Arsenal beat Manchester City on penalties to win Community Shield

Arsenal scored a last minute equaliser to take the Community Shield to penalties and then downed Manchester City in the shoot out in dramatic scenes at Wembley.

Cole Palmer looked to have won the game for City when the substitute curled in a superb goal on 77 minutes, but as the game went deep into injury time the Gunners struck back.

Leandro Trossard’s Late Equaliser

11 minutes after the 90 another substitute, Leandro Trossard, got hold of a short corner, cut into the box and had a pop at goal which was deflected past goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, taking the game to pens.

There was a surprise early in the shoot out as Kevin De Bruyne hammered his penalty against the cross bar after Martin Odegaard had opened the scoring for Arsenal.

Arsenal Win on Penalties

Trossard and Bukayo Saka made no mistake for Arsenal before Rodri saw his effort saved by Aaron Ramsdale, allowing Fabio Vieira to score the winner and complete a 4-1 win on penalties.

It may be a pre-season contest, but there were wild celebrations from the Arsenal side after downing the team which broke their hearts at the end of the last campaign.

Arsenal’s Summer Signings

Arsenal competed well with the treble-winners over the contest, with summer signings Declan Rice, Jurrien Timber and Kai Havertz all in the starting line-up, but lacked a cutting edge up front.

Manchester City’s New Arrival

It was a recognisable Manchester City line-up, with just one new arrival in Mateo Kovacic slotting into the midfield alongside Rodri after joining from Chelsea this summer.

Interesting Level of Competitiveness

The match was played with an interesting level of competitiveness, as neither side really played at the pace and with the zip you would expect from a Premier League contest, but there were some feisty, physical challenges going in from both sides.

New Referee Guidelines

Probably more interesting than the action in the first half was the new guidelines the referee was following as he dished out yellow cards. Both Thomas Partey and Julian Alvarez were booked for kicking the ball away, which has long been a rule, but is being applied more strictly this campaign. Mikel Arteta was also booked on the Arsenal bench for insisting Rodri should be shown a yellow.

Kai Havertz’s Frustrating Afternoon

New Arsenal signing Kai Havertz did have a couple of good chances in the first period, both of which he spurned as his move from Chelsea