Cool Gunners win shootout as Chelsea go missing
● Courtois and Morata off target as ‘ABBA’ system is deployed in Community Shield
Arsenal won the Community Shield after Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and Alvaro Morata missed penalties in a shootout at Wembley.
The season curtain-raiser between Premier League champions Chelsea and FA Cup winners Arsenal finished 1-1 after 90 minutes. An English football first followed as the ‘ABBA’ penalty shootout wasdeployedandthegunners prevailed 4-1 to extend their winning record at Wembley to nine straight games, including two in penalty shootouts.
The ‘ABBA’ system is based on the format used in tennis tie-breaks, with the team taking the first kick in each pair of kicks alternating.
Courtois took Chelsea’s second kick, seeking to equalise, and blasted over before Morata, the substitute striker, fired wide. That gave Arsenal the initiative. Alex Oxlade-chamberlain scored before Olivier Giroud netted the decisive strike.
Arsenal celebrated and Chelsea looked on, just as they had done on 27 May when the Gunners denied Antonio Conte a league and cup double in his first season in charge of the Blues as Arsene Wenger celebrated a seventh FA Cup win with a 2-1 victory here.
The Grenfell Tower fire happened less than three weeks later, killing at least 80 people and Wembley was united in remembrance yesterday, hoping to raise £1.25 million for the victims of the tragedy.
After a goalless first half in which new signing Alexandre Lacazette hit the post for Arsenal, it was Chelsea who took the lead within moments of the restart.
Granit Xhaka sent Cesc Fabregas’ corner looping into the air and Gary Cahill met the ball on the edge of the area. Cahill headed the ball into the box and Victor Moses was lurking. He took one touch on his chest and then slipped the ball in.
Chelsea winger Pedro was sentoffaftercatchingmohamed Elneny with a tackle from behind and Arsenal equalised from the resulting free-kick, Sead Kolasinac converting a free header from Xhaka’s pass.
Morata was offside when he headed Fabregas’ late freekick wide as the match went to penalties and Arsenal extended their winning record at Wembley.
0 Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud, second from left, celebrates after scoring the decisive penalty to win the Community Shield at Wembley.
Blues brush off Shield defeat as Wenger revels in following up FA Cup success
The impact of defeat could be measured on the faces of insouciant Chelsea fans as they left Wembley, stopping for one last selfie in the August sun. Am I ‘bovvered’ their expressions asked in the manner of Catherine Tate.
You can imagine then how little hurt must have been felt in the Chelsea dressing room after a reverse that had comedy in it, provided via the mechanism of a penalty shootout in which Antonio Conte sent Thibaut Courtois to the spot second up. That ball was never recovered.
That Chelsea were marginally the better side despite the obvious deficiencies rooted in the absence of the outward bound Diego Costa, the injured Eden Hazard and the departed Nemanja Matic did not stop Arsenal cavorting around Wembley as if they had won the Champions League. Yes, Arsenal too were without as many key individuals in Alexis Sanchez, Mezut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey yet there was something mildly nauseating about the salutations taken by Arsene Wenger, waving to many of those who campaigned for the majority of last season to see him out the door.
As a measure of the season ahead this pre-season stroll lost all value a long time ago. It is simply one more commitment in the schedule played with all the intensity of a training exercise, despite the anomaly of the red card for Pedro and the claims to the contrary of Wenger.
Conte, pictured, engaged in his standard histrionics on the touchline, berating the fourth official over decisions he didn’t like, but beyond that he fell in line with a team that played the match at comparative walking pace. His flat, almost impatient post-match commentary fairly reflected his desire to be doing something else with his day. He was disappointed, but no more than that.
Not so Wenger, who was only too pleased to join the dots to the victory over Chelsea at the end of last season in the FA Cup and see significance in the outcome. “I’m very happy because we won a trophy that we wanted to win,” he said. “The performance was in continuity with what we did at the end of last season. It’s an encouragement. We want to get confidence and urgency that the Premier League demands. We’ve had some bad starts in recent years. We’ve had intensity you need in our preparations so let’s take it into the Premier League and see where we can go.”
Wenger did admit he might have made a mistake with his handling of the protests last season and the effect the disruptive atmosphere had on his team. In an echo of almost everywengerspeechevergiven he said the demand now is to keep the feelgood factor alive. “The problem is to maintain spirit and togetherness through the season,” he added. “The Premier League is a fight. As soon as you are a bit off you don’t win.”