Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was eight years old when Gilberto Silva won the World Cup. It was an irrelevant detail about Arsenal midfielders present and past until the 24th minute at Wembley when Englishman powered a shot into the Chelsea net.
For the first time since Gilberto struck in 2007, Arsene Wenger had seen one of his players score against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea. For the first time ever, they beat them.
Oxlade-Chamberlain has become the belated trailblazer. After 14 meetings spread over 11 years, Wenger has finally got off the mark against Mourinho.
It offered the promise that a one-sided managerial rivalry will prove more balanced in the future.
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– Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain goal lifts Arsenal past Chelsea for Community Shield at Whembley
Previous games had suggested Arsenal harboured an inferiority complex. This did not; FA Cup winners deservedly defeated Premier League winners in the Community Shield. Arsenal may have bolstered their back line with a serial medal winner from Chelsea but Petr Cech was so well protected his presence scarcely mattered.
His appearance was more notable for his fist bumps – instead of the conventional handshakes – with his former team-mates before kick-off than any of his saves. His best stop, from Oscar’s free kick, was one a goalkeeper of his stature would expect to make comfortably.
Chelsea were muted. Eden Hazard skied his best chance, created beautifully by Cesc Fabregas, another to have represented both of these bitter enemies. Arsenal made Alexis Sanchez’s absence an irrelevance, but Chelsea missed Diego Costa. The substitute Radamel Falcao’s debut was an undistinguished affair.
If his team scarcely looked at their sharpest, neither did a tracksuited Mourinho. He had two selection dilemmas and the fact that Loic Remy and Ramires, the two men he picked, had been removed by the 55th minute, is a sign neither succeeded. In contrast, and although Theo Walcott failed to hold the ball up, Wenger is entitled to believe his striking choice succeeded.
There are philosophical differences between these managers.
The Frenchman’s focus is invariably forward thinking. Mourinho’s thinking was entirely typical: he looked to stifle and subdue.
The Portuguese likes to purport to be the underdog. It suits a man instilling a siege mentality. He changes his team because of the opposition.
Photo gallery:
– Chelsea succomb to Arsenal in FA Community Shield at Wembley
Ramires, a bit-part player last season, was installed in the centre of the midfield. Such is football’s contradictory nature that Ramires twice came close to scoring but his brief was primarily defensive. His athleticism was pitted against Arsenal’s technicians. The slighter Mesut Ozil could testify to the Brazilian’s bruising approach. Mourinho’s Chelsea are the Blues with the blue-collar work ethic. Wenger’s Arsenal have long been deemed too aristocratic in their attitudes. If the criticism is not entirely fair, their goal showed evidence of high levels of class.
Yet its genesis suggested it was the indirect, almost inadvertent, result of Wenger’s attempts to expose supposed weaknesses in the Chelsea ranks.
Olivier Giroud, who has never scored against them, was benched so Walcott could start in attack. If the plan was to subject the slower John Terry to trial by pace, it worked better in theory than in practice.
Chelsea’s defence were so deep that Walcott’s pace was negated. Instead, he headed in the other direction, wandering into the No. 10 position to pick out the overlapping Oxlade-Chamberlain, who finished emphatically.
The winger’s personal history with Chelsea had been notable for a goalkeeper-style save, prompting a red card for his team-mate Kieran Gibbs, in an embarrassing case of mistaken identity, in a 6-0 thrashing. That was Wenger’s 1,000th game at the helm and one of his lowest points. Match number 1,067 was altogether happier and brought a novel feeling: beating Mourinho.
The Chelsea manager’s reaction was typically intriguing. He waited for the winners to shake hands with all the Arsenal players but not Wenger and threw his medal away. A 10-year-old fan, Bobby Gill, was the grateful recipient, just as other supporters have benefited from Mourinho’s willingness to send previous medals flying into the crowd. He has not needed the physical embodiment of his success as proof of his exploits.
But while he may have blanked a victorious Wenger on the day, it will be harder for him, and the champions Chelsea, to ignore the Frenchman and Arsenal this season.
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