Community Shield romp over Manchester City brings hope to Arsenal

Tepid performance raises questions over reigning Premier League champions' preparation, writes Richard Jolly

Arsenal midfielder Santi Cazorla celebrates scoring the opening goal during the Community Shield against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium in London on August 10, 2014. Carl Court / AFP

The Community Shield is one of football's great inverse indicators.

More often than not, the victors do not end the season as champions. The balance of power rarely changes in such August encounters.

Yet, while history preaches caution, Arsenal's future looks increasingly bright. Strangers to silverware for so long, they have secured two trophies in as many official games.

Accustomed to defeats against Manchester City, they recorded a comprehensive win.

If their away record against their peers last season hinted at an inferiority complex, they were vastly superior on neutral territory.

City sent some £71 million (Dh437.5m) south while recruiting five Arsenal alumni in recent years.

Far from looking like City’s feeder club, Arsenal are looking a team equipped to dine at the top table.

If the £35 million signing Alexis Sanchez brought buoyancy, Aaron Ramsey continues to offer potency.

Santi Cazorla demonstrated that, while the annual arrival of a flair player puts his place under threat, he remains a high-quality player and Arsenal, who endured a nine-year wait for a major honour until last May, are now developing their own Wembley Stadium specialists.

Cazorla began the revival in the FA Cup final with a wondrous free kick. A second appearance at Wembley last night brought another goal, a shot angled into the far corner displaying a fine sense of geometry.

Ramsey, too, has two in two, his latest Wembley strike placed beyond Willy Caballero. His supply line consisted of opposites: the refined Sanchez and the raw Yaya Sanogo.

Both goals were testament to the nuisance value of the ungainly Sanogo. The ball seems to bounce off him, while it sticks to his technically proficient teammates, but a combination of power and willingness means he serves as a distraction.

Even as Arsene Wenger joins the ranks of the big spenders, he retains his fondness for a signing that bears many of his hallmarks: young, French and cheap.

When these teams reconvene in the Premier League in September, it is unlikely that one duel will be between Sanogo and Dedryck Boyata. The Arsenal striker won the Wembley clash of the understudies, highlighting that there was a soft underbelly to this particular City XI.

When Eliaquim Mangala joins – in a pre-match slip of the tongue, Manuel Pellegrini named him among City’s signings – Matija Nastasic and Boyata will be the fourth- and fifth-choice centre-backs, respectively.

Aided by Cazorla’s cleverness, Arsenal found the Belgian’s zone a profitable avenue. If one deputy may return to obscurity, prominence beckons for another.

Pellegrini's preference for Caballero ahead of Joe Hart in goal seemed telling. The Chilean is a manager with an obstinate faith in certain players – Martin Demichelis, another Argentine to excel in his Malaga team, is another – and even if the Englishman starts the league season, both Caballero's purchase and Pellegrini's team selection amounted to a warning that he will find himself on the bench.

This was no dream debut for the newcomer, exposed by an abject defence and lobbed, when caught off his line, by Olivier Giroud.

However, Caballero had already spared City a third concession when Sanchez sprung the offside trap.

The Chilean’s speed in the inside-right channel made him a threat and, while burnishing his credentials to be the most-exciting signing of the season, he illustrated the early difference between the teams.

While City were lethargic, Arsenal were quicker, sharper and stronger. Perhaps only four members of Pellegrini’s first-choice side began the game, against eight who may feature in Wenger’s ideal lineup.

Nevertheless, the champions’ subdued first half seemed attributable to attitude as well as personnel.

The half-time introduction of David Silva, an Arsenal-esque performer in the City ranks, brought an improvement and Stevan Jovetic, outstanding in pre-season, hinted he will be able to transfer that form into competitive matches. City may yet get a return on their investment in the injury-prone Montenegrin.

That apart, they had little to savour. While David Moyes’s Manchester United were Community Shield winners 12 months ago, Arsenal surely will not be found in seventh place come May.

Instead, theirs was a display to invite questions if, having overwhelmed City in 90 minutes, they can overcome them over 38 games.

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