Well lovely Arsenal people, it’s another Community shield win for the Gunners and look, it’s a friendly game, but you see the reactions on Peps and Artetas faces and you realize how there’s a little more on the game, psychologically more than anything else.
I think the first 20 minutes were all City, but we started growing into the game and I think we were mostly the better team. We allowed them a few times to break us way too easily on the counter, and unfortunately Palmer scored a screamer from a string of sloppy plays on our end.
What I enjoyed though is that we didn’t give up. We kept our composure and kept pushing and managed to put the heat on City. In the end we deserved our equalizer, even though there was a stroke of luck to it.
I think there were a few good performances, but also some sloppiness. For example I enjoyed parts of Havertzs play, but one of the chances he missed was criminal. I like Timber on the ball, but defensively we were beaten on the wings a few times a little too easily. Partey had a few great transitions on the ball and a few sloppy possession losses.
Martinelli was lively, but for me Trossard was a game changer. He had some excellent touches on the touch line, before getting a little bit of fortune to beat the City goalkeeper. It was also nice to score the penalties.
I think the starting 11 was very indicative of what’s to come in the season. We played all 3 new signings. I expect a very similar line up to go against Forest, with Trossard being the one player who really knocks on the door.
Overall, I still think City are favorites for the title, and they won’t lose much sleep over this game, but Pep definitely doesn’t like losing. Also we were on like a 9 game losing streak against them, so it’s nice to know we can get a result against them and the players also eluded to that in their interviews.
All and all it’s a nice day, that should set a positive mood, now it’s time to see what we’ll do in the league.
Konstantin
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Very important win for us. We’ve also been lucky with our opening 3 games in EPL, it could have been a lot worse to be fair….if we can win those 3 after this win it will show that last season wasn’t just a fluke and put us on our way nicely!
Man U on Sept 3 is a big one for us!
Havertz’s hold-up play and aerial ability helped us keep the ball away from Man City’s CBs, who were very dominant in the first half
Nottingham Forest won’t play like that at the Emirates, so Arteta might move Havertz back to Xhaka’s position, bench Rice and play Nketiah or Trossard in the CF position if Jesus is still injured
The Community Shield game was a great exercise to prepare our players for their first EPL match. It’s nice to have tall midfielders like Rice and Havertz for tough games
Personally i was also impressed by how Havertz handled Man city’s center backs,Haaland on the other side had a rough time against Saliba you could thing i is an average striker.
Yes, Havertz made them struggle physically several times and Rodri was forced to foul Havertz. Unfortunately, none of our players win the second ball after Havertz won the aerial duels
Saliba kept Haaland quiet. Hopefully Saliba will be fit to play when Haaland visits us in October
Arsenal has to find away to keep the £65 million man starting, he’s looking better with every passing game, his full integration is going to be key.
He’s obviously an intelligent player and not lazy.
A keep saying this is the biggest of the first seven games. Win this and the team will be a lot easier to coach.
This game was a massive game for both teams, it just doesn’t get bigger than this.
Apart from beating City on pens yesterday and whilst it was a onlty a glorified warm up game before it really kicks off next week it was a great boost to actually.
The thing that was more notable was losing a goal and time running out the fans still had a belief we could claw it back.
Years gone by we would have taken it on the chin and said we almost won.
Yesterday we still got behind the team and felt something was going to happen.
The fans will play an important part on getting behind the team if we are to lift the league come the end of the season
Well done to the team and fans for yesterday
I don’t think Havertz first chance was a big miss. 2 CBs close, spin, out of balance and he did well to get a shot in. I think the following Martinelli chance was the bigger miss.
The second chance Havertz should’ve done much better. Those are the chances we will rue missing against top sides.
I hope Havertz won’t be played as striker because it’s not his natural position. He scored 20 goals in the Bundesliga playing his favorite CAM position and IMO what went wrong at Chelsea, was that he was played out of position so many times (as striker, as winger but rarely as CAM).
Its kind of noteworthy that MA trusted Havertz to stsrt rather than Eddie..
Overall I’m very happy with the result. Also noteworthy is that we have Tierney, Tavares, Zinc as left backs, followed by very strong display there by Timber, and not to mention Tomiyasus ambidextrousity.
Despite the Bias booking and Bias commentary the Arsenal was looking a lot stronger in a physical sense as we have been a little fragile in previous encounters with Man City. I did say before the game that when you play Tossard, particularly as a false number 9 you get goals against the tougher teams. In fairness to Kai he was unlucky, as at least he got his shots away on target, and given another day they may have been goals. He also showed that much needed physical presence up front and i beleived he had won most of his aerial duels with his back against the Cities defence from Ramsdales long range passes. Rice and Saliba took it in turns marking Haaland out of the game and did a good job. Timber is a super buy and gets better and better after each game, but the whole team played well also.
