Pre-match preview by Bulldog Drummond.
The 93rd Community Shield fixture. It used to be called the Charity Shield until the Charities Commission realised that the FA were keeping no proper records, were not giving enough money to charities, and generally making fast and loose. The Charity Commission could have sued the FA and closed them down, but backed off and allowed the FA simply to walk away and rename it the “Community Shield”. A shame.
We’ve already had the wild ravings of the Chelsea manager about how Arsenal have spent more than Chelsea – dutifully reported by most of the media, but a special note of merit to the Independent who did actually do the sums to prove what we all already knew. Chelsea spent more than Arsenal.
You might never have read of such a rebuttal in the press. You might wonder why.
Most recently the ‘Special One’ has admitted that if he had been asked to forgo the massive spending and instead create a side that without funding could stay in the top four while the stadium was built, he would have walked… which really doesn’t tell us much we didn’t know.
Anyway, the big mega buy-them-all and put-lots-out-on-loan approach is probably going to continue. We’ll see at the end of the season. For now, Sir Hardly is continuing to focus totally on Arsenal DONE DEALS.
What we do know is that the Community Shield doesn’t tell us much – it is easy to win it with ease and then slump in the league, as we found last season.
Arsenal have won the Shield 13 times, and appeared in seven other Shield matches. For Chelsea it is four wins and six second-best slots. Chelsea last won it in 2009. Chelsea’s last win was on penalties 4-1 over Man U. The last time the two teams played each other it was a 2-1 win by Chelsea at the Millennium in 2005.
There have been 23 goals in the last six Community Shield games but just as our review of pre-seasons from 1989 onwards show that the pre-season doesn’t really tell us much about what comes next, so that is true of the Community Shield (although we can be fairly sure that money that ought to reach charities probably won’t.)
Only just over half of Community Shield games include the club that goes on to win the league next season, and it is not even clear that the winner will ultimately do better than the loser in the League. Mostly it is true, but only in three out of every five years.
The last time we won the Community Shield was last season, of course, and following that win we then beat Palace at home and then drew the next three games, leading some historically challenged people to claim it was the worst start in the last 30 years.
The last time Chelsea won the Shield they then went on to win the first six games in the Premier League, before losing 3-1 to Wigan. The last time they lost the Shield they then went on to win seven and draw one of their first eight.
The last time Arsenal lost the Shield they went on to win four, lose three and draw one of the first eight.
Clearly then the best approach is for Arsenal neither to win nor lose the Shield, but simply hand it over to Chelsea, refuse to play, and focus instead on the start of the season.
Here’s just three of the recent BIG final games between the BIG TWO.
2002 FA Cup: Arsenal 2-0 Chelsea
Ray Parlour scored 20 minutes from the end. Freddie Ljungberg also scored and we went on to do the Double beating Manchester United.
2005 Community Shield: Chelsea 2-1 Arsenal
Didier Drogba scored, Cesc Fabregas got one back.
2007 League Cup: Chelsea 2-1 Arsenal
Drogba scored after a very young Theo Walcott gave us the lead. We played the kids team, Chelsea brought on the first team. John Obi Mikel, Adebayor and Kolo Touré were all sent off as a ludicrous ref took footballing insanity to new levels.
Latest:
Considering all the silverware he’s won, Maureen seems awefully obsessed (perhaps voyeuristic would be a better word 😉 ) with whats going on in North London & other clubs. You’d think he’d be happy with what he’s done & still doing, but no. For all his attempts at skullduggery, theres an air of envy about him. Irony being he’d go much further if he just focused on himself. Thats the difference between someone running a squad & someone running an entire club. There’s a lot he could learn from Wenger. Great managers leave legacies, they don’t just build their cv’s, belittle others achievements & do lucrative advertising campaigns.
Southern Gunner
Well said.
Maureen is no match to Wenger.
Wenger is an institution.
