- Gunners Force Draw Before Edging City Via Penalties To Win 17th Community Shield Trophy
Arsenal beat 2023 title rivals Manchester City to win the community Shield. The Gunners started the game well against the treble winners, with Kai Havertz spearheading the attack, Jurrien Timber and Declan Rice also started for the Gunners.
New signing Kai Havertz had two good chances to put the Gunners ahead, but was denied by Ortega. Much didn’t happen for Manchester City in the first half, but 13 minutes after replacing Erling Haaland, City took the lead through Cole Palmer. Cutting in on the right-hand side of Arsenal’s penalty area, Palmer curled one past Aaron Ramsdale in the 77th minute.
Arsenal came back to life late on in the tie, and there was plenty of time for that as the referee added 11 minutes of extra-time. The Gunners found their equalizer right at the death, with a deflected effort from Leandro Trossard going in off Manuel Akanji to level the tie and take it straight to penalties.
Martin Odegaard stepped up to score Arsenal’s first penalty kick, before Kevin De Bruyne uncharacteristically missed from the spot. Trossard, Saka converted their spot kicks before Rodri missed again for Manchester City. Fabio Vieira scored the winning penalty to seal Guardiola’s third consecutive FA Community shield defeat.
It was an entertaining season opener, but the real business starts next week. Manchester City will kick off their EPL campaign against Burnley at Turf Moor on Friday, and Arsenal will welcome Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
