History suggests Manchester City Community Shield win is good news for Arsenal

Look at you, celebrating your Community Shield win. Little do you know, Manchester City, winners of four-straight Premier League titles, that your cursed for 2024/25!

That's right, folks, history - and when has history ever let us down? - states that City's Community Shield triumph over their Manchester rivals on Saturday has handed Arsenal a boost in the title stakes.

Having recorded back-to-back second-place finishes and notched their highest Premier League points haul in 20 years last season, Mikel Arteta's Gunners are well-placed to challenge the Cityzens again in 2024/25, and perhaps the Community Shield curse will prove to be the final piece in Arteta's jigsaw.

History suggests Manchester City Community Shield win is good news for Arsenal

Manuel Akanji was cooler from the spot on this occasion. Having seen his woeful penalty saved by Jordan Pickford which ultimately knocked Switzerland out of Euro 2024, the defender lined up eighth for City on Saturday and dispatched his penalty via the underside of the bar to win City the Community Shield.

Their celebrations were muted - understandable when you've quite literally won 'the lot' - but perhaps that was because Pep Guardiola and company knew what their victory meant.

Over the past decade, just one team has gone on to win the Premier League title having kicked off their campaign by lifting the Community Shield. Arsenal were the latest to succumb to the curse having beaten City from 12 yards during last year's event. The Gunners' win was labelled as 'psychologically significant' by some, but the Sky Blues never flinched when the two sides went head-to-head down the stretch. Neither, in fairness, did Arsenal.

The slight caveat in regards to this modern phenomenon is that Guardiola's City are the only side of the past ten years to break the curse. After beating Chelsea 2-0 in the 2018 Community Shield, City, Centurions the season before, resisted a fierce title charge from Liverpool to win back-to-back league titles.

They've done it before, but no team breaks the Community Shield curse twice, right? This compromising piece of meaningless silverware continues to wreak havoc, and if Arsenal are to claim their first Premier League title in 20 years, it won't be because of the groundwork laid by Mikel Arteta nor City's quiet transfer window, but because Akanji was desperate to alleviate his penalty shootout demons and win the Sky Blues the Community Shield.

What was he thinking?! Didn't Bernardo Silva's earlier miss give a clue?

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