The result of the Community Shield seldom has much bearing on the months of league football that lie ahead, but at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal laid down quite a marker with a crushing 3-0 victory over Manchester City.
Last season’s English Premier League champions were ahead within 24 seconds and, although City enjoyed a lot of the ball, Arsenal were convincing and worthy winners.
For City, who now have Enzo Maresca on the touchline after a decade of Pep Guardiola being in charge, this was perhaps a foretaste of tougher times that lie ahead. Several fans streamed out long before the final whistle.
With Declan Rice on the bench, new signing Bruno Guimarães enjoyed a start in the Arsenal midfield, but it was his defensive midfield partner, Miles Lewis-Skelly, who got things going with a delightful reverse pass that released left-back Riccardo Calafiori. He took the ball in his stride and clipped it past Gianluigi Donnarumma, who had already gone to ground.
City tried to come back into the game by dominating possession, but too often their moves lacked both speed and cohesion. One excellent curling shot from Phil Foden was well kept out by David Raya.
Arsenal extended their lead when another new signing, Christos Tzolis, helped make it 2-0. The goal came after Martin Ødegaard had swung the ball to the far post, where Tzolis rose above Abdukodir Khusanov and nodded the ball back across goal for Kai Havertz to bundle it into his own net. Donnarumma’s positioning and reactions were called into question again.
Erling Haaland was denied after being played in by Doku, while the Belgian himself had a shot cleared off the line as Arsenal went into the break two goals to the good.
Soon after the restart, it was 3-0, with Tzolis involved again. This time, his low cross into the box was delightfully gathered by Ødegaard, who nipped in just ahead of Joško Gvardiol and took the pass in his stride. Donnarumma fell to the floor expecting a shot, and the Norwegian captain then calmly finished into the net.
That was pretty much that, with both teams using their benches to give returning World Cup players some minutes and rest those who had started.
City again had plenty of the ball, but Raya was not unduly busy. Jack Grealish, who many thought might never play for City again after a loan spell at Everton, was one of the second-half substitutes, but neither he nor the other changes could conjure up the goal City needed to get back into the contest.
On this evidence, Arsenal will take some stopping. For City, after the magic of the Guardiola years, perhaps a more prosaic season lies ahead.
The post Arsenal Lay Down a Marker with Community Shield Rout appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.
