Izuchukwu OkosiArsenal manager Mikel Arteta was understandably in ecstasy on Sunday evening as his team won the 2023 English FA Community Shield after defeating Premier League champions Manchester City 4-1 on penalties.
Arsenal were trailing 1-0 at the Wembley stadium after Cole Palmer put them ahead in the 77th minute but Leandro Trossard’s deflected shot in the 101st minute off Nigerian-born Swiss international Manuel Akanji restored parity.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe win ensures that City did not claim their ninth consecutive victory over Arsenal in all competitions since August 2020 when the Gunners won in the Community Shield.
Martin Odegaard, Trossard and Bukayo Saka all converted for Arsenal, who witnessed Kevin De Bruyne’s effort smack the crossbar before Aaron Ramsdale kept out Rodri’s penalty.
The Englishman’s save preceded Fabio Vieira’s trophy-winning penalty into the top corner, and Arteta could not envisage a better scenario than beating Man City at Wembley to win a piece of silverware – the 17th time the north London club would be champions of the Community Shield title.
“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,” Arteta said in his post-match press conference, as quoted by the club’s website.
“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.
“At the end it’s what the players feel and they are convinced they can beat any team. That’s the challenge especially with the maturity and how often they play finals, but today I think we showed a resilience and a determination to fight and deserved to win the game.”
While refusing to give anything away regarding Arsenal’s reported interest in Brentford goalkeeper, David Raya as competition for Aaron Ramsdale, Arteta waxed lyrical about Ramsdale’s “superb” performance before warning that every player in his ranks must expect competition for minutes.
“He was great and we practised penalties a lot on purpose in pre-season to be ready for this just in case.
“We went through disappointments against Manchester United where we didn’t stop any of that, and that was the learning curve that sometimes it’s needed to get the right result and I think he was superb,” Arteta said of Ramsdale.
“The competition here always exists whoever it is and that’s what he has to feel like. If we don’t feel like this, we are not going to get the best out of each player, so we better feel like this and make sure that we all feel like this, me first.”
Arsenal begins their 2023/2024 Premier League season on Saturday with a 12.30pm kickoff against Nottingham Forest.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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