By Walter Broeckx
Arsenal started this first chance to win a trophy with the following team: Szczesny, Debuchy, Chambers, Koscielny, Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere, Ramsey, Alexis, Cazorla, Sanogo.
So a first start for Alexis in the first match with something at stake. And Sanogo was preferred to Giroud after his 4 goals in the Emirates cup and after Giroud showing his complete unfitness in his first 45 minutes.
Well the opening half an hour was almost all Arsenal. Man City could get to a few corners but that was it. Arsenal worked the ball better and Cazorla, Ramsey and Alexis were all very much on the ball and lively. Sanogo also was involved in a few good moves and the first chance fell to him but the excellent cross from Debuchy could not be diverted in goal as a City defender and Sanogo headed the ball at the same time. Debuchy showed in that opening half hour he got an excellent cross in his right foot.
Cazorla threathened also and then Debuchy was also very important when suddenly the ball fell for Nasri and it was the chest of Debuchy that blocked the shot from the ex-Gunner. City protesting for handball but why ref had it right. Alexis showing what a hard worker he is by also blocking a shot at that moment. Gibbs also with a good run but this time a City block.
The goal that you felt would come finally came. An attack from the right Sanogo with a lay off to Wilshere who was brought down but the ball fell to Cazorla who once again showed his two-footed skills. Dragging it to his left foot and his low shot found the bottom corner. The same corner as in the cup final. A good omen? 0-1 to the Arsenal.
A next shot from Sanogo when he was released by Cazorla went wide. But then Man City came to live. And Nasri missed a golden chance but I think it was the fact that Chambers got a little touch on the cross that made him miss the ball. Man City finally opening up however gave Arsenal some freedom on the counter.
Alexis with a lovely ball to Sanogo who turned inside and he gave the ball to the on-storming Ramsey. He went pass one defender and then buried the ball in the left bottom corner. 0-2 to the Arsenal just before half time. What a great moment to score that second goal.
Lots of changes at half time. The Ox came for Alexis, Kos went off and Monreal came on in the centre of defence. And Sanogo was replaced by Giroud.
The changes meant that Arsenal now only had one defender from last season on the pitch in Gibbs. And City having brought on Silva was the more dangerous team at the start of the second half. A header from Jovetic was palmed away by Szczesny with a little help from the goalpost. And then the assistant was completely blind when the ball ran out of play but the assistant let City go on in their attack and a fierce shot from Touré had to be stopped by Szczesny with an excellent safe. But what a miss from the assistant.
Time to restore the order must have thought Giroud. So they said I don’t score against big teams. So they said I don’t score but easy tap ins. So they said I don’t score from outside the penalty area. So they said I was the next scapegoat for the ever moaning part of our fans that need to moan about something. Giroud got the ball some 22 meters from goal steadied himself with a defender in his neck and two defenders in front of him and unleashed a fierce shot that went in just under the crossbar. What a goal! And Arsenal leading 0-3.
Then we had all kinds of changes. Flamini and Rosicky also coming on and in the closing stages also Campbell made his official Arsenal debut at Wembley. The match was well over after the 3rd goal and City conceded their defeat and just tried to score a consolation goal. But the make shift Arsenal defence didn’t want that to happen.
Calum Chambers was amazing in the heart of the Arsenal defence. He was always there or around and was impressive. Well done young man! Debuchy had one horrible moment when he played it back to Szczesny but hadn’t seen the City player who was too tired to get back but again Chambers came to the rescue. Just a few moments of being too nervous but that is not abnormal I would say. With a bit more confidence he will get over that and I think we might have another excellent player for the next 10 years or even more. I can’t help but he gives me a bit of a Tony Adams feeling for now…. goosebumps!
Monreal being a central defender for a few times this pre-season was a bit of a surprise but I think he did rather well in this unfamiliar position and in this unusual formation. We still wait for the return of maybe possible captain Per Mertesacker.
Szczesny was brave and had his usual moment of being a bit stupid with kicking the ball not safe enough. Better watch out Szczesny because I have heard that Ospina is rather good at that part of the game.
In midfield we have lots of different options and remember we are with the best number 10 in the world still!
Up front we also seem to have a few different options. And we also are without beep beep the fastest striker in the world! And the best finisher of our strikers.
