One pre-season result changes very little, but the manner of Arsenal’s Community Shield victory over Manchester City offered plenty to savour.
From Myles Lewis-Skelly’s composure to Martin Odegaard’s resurgence and Christos Tzolis’ growing influence, there were encouraging signs everywhere.
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A wise man once sang, “It doesn’t pay to make predictions”.
If Neil Finn was a fan of the English Premier League, he might also say that it doesn’t pay to read too much into the Community Shield.
That being said, the only obvious conclusion from Arsenal’s 3-0 victory over Manchester City in Cardiff yesterday afternoon is that we’re going to win the lot.
Unbeaten.
I jest, I jest.
Like you, I’m sure, I know my Arsenal history. We have won this fixture every time we have gone into it as defending Premier League champions and we are yet to successfully defend the Premier League title.
That doesn’t mean we can’t do it this time, of course not, but it does mean we shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
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It’s hard not to be effusive though. After an end to the season that left me responding to any questions about how much of the World Cup I was watching with the words, “To be honest, I just want to go and lie in a dark room for a month”, Arsenal produced a glorious, technicolour opening to the season which dazzled us and blinded a very poor Manchester City side.
Yes, finally freed from the shackles of just trying to win, we decided to play.
It started from the kick-off. Gone was the rugby-style kick for territory, replaced with a swift and incisive bit of possession which saw Arsenal move from left to right, Ben White passing the ball, not very well, to Myles Lewis-Skelly just outside the box.
The 19-year-old let the ball run across his body and found a reverse pass into the marauding Riccardo Calafiori, who buried the ball from around 12 yards.
What the hell just happened?
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To me, it was a bit like the bit in Jaws when Alex Kintner‘s yellow raft explodes in a shower of blood and you have no idea what you’ve just seen.
You want something a bit more Arsenal specific? Okay, I can respect that. To me, this opening salvo called to mind Selhurst Park, four years ago, when the ball went from kick-off to Gabriel Jesus and he took out what seemed like the entire Crystal Palace team off the dribble.
Oh, hello! This is new and I like it. Lots.
I am genuine about not wanting to draw too many conclusions from yesterday’s game which, after all, was a friendly against a very poor, they won’t be that poor the next time we play them, will they?, City side. That said, I think we can all agree that both the composition of the team yesterday and the football they played were very encouraging indeed.
MLS has rightly taken a lot of the plaudits for a dominant performance in front of the defence, but perhaps even more pleasing was the performance of the skipper, Martin Odegaard, who capped a dominant display with a wonderful goal, sitting down Gianluigi Donnarumma before tapping the ball into an empty net.
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If this is the level of performance we’re going to get from him this season, we may be about to have a very good one.
Declan Rice might also have a job getting his shirt back…
I feel like I keep having to caveat these words as it was just a friendly, but as I said in my last piece, my big takeaway from the Champions League final was the lack of technical quality we had in midfield compared to PSG.
To see us play like we did on Sunday, all quick passes, forward runs and rotations, therefore, was, to me anyway, possibly even more important than the result.
What a joy.
And let’s be clear about that result. Yes, it was a friendly, but I don’t think any Manchester City fan will have come away from Cardiff thinking, “Oh well, that’s alright, it was just a friendly”.
They’ve just lost one of the top two managers, if not the greatest, in Premier League history. I’m pretty sure they would have wanted to see something from Enzo Maresca and his team to indicate some continuation of service.
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But there was no “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” to take comfort in here, even if there is some passing physical resemblance.
And it makes me wonder how Bournemouth will feel about taking City on at the weekend.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it. They have Antoine Semenyo, Jeremy Doku and Erling Haaland, they’re clearly going to score a lot of goals, possibly despite Maresca.
I just wonder, with Bernardo Silva gone and Rodri about to go to Barcelona, how much craft and experience City are losing out of that midfield.
It feels like a lot for one summer.
Back to Arsenal and Christos Tzolis is on a remarkable run at the moment, with a goal involvement in each of the last 19 matches he has played at least half an hour in. As he did last weekend, he contributed in different ways on Sunday, heading an Odegaard cross back across goal for Kai Havertz to nod in off Donnarumma, before firing the ball into Odegaard for the Norwegian’s brilliant Nwankwo Kanu impersonation.
Not for nothing, it seems, did Mikel Arteta tell us all on signing the Greek that we were going to fall in love with him “very soon”.
Might be there already, Mik!
On Friday night, we raise the curtain on our Premier League title defence against newly promoted Coventry City.
I think, if Sunday’s performance did anything, it gave ample evidence to suggest that this game might be a little, or even a lot, more fun than we might have thought a week ago.
I’ve usually been successful in the ballot for the first home game of the season and, luckily for me, this one is no exception.
So, Jo and I will be in the Clock End, with James Craddock in the North Bank, to welcome the Premier League champions onto our pitch for the first time this season.
I can’t wait. I’m sure the players can’t either. A heroes’ welcome awaits.
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