When I saw the Arsenal and Chelsea teams selected for this Community Shield clash by Arsene Wenger and Antonio Conte I was a bit concerned, as we seemed to be missing a lot more key players than our opponents. Before the game we knew that Chelsea would be without Hazard, Costa and Bakayoke while Arsenal would not have Cazorla, Wilshere or Mustafi, but other Gunners not in the squad included Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Laurent Koscielny and Alexis Sanchez so it was always going to be a tough one for us to win.
Having said that the Gunners started well and looked the most likely for the majority of the first half, with chances falling to Alex Iwobi and others, but it was the new boy Lacazette, playing through the middle, that came closest to scoring.
He dropped deep to start a m,ove which only the woodwork stopped him from finishing with the opener after some nifty footwork and a curling shot had Chelsea and Courtois beaten. Mertesacker was forced off with a head injury just before the half hour mark and was replaced by Kolasinac who continued to look a threat.
Chelsea got stronger as the half wore on though and had a few chances of their own, but they were rightfully denied a chance from the penalty spot when the ref booked Willian for diving instead of buying his attempt to have Bellerin penalised.
So it was all to play for at the break but unfortunately for Arsenal we did not seem ready to go after the restart, and Moses took full advantage of some sloppy defending to pounce for the opener straight away. They nearly made it two before we woke up as well, but as the half wore on chances kept coming for the Gunners and the new boy Kolasinac finally made one pay.
His header came from an excellent Xhaka free kick but there was also controversy as Pedro saw a straight red for his studs up challenge on Elneny. Maybe harsh in this sort of game but it was a nasty one. Arsenal then looked to make the most of our extra man but despite some good chances Chelsea held firm and it went to a penalty shootout, which was done with the new ABBA format.
Cahille scored the first but Arsenal scored every one of ours with Walcott, Monreal, the Ox and Giroud so after Courtois and Morata both missed completely the Gunners take the spoils and inflict another Wembley defeat on Chelsea. Happy days Gooners!!!