Arsenal drew first blood by clinching the Community Shield in a penalty shootout victory over Manchester City on Sunday.
Man City appeared destined to win after Cole Palmer’s 77th minute strike, before Leandro Trossard took the game to penalties with an equaliser in the 11th minute of stoppage time.
Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri failed to score from the spot, with Arsenal’s Fabio Vieira sealing the trophy for the Gunners.
The result will give Mikel Arteta’s side inspiration going into the new season, after they were pipped to the title by Sunday’s opponents last season.
Here, Mail Sport’s Isaan Khan takes you through three things we learned from the intriguing encounter at Wembley Stadium.
Arsenal defeated Manchester City to win the Community Shield after a penalty shootout
Manchester City looked likely to win until Leandro Trossard’s 101st minute equaliser
Title failure weighs on Arteta’s mind
It was April when Manchester City reduced Arsenal to their haunches after a 4-1 humiliation.
The reverberations were felt long after, having had one hand on the title in the preceding weeks. Mikel Arteta even addressed the loss on Friday — nearly four months later.
He said: ‘I probably pretended to my wife that I stopped thinking about it. But she will say something very different.
‘You need to get over it — being away helps quite a lot. It’s the feeling when you have created that belief and believe you can do it, and then it suddenly goes away.
Mikel Arteta has taken motivation from Arsenal’s failure to beat Man City to the title last season
Man City’s title success still weighs on the mind of Arteta who hopes to go one better this season
‘But it’s part of it, and we all need that to be better. That moment when you feel, “I failed” or I didn’t achieve what I wanted. You still have the hunger and desire to go again. That’s a big motivation.’
The fact it still plays on the Spaniard’s mind is a window into the sheer effect the result had on his psyche.
Though yesterday’s result will go a long way to exorcizing those stubborn demons. The season may not have started, but getting one over the team that pipped you last time out is a great morale boost ahead of the new campaign.
Striker choice shows no position is assured
Eddie Nketiah captained Arsenal against Monaco for the first time on Wednesday. Afterwards, the London-born striker spoke of his pride of this achievement, and subsequently getting on the scoresheet, too.
It is why the odds will have been high for him to have started against Man City, with Gabriel Jesus injured and Folarin Balogun on his way out the club.
But no, Arteta used Kai Havertz as a false nine and left Nketiah on the bench.
That sense of ruthlessness is a hallmark of Arteta’s, and follows his pursuit of Brentford goalkeeper David Raya despite publicly previously lauding Aaron Ramsdale as his No1, and the side-lining of out of favour Balogun.
No individual’s position is assured under the Spaniard. The culture at Arsenal cares not of massaging egos, but the end goal — that is winning.
Eddie Nketiah was left on the bench despite captaining Arsenal for the third time
Arsenal don’t let their heads drop
It took Arsenal until the 101st-minute to get the equaliser, by way of Leandro Trossard’s strike deflecting in off defender Manuel Akanji.
It was likely the last kick of the game, having already surpassed referee Stuart Attwell’s allotted eight minutes of added time because of a head clash to Thomas Partey.
This reflected a clear hallmark of the better Premier League sides — a never-say-do attitude until the final whistle in search of any scrap or morsel.
It would have been tempting for heads to have dropped with Havertz having missed two great chances during the game, and because of what happened last season against this very same team.
Arsenal fought to the very end with Trossard’s late goal leading to their penalty shootout win
But here was much the opposite. That goal took the game to penalties, which the Gunners duly won 4-1.
It was the fashion they won the shootout in, too. Never once did they let the pressure get to them, or relax once City missed both their penalties.
Only when Fabio Vieira struck the winning penalty did they relent to celebration. A good omen ahead of the Premier League’s opening weekend.
