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Olivier Giroud seals Community Shield win 4-1 for Gunners as Chelsea lose in penalty shoot-out
Community Shield Match Report
Wembley Stadium
Arsenal 1 - 1 Chelsea (4-1 pen.)
Arsenal goal by Sead Kolasinac 82
Chelsea goal by Victor Moses 46
England Premier League giants Arsenal won the 2017 pre-season annual Community Shield clash against EPL champions Chelsea in London on Saturday defeating Chelsea 4-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw at full-time, back at Wembley Stadium 71 days after defeating Chelsea in the FA Cup final, Arsenal are holding silverware once again and seemed to be delighted. The sending off of Chelsea’s Pedro gave Arsenal’s Sead Kolasinac the opportunity to grab a late equalizer that gave the Gunners a life-line leading to a 4-1 penalty victory in the very first shoot out in England to use the A BB A format. Going into the 2017-18 campaign in a perfect way gives veteran Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger a base to get things going.
After Oxlade-Chamberlain side-footed low and hard, into the bottom right of the net, and Courtois dived the other way, Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud sent a left-footer into the right corner of the net past Chelsea goalie Courtois, and Arsenal won the Community Shield to go into the 2017-18 Premier League season trailing glory and holding early silverware! Cahill was up first after Chelsea won the toss. Petr Cech dived one way, Cahill drilled high the other; 1-0 Chelsea. Theo Walcott sidefooted into the corner past Courtois; Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal. Monreal sees Courtois dive left, so he curls the other way; Chelsea 1-2 Arsenal. Courtois smashes the ball over the bar; Chelsea 1-2 Arsenal. Morata drags a shot wide across goal; Chelsea 1-2 Arsenal. Oxlade-Chamberlained side-footed into the bottom right of the net; Chelsea 1-3 Arsenal. Olivier Giroud sent a left-footer into the right corner of the net; Chelsea 1-4 Arsenal final score as the Gunners carried the momentum and confidence that they finished on last season into the new one.
Late in the Charity Shield, Wenger’s side approached the end of the match with no goals to their credit in the closing stages with Chelsea leading 1-0 through Victor Moses’s strike just after half-time. The EPL champions Chelsea looked likely to earn revenge for their defeat to Arsenal at Wembley in May. But Arsenal pressed on Chelsea and kept persevering, and scored an equaliser via Sead Kolasinac’s close-range header at 82 minutes. The Bosnian, who came to Arsenal on a free transfer from Schalke in June, scored. The resulting penalty shoot-out was conducted under Fifa’s new ABBA system. Wenger’s side were the victors after Olivier Giroud hit the decisive spot-kick in a 4-1 win. As Arsenal celebrated, Chelsea looked glum. After a slow start the champions came close to a fifth Community Shield win, only for Pedro’s red card and Kolasinac’s immediate equalizer to turn around the result. Antonio Conte was also glum with this match another disappointment in a less than ideal summer for the Italian manager.
Conte was agitated and irritated throughout the Community Shield match and later expressed his regret over the result. Conte also talked about his “disappointment” with referee Bobby Madley for dismissing Pedro for the foul on Mohamed Elneny that led to Arsenal’s goal, and for not awarding Chelsea a penalty on 35 minutes after Willian went down under a rough challenge by Héctor Bellerín. The subsequent yellow card shown to the Brazilian for diving only added to the Italian’s irritation. “A lot of people told me the penalty was clear,” said Conte. “We have to respect referees’ decisions but sometimes these decisions make you angry.”