So tomorrow all will be back. And who knows maybe even more. And then it is final count down to the start of the real season.
The first trophy of the 5 we can possibly win this season is in our hands. 4 to go! Come on Arsenal! Come on you Gunners!
We all have seen each match the camera panning out on the section where the trophies are remembered. Each and every match. Again and again. To rub it in the X years without a trophy.
I wonder if they will do that round with the camera again each match… I somehow doubt it now that we will see two new years added to the trophy count.
🙂
Arsenal fans like I have been waiting for this day for many years. We always knew that we would have to be patient about our budget as we had to pass the burden of building the Emirates Stadium. After FA Cup and Community Shield, we really feel vindicated. We have kept our faith on Arsene Wenger and the self-sustaining model of Arsenal.
Fans of other clubs, we don’t mind if you still laugh at us. May be, this is your last season to laugh at us. We really don’t mind. Our good time has really started. So, please enjoy yourself as long as you can. We are heading towards becoming the strongest club in England with best manager and best financial model and most dedicated supporters. We really have the winning combination.
So Mr Nasri announces he is to retire from international football – this after calling Gooners stupid
Well Mr N – seems you must be pretty stupid as international football gave you up before the world cup.
Go on then concentrate on your citee career that too is coming to an end
Hi Walter 2nd half they played inbetween our lines created chances but as you stated we were able to handle it.
The pitch will be much iarger for Arsenal to play in this season because of the pace we now have and teams will not take the chance to defend high up the pitch.
Its looking good.
COYG
@Walter talk about it and they don’t do it for the other teams wonder why? Just wondering we had a lot of morons in here before the match’where are they now?
The linesman missing the ball that went out play was a key moment for me, city almost scored from that as our defenders were half committed to the challenge having seen the ball clearly go out of play. And that was where city’s only shot on target all 90 minutes resulted from. Anyway, good result. Well done gunners.
At the start I was hoping us to win with a goal. But less than 10 mins into the game, we were all over them and I knew it was our game.
Chambers was very good today. He was every where and did his best. I was doubtful of Monreal as CB but he intercepted all the crosses during the first few mins and showed he was no weakling in the defence.
Each goal was better than its predecessor. Cazorla faked and took it with his left foot, then Ramsay’s goal and finally Giroud’s goal from out of the box with defenders all over him.
Am also enthused by s few experiments Wenger has done. Who’d have thought Monreal could hold his own as a CB? Chambers is unadulterated class. This is important because he is not only a player for the future of Arsenal but also for England. Maybe Wenger’s magic is still there after all.
I know that we are going to win the game.
I am impressed with the new guys,especially Chambers.
The capacity of Wembley is 82000 and the crowd was 71,523. From the quick glimpses on the TV coverage it looked like the upper tier at the Man City end was fairly empty.
Is that the case?
I think the capacity is 90000
An excellent team performance, all players new and established, produced some very sound and at times exciting play.
With our German contingent to return on Monday we can look forward to being stronger towards the end of the month.
While both teams today had players missing and hence we cannot extrapolate too much from this performance, there were some very encouraging signs.
The only downer was a slight injury to Kos – lets hope it is not too bad.
bjtgooner
I hadn’t heard of Kos getting injured, but it explains why Monreal was moved to the centre.
I did notice Gibbs limping for a short while after landing awkwardly. Hope he’s Ok.
And Jack “has a scratch”.
Kos has an achilles problem, that’s why he came off at half time, hopefully more precautionary than a major injury.
@oldgroover
Wenger’s press conference mentions that Gibbs is OK.
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In the news there are articles saying that Arsenal and ManCity will be getting 26000 tickets each. Tony seen 80000 somewhere for configured maximum attendance, and many other documents list 90000. If 90000 is the maximum that could be present, that means 18477 tickets went unsold (or not given away). If Arsenal sold all of their allotment, and the probability of a non-sale is equally likely to ManCity and TheFA, that suggests that ManCity failed to sell about 7500 tickets.
To far to travel? Too expensive?
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Looking in Google News about the game, one sees articles (in Spanish) from Costa Rica, Chile and many other places I don’t normally see Arsenal news from. As I can’t read Spanish, I didn’t visit many of these articles.
bjtgooner,
The fact that Arsenal.com is not reporting on Koscielny’s knock gives me optimism that his substitution was precautionary. I hope that it is not misplaced (my optimism, that is).
