The Arsenal started off the season in the grand manner, by putting Manchester City to the sword at the Millennium Stadium (I refuse to use that other corporate name!) in Cardiff in a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon for all of those in red and white. Ahhhh, it’s good to be back!!
The risk to get carried away with a day like yesterday is always pretty high, so I’m mindful of drawing too many conclusions based on one game, especially given the timing of the game and the impact the joke of an extended World Cup, we’ll leave that to the tabloids, pundits and media outlets. That said, I think these days need to be enjoyed to their fullest, as we did get a trophy, it does go down on record as another piece of silverware and it was a fantastic way to start the season – one in which our opponents would certainly have liked to do. So drink it in Gooners…and let’s hope this is the first trophy of many this season!!
Lineup
The line-up was pretty much as expected. I think I only got one selection wrong from my prediction, with Noni Madueke taking Max Dowman’s spot on the right wing, so it was fairly predictable and probably the strongest we could put out on the day.
The main talking points were mainly around who didn’t make the squad and what that means, as Ethan Nwaneri, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus all missed out. Mikel Arteta refused to be drawn into any conclusion on what this implies in his post match press conference, citing the size of the bench in relation to the size of his squad, and I think that’s fair enough for the most part. I don’t see how you could have squeezed these players onto the bench, even if we were planning on keeping them.
How the game unfolded
Well this one unfolded pretty quickly, didn’t it?!? Arsenal flew out of the blocks and went ahead after just 23 seconds, as defender/midfielder/striker Riccardo Calafiori latched onto a delicious throughball, following excellent strength from Myles Lewis-Skelly, to slot past an exposed Gianluigi Donnarumma. It was the fastest Community Shield goal since 1968, which shows how impressive this really was.
Arsenal proved that they hadn’t just caught Manchester City cold by continuing to carve out decent opportunities throughout the first half and deservedly doubled their lead through a Kai Havertz header, after Christos Tzolis had headed Martin Odegaard’s cross expertly into the big German’s path.
To be fair, Manchester City did threaten at the other end and there was a 5 minute spell before half time where Arsenal were indebted to the superb David Raya and an excellent Ben White block to keep the two goal lead intact at the break.
If Arsenal were fearing a Manchester City backlash at the start of the second half, they needn’t have worried as they added a third on 48 minutes, to put the game more or less to bed. The impressive Christos Tzolis found some space on the left and his crafted pass from the left wing found the onrushing Martin Odegaard. The skipper took it in his stride and ran clean through on the City goal, finding the net after sitting down Donnarumma with a deft bit of skill that left all those in red and white purring. Game over? It sort of was. City did threaten on occasion, mostly from distance, but particularly late on through Antoine Semenyo, which Raya saved expertly to preserve his clean sheet.
On another day, it could have been more, as the returning Bukayo Saka passed up two excellent chances to make it four, but in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t really matter as Martin Odegaard was pressed into trophy lifting service once again following the full time whistle, to lift the Community Shield above his head and the rest is history.
We need to talk about…
Martin Odegaard, wow!! What a performance. I’m sure he’s played better games for us, but at the moment, I really can’t recall any. To be fair, it’s been a rough couple of years for the skipper, so that probably explains why I can’t think of any, but even then, I think this could be in his top 5. From the first whistle, you felt like he was on it. He just looked really lively on the ball, really confident and that showed in the passes that he was taking on. It wasn’t just that he was trying things either – he only misplaced three passes all game, so they were coming off!! Big hand in the second goal, unreal calmness and quality to slot in the third goal and generally put in a true captain’s performance. We just need to keep him fit and the rest should take care of itself. Really exciting times ahead of the new season.
I tell you who’s also worth a mention…
Christos Tzolis. Let’s try and dial this back a bit and not get carried away. Sod that, Vincius who?!!?
In all seriousness, we do need to temper expectations a little bit, as this wasn’t Manchester City at their flowing best, but I don’t know what else Tzolis could have done in the circumstances. First ‘competitive’ game for Arsenal and he comes away with two really excellent assists and a generally solid all round performance. That’s what it was as well. Solid. It wasn’t the fireworks that you would get from a Doku like winger, where he’s terrorising the opposing full back at every opportunity. That’s not Tzolis’ game. He’s a solid worker, good on the ball, decent bit of pace, but…when he gets to the edge of the opposition box, he makes good decisions – usually the correct ones – and that makes him really dangerous. His first assist, was a looped header, perfectly into Kai Havertz’s run. Nothing flash, but it was perfect. He did it the only way you could to get the ball right into Havertz’s path. Many might go for goal, try to force it back across goal or even take it down. Tzolis just looped it over the defender and Havertz did the rest.
The next assist reminded me a bit of the one he laid on for Ethan Nwaneri a week ago against Dortmund. Again, nothing flash, but it’s sort of like a really measured cross/pass across the box, but instead of putting the ball into a dangerous area or trying to pass directly to someone in the box, he put it into Odegaard’s path so he could run onto it. Timed perfectly, weighted perfectly. I did say I wasn’t going to get carried away, but it feels like I’m describing prime Dennis Bergkamp right now, so maybe I’m over doing it a bit!!! 🙂 😂😂😂
He looks good. Makes good choices and works his socks off. Solid start, hopefully there’s more to come.
Can’t believe I haven’t mentioned…
David Raya. He’s in William Saliba territory right now, where he’s just world class and no one notices because it becomes the norm for him. Another great performance from David Raya today. It’s the whole package that makes him so good. Shot stopping is first class and that always (and rightly) gets the headlines, as he’s stopping certain goals, sometimes where he has no right to do so. Passing is unreal at times. Played some absolute beauties in the game again. It’s his ability to claim crosses that I really love though. That’s why that West Ham ‘goal’ was so obviously correctly ruled out – David Raya claims those. He just does. Maybe it’s my years of watching Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski that’s left me scarred, but I just absolutely love it when he comes and claims crosses. Gives me so much confidence, so I can imagine how that must impact the defence in front of him. I’d swap this guy for no one.
In summary
So that’s that. Another trophy/shield in the cabinet, a great start to the season and more reasons to be positive that you can shake a stick it. Let’s build on this now!
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