Their fifth
Premier League title in six seasons came at Arsenal's expense as the Gunners
wasted the eight-point lead they held at the start of April to finish five
points behind the champions.
Showcasing
£160 million worth of new signings in Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Jurrien
Timber, it was clear Arsenal had a point to prove to City as they snapped into
tackles with the kind of urgency that usually accompanies a title decider.
While Arteta
and his players cavorted around the pitch and soaked up the raucous
celebrations from their fans, they might wish to note that the Community Shield
winners have gone on to secure the Premier League title just once since 2011.
Inevitably,
it was City who bucked that trend in 2018 and it is far too early to bet on
Arsenal following in their footsteps.
Arsenal led
the table for 248 days last season and still fell short, prompting Arteta to
admit they will need an "unheard of" points total to stop the
champions this term.
Composed
Rice
Pep
Guardiola's men, aiming for an unprecedented fourth successive Premier League
crown, start their title defence at promoted Burnley on Friday, while Arsenal
host Nottingham Forest the following day.
Arteta will
have been encouraged by a composed display from England midfielder Rice
following his £105 million move from West Ham.
Timber,
another new recruit, was also solid at left-back but Havertz was typically
profligate as he wasted Arsenal's two best chances to take the lead.
Havertz will
be expected to lead the Arsenal attack while Gabriel Jesus recovers from knee
surgery and this was hardly the ideal introduction to his new club for the
inconsistent German.
Mateo
Kovacic was energetic on his City debut after the midfielder's move from
Chelsea, but fellow Croatian Josko Gvardiol was unavailable following the
defender's arrival from Leipzig on Saturday.
Palmer was
the anonymous Erling Haaland's second half replacement and the promising
youngster netted in the 77th minute.
City broke
at pace and when Kieran Tierney lost the ball carelessly, De Bruyne's header
found Palmer and he curled a sublime finish into the far corner from the edge
of the area.
But in a
sign of things to come under the new time-wasting rules, there was a huge
amount of stoppage time and Arsenal snatched the equaliser 11 minutes into the
additional period.
It was a
hugely fortunate goal as Trossard cut in from the right and hit his shot
straight at Manuel Akanji, only for the ball to deflect off the City defender
past the wrong-footed Stefan Ortega.
Still
feeling the pain of last season's title collapse, Arteta celebrated as though
Arsenal had won the league.
The Spaniard
let his emotions hang out again when Vieira converted the winning penalty to
light the fuse on the looming title race.

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