I absolutely enjoyed today’s game. I hope that us fans can take the season one game at a time and not get ahead of ourselves and we’ll see where we are by late March and early April when we can have a decent picture of how things will pan out.
Anyway, this is the best start to our season in years. FFS, we are going from “no trophy in X years” to winning one at the very beginning of a new season. What’s not to love?
Today’s game was pure gold, well done Arsenal!
Very enjoyable. Congratulations Capt Arteta. Anything to read into this regarding central MF signings?
Enjoyed wengers words on Tommy on the official site, TV is clearly a class act, in contrast to some who have departed, wish him well.
Well done lads.
Enjoyed the game and how the team played.
Got the feeling that Manc(Peligrini) was checking us out, but we are not one dimensional any more.
A good fitness level this season and we have a great chance of more, so as Walter says, 1 down 4 to go.
Hopefully the fitness level will be good once Shad starts having an effect. Interesting article on him and his methodology in the Guardian, saying shad Forsyth may be wengers best signing this summer. Sounds like this guy operates at the cutting edge, we need that with what refs let happen to our players
The main thing today was that we had a good run-out, scored some goals and no-one got injured.
Those who played will have the day off tomorrow and then 4 days to attain more fitness, try some tactical moves and achieve more bonding.
And then the first test, at home, against Palace. Not the sort of game, early on, we should lose.
(unless, like last season we have a useless, incompetent referee.)
Loved the confidence and comfortableness with which the boys played! Not only in themselves but with one another. They looked as if MC could throw a whole lot more at them and they still would not have balked. Off-course this level of comfort also made for some comfortable and enjoyable experience for us supporters who have known some hair-raising times in the past. Here’s hoping we will continue to beam but no matter what, always stand firm behind the gunners! Love the team spirit I witnessed today.
You are right, Tony, the upper tiers of the Manchester City end were pretty empty.
Great game, great result. Very enjoyable.
When we sit downa and make a list…. Its starting to get quite terrifying for the opponents.
Even if every player plays in only one position, the team is close to the point where they can put out two excellent teams.
One absolute prime players while the other have players not as steady from game to game. Most of the so called “B team” are interchangable with A team and 60-70%of the players can play in more than one positions.
One can also argue that holding mid is relatively weak as Flamini isn’t as good as moving the ball as Arteta.
The question is, given the felxibility will Wenger set up a plan B formation… two strikers? Sanchez behind Giroud/ Sanago/ Campbell. Ramsey + Arteta/ Ozil+ Ramsey to the middle?
The attack is terrifying and one has to remember how young the team is… The majority can easily stick together for 5 more years.
The only position that looks thin is the CB with Verminator leaving. Chambers can be a cover but we do not prefer that due to his lack of experience. Monreal is a makeshift choice. He can be used as stand-in CB to give other guys a rest but shouldn’t start him.
In the commentary I heard it was said five times in the opening minutes that mancs had won the shieled four times. There was no menttion of the fact that Arsenal had won it 12 times.
And people saying Wilshere+Ramsey wont/will never ever work/disastrous for the defense, watch the game again.
The Daily Wail has a critique of BT Sprout’s coverage of the Community Shield game. Sorry, no URL.
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With respect to plans and players, I think it is better to have many plans, and not just 2.
Stewart Robson should fade away and ride into the sunset.
Prem preview show on multiple channels- “pundits” saying – City have the best squad, they will win the league again this year.
Community shield post match – “pundits” saying – you have to take In to account many city first team players were missing, that is why arsenal won.
I’m sorry, but only one off these can be true you “idiot pundits”.
r.iris
I think both of those statements are compatible, although I don’t necessarily agree with either.
WOO HOO , HOO ! GO GUNNERS !
Agree with r.iris that the pundits were trying to take away the gloss from our win with very pro ManShitty comments . Let it be .We will revisit them at the end of the season.
And like that Scotsman who said ,” You’ll never win anything with kids….!”, here’s a selection of foot in the mouth disease…..
The Worst Predictions in History!