Frenchman Wenger praised his side for winning “the trophy we really wanted to win” and for not giving up after they went 1-0 down in a friendly against their arch-rivals. Along with Pedro’s red card, there were four yellow cards. Arsenal’s Per Mertesacker left the field on 32 minutes with blood pouring from his head following a clash with Gary Cahill. The German was later be seen with stitches above his right eye. However Wenger said the injury was not serious enough to rule him out of the Premier League opener against Leicester City on Friday. Mertesacker’s departure from the match came after an impressive start by Arsenal. Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck were impressive playing behind Alexandre Lacazette, who arrived from Lyon for £52.7m. Chelsea’s Michy Batshuayi was their lone centre‑forward until he was replaced by Álvaro Morata, the record signing, on 74 minutes. Arsenal almost opened the scoring to take the lead on 22 minutes when a Lacazette shot hit a post. Chilean Alexis Sánchez watched from the sidelines as a non‑playing member of Wenger’s squad, having returned to first-team training only on Tuesday.
Chelsea’s Moses and Pedro both forced Petr Cech into making fine saves. Willian tumbled quickly to the tuft as he surged into the Arsenal area and got a yellow for diving. At 46 minutes. Kolasinac, who had replaced Mertesacker, failed to clear a corner and after Cahill dropped the ball back into Arsenal’s area with a deft header Moses lashed an unstoppable drive past the Gunners’ superstar goalie Petr Cech. Arsenal’s central midfield partnership of Elneny and Granit Xhaka impressed in the closing stages as both were key in the equalizer. The former was brought down via a studs-up tackle from Pedro and the latter delivered the free-kick. Penalties followed as Cahill scored for Chelsea with Theo Walcott and Nacho Monreal doing the same in succession for Arsenal. Then came the surprising sight of Courtois stepping up to the penalty spot in a a gamble on Chelsea’s part. The 25-year-old goalie sent his kick over the bar. Morata then caught the outside of Cech’s right post and, after Alex Oxlade‑Chamberlain made it 3-1, Giroud sealed the triumph for Arsenal going into what will be Arsene Wenger’s 21st full campaign as manager of the club with a new two‑year contract in hand.
Arsène Wenger wants his Arsenal side to avoid getting off to another poor start to their Premier League campaign, but instead to build on their Community Shield victory against Chelsea by making an intense and spirited start to the new Premier League season. “Let’s go with the same discipline, the same spirit and see where we can go,” said Wenger. Wenger described winning the Community Shield, the 15th in Arsenal’s history, as “an encouragement” and now wants his side to mount a serious EPL title challenge and avoid repeats to their poor starts in the previous two Premier League campaigns, when they lost their opening fixtures on both occasions. “We want to find a balance between the confidence we can get out of this game and the urgency every Premier League game demands,” said Wenger. “We had some bad starts recently but we have had intensity in our preparation, so let’s go into the Premier League with the same discipline, the same spirit and see where we can go.”
Arsenal fell behind to Victor Moses’s strike shortly after half-time but did not wilt and instead equalized when summer transfer arrival Sead Kolasinac scored with an 82nd‑minute header. The goal came from a free-kick given for a studs-up tackle by Pedro on Mohamed Elneny that led to the Spaniard being sent off with a red. The penalty shootout was the first in this country to deploy the ABBA system. Following successive misses by Chelsea’s goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, and record signing, Álvaro Morata, Olivier Giroud scored the decisive spot kick for Arsenal to give them victory over Chelsea at the national stadium. “A lot of people told me penalty was clear,” said Italian Chelsea manager Conte. Conte defended the decision to let Courtois step up in the shootout. “He is one of the best players at the club at taking penalties,” said Conte. Chelsea begin their Premier League title defense against Burnley in Saturday’s season opener, when Conte will hope to have Eden Hazard and his new signing Tiémoué Bakayoko available to play. Both missed this match due to a lack of fitness.
Squads
Chelsea
Courtois; Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Cahill (c); Moses, Fabregas, Kante, Alonso; Willian, Pedro; Batshuayi. Subs: Caballero, Rudiger, Christensen, Scott, Boga, Musonda, Morata.
Arsenal
Cech; Holding, Mertesacker, Monreal; Bellerin, Elneny, Xhaka, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Iwobi, Welbeck; Lacazette. Subs: Ospina, Kolasinac, Willock, Nelson, Maitland-Niles, Walcott, Giroud.
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