3 positives & negatives from Arsenal’s Community Shield win over Man City

Arsenal grabbed its first piece of silverware of the season, downing Manchester City 4-1 in penalties to win the Community Shield.

It’s only pre-season? Try telling that to the thousands of Arsenal supporters revelling in the win at Wembley Stadium.

While yes, one can see how the Community Shield can be scoffed at, it’s far better winning it than not.

After a poor start, Arsenal recovered and grew into the game. Cole Palmer opened the scoring with 15 minutes remaining in the second half before a Leandro Trossard deflected strike sent the game to penalties.

The Gunners were flawless, nailing all four penalties to secure the win.

3 positives & negatives from Arsenal’s Community Shield win over Man City

Here are three positives and negatives from the game.

Positive #1: Saliba’s duel with Haaland

I am starting to run out of superlatives for the Frenchman. Remember when some were questioning Arteta’s decision to send him out on loan again? Yeah, me neither.

Saliba kept Erling Haaland in check, with his performance only solidifying the notion that had he been fully fit for the title run-in, things could have ended vastly differently.

It is hard to not get carried away as it is only pre-season, but mark it down 1-0 to Saliba until City and the Gunners meet again.

Negative #1: The poor start

Slow starts were a rarity last season for Arsenal, but against City, the first 30 mins pretty poor.

The Gunners barely had a touch of the football as City did as they pleased on the Wembley turf, and it would surely have made Arteta a little agitated at what he was witnessing.

Now, while Arsenal eventually found their groove, it will be the start of the game that Arteta will likely focus on ahead of future meetings.

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