Mikel Arteta’s champions overwhelm Manchester City as Christos Tzolis shines, Riccardo Calafiori scores inside 23 seconds and Martin Odegaard caps an emphatic victory.
Mikel Arteta‘s Premier League champions could hardly have asked for a stronger opening statement, dismantling Manchester City to lift the Community Shield with a performance that underlined why they begin the new campaign as the team to beat.
Arsenal overwhelmed Enzo Maresca‘s side from the opening seconds, with new signing Christos Tzolis and academy graduate Myles Lewis-Skelly both producing outstanding displays as the Gunners claimed the first silverware of the season.
And Arsenal needed just 23 seconds to seize control in Cardiff.
Lewis-Skelly threaded a delightfully-incisive pass into the path of Riccardo Calafiori, who raced through to score the fastest goal in Community Shield history and immediately put Arsenal in command.
City briefly threatened a response, but David Raya produced an important save to deny Phil Foden, proving to be the visitors’ best opportunity of the afternoon.
Arsenal’s second arrived in the 28th minute and Tzolis was at the heart of it.
The Greek winger headed the ball across goal for Kai Havertz, who nodded home to double the advantage after another incisive move.
The contest was effectively settled within three minutes of the restart.
Tzolis supplied his second assist of the afternoon, finding Martin Ødegaard, who sat Gianluigi Donnarumma down before calmly finishing to make it 3-0.
Tzolis, signed for £34 million this summer, delivered two assists from the left wing after producing 17 goals and 23 assists for Club Brugge last season, while Bruno Guimarães enjoyed his first competitive Arsenal start in midfield.
Lewis-Skelly also continued his impressive rise, creating the opening goal only days after reports linked him with Chelsea and Manchester United.
The victory handed Arsenal their biggest Community Shield win since defeating City 3-0 in 2014, when Arteta captained the club.
It also marked a difficult competitive debut for Maresca as Manchester City manager, with his side looking short of sharpness against an Arsenal team playing their sixth match since the World Cup.
After lifting the trophy, Arteta praised both the performance and the mentality his players displayed.
“Well, I’m obviously extremely happy with the performance, the results and winning the first trophy,” he said.
“We talked about the desire that we have to start the season and to show ourselves how much we want it and I certainly saw a lot of positive things there against a top opponent.”
Asked about Tzolis, Arteta said: “Well, what I said last week, I think he’s coming into the team really organically, he’s fit in, he’s a really intelligent boy and he has a massive quality which is when he’s in the last 20-30 metres he’s so composed to pick people in and around the box or to finish actions and he’s shown that again two or three times and he was decisive.
“Well that’s a natural quality [to look so good], he has better players around him, you put him in more and more situations so the volume is higher with the level of quality that he has, the numbers will be higher, he’s so eager to learn, to improve, to practise and it’s not a coincidence, he’s a really consistent player in everything that he does and I’m really impressed with him.”
On Calafiori, Arteta added: “I think he can be a total player. I mean, we can ask him to occupy certain areas of the pitch and when he gets in and around the box he has this intuition, his timing to create goals, to score goals, but at the same time we ask him, you know, the defensive duties that he has. And we ask him because he’s capable of doing it, he knows how to do it and we maintain to keep him fit and available and with that physical condition, I mean, he’s a top player.”
Arteta also backed Ødegaard to reach even greater heights this season.
“Well, he missed five or six months for different things and it was extremely difficult for him to get any momentum, so I’m sure this year if we can maintain him fit, available with the players around him, we’re going to see a very different Martin.
“And I sense from the first day that he joined that he has something else on the belly that he wants to prove and show, because the team needs it as well.”
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