Mikel Arteta says Arsenal’s win over Manchester City in the Community Shield was “really encouraging” as he savoured winning silverware in front of the Arsenal fans for the first time.
The Spaniard led the Gunners to FA Cup and Community Shield success in 2020 but on those occasions, the Wembley terraces were empty due to Covid-19 restrictions.
This time, more than 81,000 filled the national stadium as the Gunners came from behind at the death to snatch a 1-1 draw – Leo Trossard’s deflected effort cancelling out Cole Palmer’s curler – before winning the traditional season curtain-raiser via a penalty shootout.
In his post-game press conference, the boss said: “It feels great. I don’t think it gets much better than winning a trophy in Wembley against the best team in the world, and to do it the way we’ve done it.
“It’s really encouraging, I think we had some great moments in the game, especially in the first half with three massive chances but unfortunately when you don’t put them away, you know what can happen.”
Having led the Premier League for 248 days last season, only to collapse in the final weeks, the opportunity to get one over Pep Guardiola’s side was clearly important to players and staff alike. Much to the annoyance of the usual twerps, they celebrated with gusto.
“It’s great, that’s why we are here – to win trophies for this football club and make it successful,” added Arteta on the importance of the win.
“Just the joy of seeing so many happy and proud people and the connection again doing it for our supporters in Wembley feels very different, and that’s great.”
Had Arsenal ended up on the losing side, which looked very likely as the clock ticked into the eleventh minute of stoppage time, Arteta would likely have played down the result and stressed the importance of getting more minutes into legs and testing new partnerships.
As it is, he thinks the result will be a shot in the arm for his players ahead of next week’s Premier League opener against Nottingham Forest.
“This is great, it lifts us, the spirit, the belief and everything, we just want to play better and win games. That’s what we have to do,” he said.
He also discussed whether the result further raises expectations heading into the new season.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I just wanted to grab that trophy as quickly as possible and then we can think about the next, but we know it’s football, you win a trophy today, but tomorrow you have to be training, you have to prepare for the Nottingham Forest game in the right way.
“It will be a very different game to this, a very difficult one as well and we know that we have to go day-by-day.”
Defence and midfield are looking very strong physically. If we can get scoring goals consistently we will have a great season.
Looking forward to it! COYG!!!
Yeah..we speak about how inconsequential the community shield is but that really felt good!! The New signings look the part….And Trossard? The real 88m January signing….
I don’t really care about community shield. But I do care about beating Man City in a game they clearly wanted to win.
Look how Many City celebrated their goal and tell me this game “doesn’t matter”
It is effectively the English Super Cup, so it is important. Trophies are difficult to win so enjoy the moment.
Subtext :
Steve Round was holding us back.
How?
Never seen someone’s humour been down voted so often on this site.
You’re the BTL Granit Xhaka
For the first time?
“in front of the Arsenal fans…”
Thanks. Already addressed below.
Empty stadiums the last two times!
So great to see Arteta kid on the field at the end of the game.
Oh wait, sorry. That was Fabio Vieira.
This gave me a good chuckle
Sorry, I’m an idiot. Forgot about the previous absence of fans! 🤦
If we lost this we’d have been called super bottlers, but because we won it, it apparently doesn’t matter at all, so says the narrative! As Arteta said, was very encouraging especially given the number of new faces and the level of opponent.
A winning mentality means that every game matters. Pep will have hated losing this one.
Lifting a trophy at Wembley is a psychological win as well.
Win one, you want to win more!
Well the narrative can shove it up its bumhole then.
The only way to be elite like Mikel and Pep is to be the most competitive people in the world. Anything they do they want to win, so everyone saying this was a meaningless victory just don’t get how these guys operate.
Just rewatched the game (knowing the result) and Odegaard has to be MOTM. Timber was on fire as well but Odegaard was simply playing at a different level today, unbelievable.
Also ESR, Viera, Nketiah really changed the pace of the game when they came in, especially ESR who looked really sharp.
Havertz is still shellshocked from the cesspit of that Blue club, he gets into the right positions, once he regains some self belief and confidence he will be banging in the goals.
Yeah I was thinking the same about Havertz towards the end especially. He needs just a few more showers to wash off the last remnants of Chelsea shiteness. Once it’s fully out of his system after a process of de-Wilianization he’ll be a strong asset for us.
Exact thing i said while during the game yesterday. Just give him a few weeks of de-chelseanization and the premier league will take note. He sure gets into good positions.
I loved MO’s performance, but for me it has to be Saliba. Exactly how many times did we see Haaland before he was hauled off? Absolutely in Big Willie’s pocket.
The new yellow card policy is so very refreshing. Seems like you’re automatically granted one if you play for this “dirty dirty” Arsenal side, and completely exempt from it if your name is “Rodri”. Wonder what it takes for Rodri to get a yellow card, he’s not exactly subtle.
Anyone knows Balogun was injured or just no place left for him? If the latter is true, the Inter story seems right.
Balogun, Lokonga, Tavares, Pepe, Marquinos don’t even have the new pictures taken on arsenal official website. Exits looming
I will say it but… I strongly believe that if Saliba was not injured at the tail end of the season, we would have won the league.
Arteta knows how much depth affected us last season, and he has rectified that issue this Summer.
Let’s hope we can get some trophies now.