ARSENAL SMACK UP MAN CITY - WHAT DID WE LEARN?
I mean… wow? Arsenal absolutely romped the Community Shield. I tend to put very little into the magnitude of the game; it doesn’t really correlate to the success of a season and it’s still not properly competitive… but there were too many bright spots not to dangerously worry that Arsenal are probably the best team in England again, with a few bells and whistles that weren’t there last season.
The main talking points from the starting 11 focused on who started… Myles Lewis-Skelly. And who didn’t get a place on the bench: Martinelli, Jesus, and Ethan. It’s curtains for those three. If Martinelli isn’t making the squad, on £170k a week, as one of two left wingers, then you can safely say Arsenal are sending a very clear message. Those three will have new clubs come the end of the window and Arsenal must, at minimum, have a left winger they think they can snare in the next two weeks.
No major surprises in the starting 11; the main blessing was that Declan Rice was benched. That’s a good sign. It means Arteta trusts Martin, Myles, and Bruno to load-bear over the next few months.
Arsenal broke the deadlock within a minute, the fastest Community Shield goal of all time, clocking in at a ridiculous 24 seconds. Madueke gave the ball to Myles under pressure in the middle; he somehow turned a ‘you must play this ball backwards’ situation into an incredible pass around two players that broke the City backline and fed Calafiori for a striking swept shot into the bottom corner.
Myles looked overcome with raw emotion. He doesn’t want to leave. The player knows if Arteta was given the chance, he’d bin him, but the mini man mountain just killed that idea with an immense performance and a ‘look at me now’ pass Zubimendi doesn’t often have in the locker.
Arsenal just controlled the game. We were far more astute with our pressing, the boys looked hungrier, and the whole thing just felt very inevitable from an Arsenal perspective. We had extra gears City didn’t have. There were always going to be moments where world class individuals threatened, but the team didn’t give too many of them away.
The second goal was all Martin Odegaard, he put a precision cross to the back post on the left, Tzolis put a weighted header into the path of Kai who bundled home. The German striker gets a lot of criticism from unfortunate folk who don’t understand his talents. Flat-earthers, the great untactico’d, the types that truly believed the eclipse was a psyop against the masses. 1,100 minutes in 2026, 13 G&A, another big goal in a big game. He’s our best striker by a painful margin — Arsenal are just so much better with him. Can he stay fit? His biggest weakness by far.
The third goal came from Tzolis, who found Martin on the 18-yard line with a cutback; Martin cushioned the ball, took an extra moment before shooting, downed Donnarumma to the right, then put his tapped shot into an empty net on his left. The sort of thing Kanu used to do… what a goal. What a performance.
Arsenal basically shut up shop after 55 minutes. We kept the ball when we wanted it, we gave them the ball when we felt like it. David Raya made a few too many saves. But we were never under any threat.
Enzo hooked Haaland early, he looked deep into a squad that City had paid £825m for since January 2025… and ended the game with Marmoush up front, Jack Grealish on the left, he had blonde Rico Lewis on the pitch… what a fcking mess. One notable ‘are they finished’ moment was watching Mosquera put a reducer on Cherki for last season… and no one from City came to the rescue. My word, are they going to miss Bernardo and Rodri this season. Shthousery party tricks they no longer have access to.
So the game ended 3-0. Arsenal spanked Maresca’s City without Declan, Saka, Saliba, or Jurrien Timber. It was easy.
My extremely bland hot take this summer is that sometimes, it’s not who does the most work on their squad, it’s who has the least drama. Arsenal have had very little drama. No one of note has exited, all our players we want to stay are tied to new deals, and we’ve added Bruno and Tzolis. Two players who one would imagine will be a net positive over the season for a team that made the Champions League final and won the Premier League.
City… drama from top to bottom, still with the Sword of Damocles hanging over them.
Chelsea, new manager, new vision, loads of drama with ins and outs.
Liverpool, new coach, no defenders.
United, battered by Amorim’s Milan, no legs in midfield again, Carrick is the manager.
Arsenal haven’t moved on the forwards like we’d hoped, but even if things stay the same, we’re odds-on for the Premier League. If we can get a Barcola, we are deadly. If we move Gyokeres on to Atleti or Barca and end up with a more suitable forward, we’re even better again.
We’re already having a better window than any Premier League team… and we could still do further damage.
Let’s also talk about the stylistic shift… because the football was quite sexy. I had a good time. You had a good time. We all felt pretty good about how open the football was, how daring some of the creativity looked, and obviously it was fun to bury a team we really don’t like. The question we have is… have we taken the handbrake off? Is this just how Arsenal play when we’re not being man-to-man’d? Will this be how it is in the season? Arteta had thoughts.
“We wanted to attack the game - we talked about it very early yesterday. We prepared certain things we wanted to achieve in the game, and the execution of the boys was incredible.
“What I love is that we missed certain things because we are still far from perfect in certain areas, as some players are new and they don’t have the timing right, but the way we tracked back, for example, and the way we went to certain actions, it was just a joy to watch.”
My view is Arteta is the star at Arsenal, and the system he deploys maximizes talents… and the system was quite ugly last year because we didn’t have the necessary tools to play a more expansive, risky system. This season? I mean, we have a different type of Martin Odegaard, we have a proper 9 who claims he’s fit, Bruno gives us a new dimension when it comes to ball progression; Myles is far more vertical in his play, and Max Dowman will be a factor in the bang bang… and maybe, just maybe, Saka will return to form. We should be better from the off. If Arteta can resist the temptation to burn a small number of players ridiculously hard in the opening months, maybe we’ll have more players fitter, for longer?
Arteta did speak on our captain.
“He missed five or six months for different things and it was extremely difficult for him to get any momentum. 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. 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.”
He looked a different player at the World Cup, and so far this pre-season, he’s been immense. Same old Martin defensively, but Mesut Özil-like in attack. He’s delicious to watch, the weight of his passes, the boldness, the sheer confidence in his body language because he knows he’s in control of everything. Just a joy man, a total joy out there.
Community Shield means nothing if you can’t deliver a win on Friday, but my word, we looked ready, and I’m feeling very confident heading into a season that could see our very first successful defence of a Premier League title. Let’s see what we have!
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