{"id":14168,"date":"2026-08-16T17:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T16:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14168"},"modified":"2026-08-17T17:21:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T16:21:24","slug":"comprehensive-shattering-of-creative-accountants-by-superb-gunners-in-the-community-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14168","title":{"rendered":"Comprehensive Shattering of Creative Accountants by Superb Gunners in the Community Shield"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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After a gap of 6 years, our season kicked off with the Community Shield though this year it\u2019s in Cardiff\u2019s Principality Stadium not Wembley. We have won the last five Community Shields in which we\u2019ve participated though the last time we lost this match was at this very venue (then called the Millennium Stadium) in 2005 against Chelsea. The Shield match was staged in Cardiff six times at the beginning of this century, while Wembley was being redeveloped, and Arsenal appeared in four of those, winning two and losing two. We\u2019ve won all three prior meetings with C115y in this match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel\u2019s team was Raya; White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori; Lewis-Skelly, Guimar\u00e3es, \u00d8degaard; Madueke, Havertz, Tzolis; Rice and Saka returned to the bench, joining Kepa, Hincapi\u00e9, Zubimendi, Merino, Eze, Dowman and Gy\u00f6keres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The absence of Martinelli, Nwaneri and Jes\u00f9s from the squad prompted speculation about their futures but in his post-match interview, MA8 said the FA rules restricted the number of subs that could be named and he had protested this as these players all deserved to be in the squad – time will tell. The absence of Salmon was also disappointing, particularly as the bench was extremely light in defensive cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal kicked off and retained possession for the first 24 seconds with close control and interplay on the edge of the opposition box, then MLS let the ball run across him, turned and split the defence with a killer pass to Calafiori who was running unmarked into the box and slid the ball past Donnarumma into the net. [1-0]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from a block on Calafiori\u2019s initial pass towards their box (it could be argued that Riccardo had played a wall pass off the defender!), no C115y player had touched the ball until they kicked off 1-0 down! We remained on the front foot and a sweet pass into space from \u00d8degaard found Calafiori running towards the box who played it on to Tsolis\u2019 but his shot was deflected into Donnarumma\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal dominated early possession and territory with a very dynamic \u00d8degaard prominent in possession and a high press being activated when out of possession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An early riposte was a curling cross from Anderson from the right that a free Haaland failed to meet in front of goal on 17 minutes. Just two minutes later Foden found himself free on the edge of our box and his excellent shot was parried by Raya to Mosquera who was fouled by some lout. A nice back-heel from Madueke set Guimar\u00e3es free in the box but his cutback was blocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foden then saw yellow for a crass foul as Tzolis ran out of our box following a C115y corner. Our interplay out of defence was very impressive at this stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 27 minutes, a looping left-footed cross to the far post by \u00d8degaard was nodded by Tzolis square to Havertz whose header downwards squirmed past Donnarumma. [2-0]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 37 minutes after a lovely build up, Calafiori went down in the box only to acquire a yellow card for simulation, correctly. Immediately after that a superb Raya save from a Haaland shot from 8 yards was followed by a superb diving block by Calafiori of another C115y shot from within our box. The Italian stallion then met a lovely cross from White at the far post but his shot flew over the bar. In added time a cut back from Havertz was met by \u00d8degaard but his underpowered shot was scrambled off the goal line by Gvardiol. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half Time: Arsenal 2 – 0 C115y<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had bossed the first half apart from five minutes towards its end and thoroughly deserved our 2-0 lead. \u00d8degaard\u2019s contributions stood out, not only for offensive creativity but also for tigerishly regaining possession in midfield several times – the captain certainly looked back to his best. Likewise, MLS had looked good both with and without the ball, while Tzolis had been equally impressive driving forward and tracking back. The contributions of Calafiori and Raya were crucial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rather subdued Guimar\u00e3es was replaced at half time by Declan Rice and Grealish replaced Doku for C115y. Guimar\u00e3es reappeared to join the bench with ice on his thigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only two minutes into the second half, Tzolis played a square pass to \u00d8degaard along the edge of the C115y box, and the Norwegian stepped past a defender, shimmied to sit the keeper down, and stroked the ball into the net. Simply beautiful! [3-0]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

C115y responded by taking Haaland off for Mamoush and O\u2019Reilly for Guehi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Ole\u2019s\u2019 started at 55 minutes just to tempt fate but didn\u2019t last long. As the game drew towards the hour mark, we conceded possession and territory and challenged C115y to break down our defence. Before 60 minutes came up, Calafiori was replaced by Hincapi\u00e9 and Madueke by Saka while C115y replaced Foden with Cherki and Anderson with Lewis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A  sweet turn by \u00d8degaard outside our box led to a burst forward by Saka who shot the ball into the side netting at a tight angle when a cut back would have ben more productive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the three-quarter mark, the game had settled into a pattern of C115y camped on the edge of our box but failing to penetrate our defence, ultimately turning over possession for an Arsenal break. One break saw Tzolis meet a Havertz knock on and release Saka whose drive into the box was aborted at full stretch by Donnarumma pushing the ball away at full stretch. On 72 minutes, Raya then had to parry a long range shot from Cherki which was C115y\u2019s first shot on target in the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 75 minutes MLS and Havertz were replaced by Zubimendi and Gy\u00f6keres. Gvardiol then tried to buy a penalty by collapsing holding his face after a shoulder to shoulder barge by White. On 78 minutes Gonzalexz replaced Kovacic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immediately after, a sweet move upfield finished with a square ball from Hincapi\u00e9 across the box to Saka who, unmarked, surprisingly put it over the bar when he really should have added a fourth. Raya then pulled off a brilliant save at full stretch from Semenyo\u2019s low shot after a Cherki had run across our box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before he was substituted by Eze on 83 minutes, \u00d8degaard was booked for a clumsy foul on Grealish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As 3 minutes added time commenced a square ball from Cherki across our 6 yard box looked dangerous but there were no C115y players near it to take advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Time: Arsenal 3 – 0 C115y<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This well deserved victory was appropriately met by a rousing verse of \u201cNorth London Forever\u201d! The Arsenal was streets ahead of C115y today and 3-0 did not flatter us. The players had recaptured the free-flowing silky moves of a couple of seasons back and were an absolute pleasure to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard deservedly lifted the Man of the Match award and Tzolis, MLS and Havertz weren\u2019t far behind. Raya made several excellent saves, White put in a full shift, Mosquera and Gabriel looked extremely secure and Calafiori rampaged forward brilliantly while not skimping on his defensive responsibilities. As noted above, Guimar\u00e3es’ contribution wasn\u2019t prominent but he did make several key passes and interceptions. Madueke was tricky and threatening but as ever, unproductive. Of the subs, only Rice and Saka caught the eye and they will benefit from an easy run out against that demoralised shower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal has won the first silverware of the new season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More, please!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a gap of 6 years, our season kicked off with the Community Shield though this year it\u2019s in Cardiff\u2019s Principality Stadium not Wembley. We have won the last five Community Shields in which we\u2019ve participated though the last time we lost this match was at this very venue (then called the Millennium Stadium) in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14168"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14187,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14168\/revisions\/14187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}