The problem with being a public figure, is that your words, and your predictions, will be written down and compared to what actually happens. Well, not every prediction is true, and some of them, like the ones on this list – miss the mark by a mile!
http://www.ba-bamail.com/Content.aspx?emailid=11472&memberid=763708#.U-hgYKNlNE8
Because we won, it’s a meaningless pre-season friendly. Because Man City had a number of players missing, our performance is dismissed (even though they are praised for having such a formidable talented squad- unlike us- that they can field multiple championship-winning sides.) Also, they weren’t trying as hard as we were, because it didn’t matter to them as much.
All very predictable before the game. On the other hand, imagine the reactions if we had lost.
On separate points:
Jack was repeatedly kicked after releasing the ball, with few such fouls being awarded by the referee.
I do not share the view that Giroud’s goal was aided by a deflection. The trajectory of the ball did not change, as the City player’s challenge was too late.
Finally, good to see Pat Rice at the presentation.
We played very well. Some will say that City had a second string team but if I saw many of their players in our colours I’d be happy, Toure, Navas, Dzeko, Jovetic and Silva would be wanted by any top club and they had others out there who were just as potent so they were tough opponents.
We dominated the first half and once we’d scored the third I think City knew it was all over. City had about three shots on target, we neutralized them exceptionally well.
Also I thought Owen was full of praise for our football. Nothing but good words from BBC and BT Sport commentators.
And the ref had a good game.
The ref was not as bad as some have been and could have been much worse. That is not to agree that he had a good game. Numerous fouls on Sanogo and Jack were ignored and the City player who had a yellow card continued to commit fouls for the rest of the game with apparent impunity.
Also, City’s one clear shot at goal followed the failure of the linesman to notice the ball being carried about a yard out of play in the build-up move.
So, little to encourage greater confidence in match officials.
The ref did NOT have a good game – far too many City fouls were ignored and play waved on to City’s advantage when a free kick should have been given against them.
As for the linesman – when is a ball out of play?
The one dangerous attack from City came after the ball was out of play – but not called by the visually challenged linesman – city played on & our defenders half stopped waiting for the whistle.
Because we won convincingly there is a tendency to overlook the ref’s incompetence – but he was poor.
Crikey – one match into the season and our resident troll cannot chill out and enjoy the win – he has to start rewriting history.
@ bjtgooner – sigh ! Here we go again !
http://www.markstivers.com/wordpress/comics/2006-06-30%20Denial.gif
I guess some people just like to moan. The ref was fine and City had more than one shot on target. We got away with a few fouls ourselves but of course that doesn’t count does it?
@bjtgooner, you are basically a WUM and a passive aggressive WHO OBVIOUSLY CAN’T READ BECAUSE I DID ENJOY THE WIN.
@Brickfields, what’s your problem mate?
Rupert Cook
You having problems with jokerboy too?
@Rupert the troll
Like most trolls you are a self indulgent wannabe wind up idiot – with in your case severe AAAAA tendencies. Either that, or sometimes you do not understand what you write.
However, I don’t want to be too hard on you today, I am really enjoying the resonance of our FA Cup win, the win yesterday, superb new signings and most important of all AW signing a new contract – all steps in the right direction.
Lets just chill out and enjoy. 🙂
A great game with a good result. I’m not surprised with the PGMOL officiating. It was not professional and has to be tolerated for this season. That does not mean we will not comment on the cheating that will inevitably ensue.
We have a lot of quality and lots more games to win. The true measure will be our play in Europe as that will be officiated by UEFA officials.
Jack has got to learn that keeping the ball will draw injuries. English football does not tolerate skill.
Now I understand why I feel all chirpy , bright and joyous when I watch the Arsenal play – its like music to me eyes , me ears and me brain !
Humour also does that to me !
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing-an-instrument-benefits-your-brain-anita-collins
Conversely the gratingly cacophonic bleatings of the AAAA muppets on this pro AW site makes my skin crawl and is torture to my senses .
It makes the usually mild mannered Dr. Rajah morph into the AAAA ass-kicking Fecking BG ! And best of all ? No costume change required , no phone booths needed !
WOO HOO , HOO !
A man of my own heart ….saying it as is .
http://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,3605,468909,00.html
During a rehearsal, conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, who died 40 years ago, thought that his female soloist was playing less than adequately on her fine Italian cello. He stopped the orchestra and declared: “Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands, and all you can do is scratch it!”