Arsenal beat Chelsea on penalties to win the Community Shield – Three things learnt

Add as preferred source on Google

Arsenal secured a real confidence boost at Wembley as they saw off Chelsea in the Community Shield. It may not have been the most competitive of fixtures, but the Gunners will be pleased with their penalty shoot-out win.

After a dull first half, Victor Moses gave Chelsea the lead as he pounced on Gary Cahill’s header back into the box to poke past Petr Cech. However, Pedro’s red card turned the game after a nasty challenge from behind.

Sead Kolasinac scored almost immediately after that decision to draw the scores back level, and misses from Thibaut Courtois and Alvaro Morata allowed the Gunners to emerge victorious in the shoot-out.

Read on over the following pages to see what The Boot Room learnt from the game…

The Community Shield is still just a glorified friendly

With their Premier League opener on Friday night, Arsenal were always unlikely to take risks on Sunday, and in leaving out Mesut Ozil they showed that. Sead Kolasinac was surprisingly left out too, perhaps with one eye on the fixture against Leicester City in only five days time.

The first half was a slow paced and turgid affair, clearly showing that neither side was prepared to gamble. Later on, foul throws from the likes of experienced professionals like Victor Moses just go to show how seriously these players took the game.

Whilst the second half did see the tempo pick up, both sides were happy to pass the ball around their defence and midfield with little pressure from the opposition. Roll on the Premier League.

Alexandre Lacazette could be a threat

Questions have been raised over just how quickly Lacazette can adapt to life in the Premier League, but if his debut was anything to go by then it shouldn’t be very long. Whilst he failed to get on the scoresheet, he had a promising display and hit the post in doing so.

His pressing and energy gave Chelsea problems from start to finish, with his movement across the front-line causing havoc. At other times, the Frenchman opted to drop deep and look for the ball, working with his team-mates to then arrive in the box at just the right time to unleash an effort from the edge of the box.

However, he didn’t have much service come his way. The Frenchman created plenty of opportunities for himself and others, but he’s going to need much better support from his team-mates if he is to replicate his prolific scoring record from Ligue Un.

Chelsea really need additions

Chelsea looked blunt in attack, with Michy Batshuayi failing to have any impact on the game up-front as Alvaro Morata was not yet fit enough to start. Pedro and Willian struggled too, and it’s clear that Conte needs more depth in his squad.

The decision to give Thibaut Courtois the second penalty in the shoot-out may well have been a tactical move by Antonio Conte. Whilst it was a complete embarrassment for Chelsea, it served to show a point that Conte is really lacking options in his squad, even with £60 million signing Alvaro Morata missing too.

They may go into the Premier League season as reigning champions, but they looked devoid of confidence and there was an air of negativity around the Blues. Roman Abramovich may need to spend to rebuild that belief.