Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea (4-1 pens): Match Highlights As Gunners Secure Another Wembley Win

By The Editor
on 6th August 2017

Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea…

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Arsenal reclaimed the Community Shield after defeating Chelsea once again at Wembley in a penalty shootout after the game ended 1-1 in normal time.

We had a number of first-team players absent for the curtain raiser, with the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Shkodran Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny all left out of the squad.

Wenger revealed that Ozil and Ramsey were carrying knocks from the Emirates Cup and that they may not be risked, while Alexis and Mustafi only returned to training days ago.

Antonio Conte fielded the same XI which thrashed us at Beijing last month, but it was clear from kick-off that Chelsea were facing a different animal this time around.

We dominated possession early on and had the best chance of the first-half, with Alexandre Lacazette working a yard of space only to see his effort cannon off the post.

It seemed, momentarily, that the former Lyon man would enjoy a fairytale start to life in England, but he was inches away from it becoming a reality.

Shortly after the break, the Blues took the lead after Gary Cahill headed the ball back into the box, which found Victor Moses who broke the offside trap and smashed the ball past Petr Cech.

Hector Bellerin was at fault for the goal, given that he was the only defender who could see Moses’ cunning run and did nothing to prevent him getting to the ball.

Our equaliser came moments after Pedro was sent-off for a disgusting challenge on Mohamed Elneny, as he raked his studs down the Egyptian’s achilles with little hope of getting the ball, something Granit Xhaka was sent-off for last season.

From the resulting free-kick, the Swiss star swung the ball into the area to find Sead Kolasinac who rose the highest to guide the ball past Courtois.

The former Schalke man made quite the impression after the entering the fray due to Per Mertesacker’s ailment, powering us forward in search of the equaliser on many occasions – it was a fitting debut for him.

Eight minutes from time, penalties beckoned.

With a new ABBA system being trialled during the clash, Alvaro Morata and Thibaut Courtois missed the target for Chelsea.

While Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Olivier Giroud, Nacho Monreal and Theo Walcott all calmly slotted home to hand us the shield which we won in 2015 after beating Chelsea.