I thought that most of the media were pretty fair in the reporting of the “Arsenal have spent more the Chelsea” rant, by ridiculing Mourinho and presenting it in a “who does he think he’s kidding ” manner. Also they all published Arsène’s rebuttal and put down.
MaureenO is “The Spending One”. Just not so much in the last few years.
I liked his comment that the Shield is more than a friendly game but not as much as a competitive game. He’s preparing the ground for when they lose, so he can say the PL/FACup/CL/TinPotCup games are completely different as they’re real competition….
@Andy Mack
But to some extent Mourinho is right. The Shield has never been considered a Super Cup as in some other countries but… it would be nice to win given the exposure it gets and the opponent. But, given the pressures of overseas travel, it is another needed pre-season test but only that. No one wants injuries for a match that isn’t worth 3 points.
SouthernGunner 🙂
Was going to say the same, with “envy” the very suitable word.
Cheers guys.
In fairness he is obviously good at what he does, but his character flaws hold him back imo. It’d be great to be able to admire the guy in a neutral way despite rivaly, but he leave little room when he insists on antagonising other without reason, then acts innocent when he’s not spoken well of. In the last 7 days he’s taken verbal shots at Benitez & Wenger & the season hasnt even started yet. There’s no need for it. Football is a sport, first & foremost. Snidey remarks or personal attacks can diminish that sporting spirit.
Think he is trying too hard to emulate Fergie from his Man U days, albeit with less subtlety, as the Scotsman was very good at cultivating this kind of thing & had it down to an art form.
Anyway thats my 2 cents worth.
COYG.
I really wish Wenger start his new EPL trophy haul by using Chelsea as a pole vault tomorrow as a preamble of what to come.
Posterity will justify Wenger as institution and Mourinho as a competently impressive employee with an attitude problem
To give them all(managers/coaches) the benefit of the doubt, i do not think any of them would even say a word about another team if it was up to them.
I think that they are FORCED to give press interviews. This is a completely unnecessary practice(do i get a YEA?) and is solely there to give the press something “juicy” to write about, and for the TV to have possible controversies to report on.
Just listen to the questions 🙂 that they ask the “poor” managers/coaches.
Would love a thumping win by our lads tomorrow, and by thumping i mean leaving NO doubt at all. I want us to out play them at every turn.
One thing we must be aware of though is that some one will target a few of our players, trust me. I hope our players are aware of this.
Another thing is, Costa is a barrel of gun powder waiting to go off, have you ever watched him play? I am surprised he is not sent off more regularly, for sure. The man is on a HAIR trigger.
GGG, Even though he’s correct, he doesn’t say it because it’s ‘the truth’. Everything he says is about his team. He’ll be desperate to win it. He’s just giving himself a ‘get out’, especially with his players (come on lads, they beat us in the friendly but this is the important one) hoping they’ll have forgotten how much he wants this.
Para, there may be some truth to that, but as they do have to do press conferences, many of them just try to make psychological comments against the opposition.
Why we have a great manager; “”I’ll leave your love story with him (Mourinhooo) to continue without interfering.
“I wouldn’t like to interfere in that.” – Mr. Wenger to the Media 🙂
We need to win at all cost, not for the bragging rights or for the press or for that any matter but we need to win it for ourselves as we know its
will bound to give us immeasurable confidence going into the season.
In Germany Wolfsburg has won the Super cup against Bayern Munich. The team we played last week showed that they really are a top team. And our own Nicklas Bendtner was very much in the picture. He scored the equaliser in the 89th minute and then scored the 5th penalty for Wolfsburg to seal the victory in the penalty shoot out.
I know Bendtner is a dickhead but as a dane knowing him from our national team I sometimes can’t believe the amount of stick he gets for his abilities as a footballer. He has brilliant technique and scores goals. And is a dick?
The FA Cup winners have only won one of the last five Community Shield matches, though this was Arsenal in last year s game.
Nice to hear that about Nicklas Bendtner!