I think we need to beat City in 90 minutes, to truly get over this physiological barrier we have against them, but the victory is still a massive boost, especially the way we did it.
City dominated the second half, yet we refused to give in, kept going when it looked lost, and got our rewards.
I love this never-die attitude that Arteta has instilled into our squad.
We go into the new season with great confidence.
I’d also add, I thought it was a really mature controlled performance from us, which we don’t usually see when we play City.
The norm, is tons of energy and heart, coupled with a lot of naivety, but not this time. I really enjoyed watching this from a tactical perspective.
Finally…was Haaland playing?
I agree with you, but don’t worry about Haaland, he will be ready when the game begins. New goal scoring record again?
I agree. To beat this squad rivals will have to do more than harder.
The last line sums it up. It was a nice day. I thought of the two teams City had the more improvement to come. I dont think either team was fully committed but that is to be expected. It wil be interesting now to see how or wether we have improved this season. Nice day though!!!!!
“I don’t think either team was fully commited”.what game are you talking about??
Yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!! It was quite obvious they were not flat out.
Really??? Lol.still not sure what you saw mate 😁
I saw a competitive pre season friendly. Thats it. Haaland was strolling, along with a few more. De Bruyne looked not ready at all when he came on. The Only player for city that was balls out was Rodri. I didn’t see Walker marauding. They all and Arsenal were playing within themselves. Lets not kid ourselves. You dont understand professional pre season friendlies and preparation. Without the adrenalin and the thoughts of the real start next week, it was a phoney war. Just fitness. I have never held any thoughts at all, win lose and draw on friendlies. I stopped watching international frienlies because of the lack of real effort.
It means that much to city, they have “lost” the last three Community shields but won the league the last three. Their season is geared for the run in, when they are ready. The rest is just preparation. Only one of the las 11 Community shield “winners” have gone on to win the league. Its not a target.
Not in disagreement with your not a league position decider claims, all I’m saying is our encounter against city yesterday was a very competitive match and both teams wanted it badly which explains why the deadlock was broken late in the game.if you are a tactical set up oriented fan you would have noticed both teams were set up to nullify each others threat which explains why haaland,grealish and de bruyne even if he eventually recorded an assist were unable to do any harm walker did a great job to stop martinelli,foden,palmer,silva and stones all showed up as well plus you must have seen both managers during the game animated in the touchline and celebration after goals from their respective teams, so much to be “obvious they were flat out” I’d say.
*”not flat out” rather.
No prize money to the winners, no European spot for winning it. If City last year had won the community shield, they would still have won only the treble not the quadruple.
Not saying otherwise bruv.I’m only talking about how it actually matters to the participants.
I think Timber will have the same POSSITIVE impact that Saliba gave us when he returned from his load spell. Our defensive performance yesterday was fantastic. Coupled with Rice in front of the back four. If Partey can stop making errors in the middle we may well have one of the best defensive units this season?
Agreed. It will be even harder to break this defense as days go by and they develop more understanding.
Arsenal – Man. City 1-0, it’s crucial for us to win against the best team in the World. It doesn’t mater if it’s a training match or competition. Knowing that we are able to defeat a more or less unbeatable opponent will boost our confidence. COYG
I agree DP
Also, looking at Guardiola – he wants to win and didn’t look happy at all. While it wasn’t the league- it does set the tone for both teams and I’m glad for many reasons that we came out on top yesterday. New players getting to know their new colleagues takes time and all 3 played their part
We drew, we won on a penalty shoot out, to be accurate.
The most pleasing aspect of the game yesterday, was the fact that we more than matched City in terms of physicality.Our back four consisted of players who are comfortable at centre back, and with the addition of Rice and Havertz we can now compete with the likes of Stones and Rhodri in the air.Defensively ,apart from a Partey slip up, we were very strong at the back, the only draw back being the fact that Timber ,who was excellent, does not have the attacking skills to support Rice and Martinelli down the left flank.As a result we were unable to create many clear cut chances from the left whereas, White ‘s runs down the right created options for Saka and Odegaard.For the match against Forrest it will be interesting to see if Arteta goes again with a relatively defensive line up given that the opposition is likely to sit deep and try to hit us on the break.I suspect he may well field the same team .
Yes Grandad it was plainly obvious he will be even better at RB.
It was a pleasing win against the best team in the world, regardless of the occasion. Man City was at full strength, full flow and took this game equally serious. Their reaction after scoring and conceding brings a lot of credibility to Arsenal eventual victory. And we had 3 new signings and without our shining star in Gabriel Jesus. Trossard is fulfilling his potential. Nketiah and Viera finally grew some guts and played with purpose and passion.