Arsenal Defeat Chelsea to Win 2017 English FA Community Shield

Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and new signing Alvaro Morata both missed from the spot as Arsenal stormed to a 4-1 penalty-shootout victory and glory in the 2017 FA Community Shield at Wembley Stadium on Sunday after the game had finished 1-1 in 90 minutes.

Using the new ABBA system , Gary Cahill, Theo Walcott and Nacho Monreal all netted before consecutive misses from Courtois and Morata allowed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud to wrap up the Gunners’ third Community Shield in four seasons.

Victor Moses slotted home a smart finish in the 46th minute to put Chelsea ahead after he reacted fastest when Arsenal failed to clear their lines following a corner.

The Blues looked to be cruising to victory before Pedro was sent off 10 minutes from time, and Gunners defender Sead Kolasinac netted immediately to send the game to penalties.

The first genuine chance of the game fell to Danny Welbeck in the eighth minute when he was found in space beyond the defence by a chipped Granit Xhaka ball.

His header was not strong enough to beat Courtois, but the Belgian stopper had to rely on the post to keep out Alexandre Lacazette’s curling effort from the edge of the area 14 minutes later.

With arguably the best chance of the opening 45 minutes, Arsenal’s new striker almost finished a bright counter-attack in style, but he could not quite get enough bend on the effort to tuck it inside the post.

In the 37th minute, Chelsea were denied a penalty after Willian went down in the box. The Brazilian was booked for diving, but, on closer inspection, he did look to have been clipped by Hector Bellerin, per former Chelsea striker Chris Sutton:

It took just a matter of seconds for Moses to break the deadlock after the start of the second half.

Xhaka skied a clearance from a Chelsea corner and Cahill’s header back into the box went beyond the Gunners defence, where Moses took one touch before hooking a finish into the back of the net.

The Blues looked much sharper than they had in the first half and held on to their lead well for most of the second period, Arsenal’s best chance to equalise coming from Xhaka’s dipping effort from 30 yards that was well kept out by Courtois.

However, with 10 minutes remaining, Antonio Conte’s side were reduced to 10 men when Pedro was sent off for a reckless challenge on Mohamed Elneny,

From the resulting free-kick, new signing Kolasinac netted the equaliser, heading Xhaka’s floated ball past Courtois after getting beyond the Blues defence.

Both Courtois’ and Morata’s misses in the shootout were poor, the former blasting his over the bar, the latter pulling his wide.

All four of Arsenal’s spot-kicks, on the other hand, were excellent, and they will hope to build some momentum at the start of the new season having picked up the first piece of silverware of the campaign.

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