Mikel Arteta insists the Community Shield is a trophy, and it’s silverware that Arsenal are looking to win.

The Community Shield occupies a strange space in the minds of most football fans.

The traditional curtain-raiser for the new season pits the winner of the Premier League against the winner of the FA Cup, or the Premier League runner-up if one team won both competitions.

It’s not taken as seriously as any of the four major trophies on offer to Premier League clubs in Europe each year, but it’s certainly given more weight than the rest of pre-season.

The match is an opportunity for fans to head to Wembley (usually), and winning it leads to a trophy presentation and some bragging rights. But the losers often dismiss it as unimportant.

Fans often appear to play a balancing act ahead of the game, hyping up the match just enough that they can claim they always rated the event or never cared for it – depending on the result.

But Mikel Arteta was playing no such games in his pre-match programme notes.

“The FA Community Shield is a trophy,” Arteta said bluntly. “When there is a trophy on the table, you want to win.

“This will be our approach today against a very good Manchester City team. Of course, we know what we are up against today.

“We’re proud to be playing in the FA Community Shield here at Wembley Stadium.

“This is a match which recognises two clubs who had a good year, with a traditional place in our football calendar at the start of the new season.

“And of course, it’s a great opportunity for the supporters to come to Wembley for a competitive match before the Premier League starts.”

Arteta has already won the Community Shield once as a manager, leading Arsenal to a penalty shoot-out victory over Liverpool in 2020.

But that was during the height of the pandemic’s impact on football, and there were no fans in the stands for the match.

Sunday’s visit to Wembley should be a much more involved event. Arteta will hope it ends with his third trophy as Arsenal manager.