Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger eyes strong start to season after Community Shield win
Arsene Wenger hopes Arsenal can take confidence from their Community Shield win over Chelsea and avoid another bad start to their Premier League season when they face Leicester on Friday night.
The Gunners have lost on the opening day in three of the last four seasons.
“We had the intensity in the games in our preparation that is needed to be ready,” said Wenger.
“Let’s go into the Premier League with the same discipline, the same spirit and see where we can go.”
Arsenal’s shootout victory means the FA Cup winning side has now won the last four editions of the Community Shield, with the Gunners responsible for three of those.
It is now the future of two of his key players that dominates the thoughts of many at the club.
Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil have both started the final season of their current contracts and both missed out on the matchday squad at Wembley, though they were present to join the celebrations on the pitch after Olivier Giroud’s winning penalty.
And Wenger is confident that he can keep the camp happy and focused in the coming season.
“I cannot stop all the speculation but Sanchez is focused. For the 273rd time, yes he will stay after 31 August,” Wenger said.
“It’s down to us to put a positive atmosphere around the team. A lot was created by my own situation. Maybe I made a mistake. Overall I believe that it’s down to us. The trend has always to come from the team.”
Sanchez did not play as he is recovering from illness.
Both Wenger and Chelsea boss Antonio Conte expect their respective sides to be in for a fight to win the Premier League this season.
“We have maybe seven or eight teams who say they can win the Premier League,” said Wenger. “That makes it very interesting.”
Conte added: “There are six teams in England that can fight for the title. Don’t forget today Arsenal didn’t play with many players, strong players.”
Manchester United were the last team to win the Community Shield and then went on to win the Premier League in the same season seven years ago.
Chelsea have signed Morata, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Willy Caballero and Antonio Rudiger this summer but Conte has said he would like to strengthen further before the transfer window closes at the end of the month.
Chelsea’s lack of strength in depth was perhaps evident as four of the seven Chelsea substitutes on Sunday were academy players.
New signings Willy Caballero, Antonio Rudiger and Alvaro Morata were named on the bench alongside four academy players who had one Premier League substitute appearance between them.
Eden Hazard and Tiemoue Bakayoko did not play as they were injured.