ON THE SPOT
THIBAUT COURTOIS and Alvaro Morata both missed penalties as Arsenal won the Community Shield in a shoot-out following a 1-1 draw at Wembley.
Using the new ABBA system of taking spot-kicks, Arsenal triumphed 4-1 with Theo Walcott, Nacho Monreal, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud all on target.
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Gary Cahill was the only scorer for Chelsea from the spot and the penalty taken by goalkeeper Courtois was particularly bad.
Morata was a second half substitute for Antonio Conte and he dragged his effort wide of Petr Cech’s post.
The match was pretty even and neither side deserved to win although for Arsenal, all eyes will be on Friday when they start the Premier League season against Leicester.
The big talking point of the first half occurred when Arsenal lost Per Mertesacker after 30 minutes.
The big German was floored and covered in blood after he suffered an eye injury following an elbow from Cahill.
Record signing Alexandre Lacazette came close to a debut goal when he struck the post before the break.
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LATEST ARSENAL AND CHELSEA NEWS
However, less than a minute into the second half, Victor Moses sprung the offside trap to put Chelsea ahead.
Granit Xhaka was guilty of a poor clearance, hammering the ball high into the sky, Cahill got to the ball and delivered a header into the path of Moses, who scored past a stranded Cech.
It appeared as if the Blues were on their way to winning the first piece of silverware this season before their world came crashing down in the closing stages.
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Firstly, Pedro was handed a straight red for raking his studs down the Achilles of Mohamed Elneny.
And then the impressive sub Sead Kolasinac headed the leveller following Grant Xhaka’s free-kick to take it to spot-kicks.
INTERACTIVE STATS - CLICK on the categories to find out how the teams fared
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FACTS, STATS, GOALS & LOLS
- The touching tribute to the Grenfell victims would not be the only time the two sets of rival supporters came together. The blue and red sides of Wembley united for a chant of "Stand up if you hate Tottenham" after just 15 minutes - perhaps forgetting that they were in the temporary Wembley home of their London neighbours.
- Antonio Conte vowed that he will be a lot calmer this season on the touchline. Yet he had already burst out of his technical area twice inside the opening twenty minutes.
- Irony is sometimes a wonderful thing. Willian was booked on 37 minutes for a tumble in the box - although he appeared to just trip over his own feet. But Victor Moses racing to plead his team-mate's innocence was perhaps not the best move - the wing-back was given his marching orders for diving against Arsenal in May's FA Cup Final.
![Thibaut Courtois punches the ball clear the during the clash with Arsenal](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 960 632"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
16Thibaut Courtois punches the ball clear the during the clash with ArsenalCredit: Getty Images - Getty ![He later took Chelsea's second penalty in the shoot-out](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 960 516"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
16He later took Chelsea's second penalty in the shoot-outCredit: Reuters ![But he will have felt like punching himself after he skied his effort](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 960 619"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
16But he will have felt like punching himself after he skied his effortCredit: Rex Features - But he gained redemption for that by opening the scoring just seconds after the restart. Few would forgive Gunners for feeling aggrieved, it could be argued he should have been suspended - instead he will miss the Premier League opener against Burnley next week.
- And that was Moses' first goal for the Stamford Bridge side in 27 matches. His last came against Spurs in November 2016.
- Gary Cahill appeared to be on a one man mission to injure everyone. Arsenal's Per Mertesacker was forced off covered in blood in the first period after he was caught by the England defender's elbow. Then ten minutes into the second half he left team-mate David Luiz needing treatment after a clash of heads.
- Chelsea fans were desperate to see their new big-money buy Alvaro Morata in action. But they had to wait until the 73rd minute when he replaced Michy Batshuayi from the bench - and he might have wished he had stayed there after his miss from the spot.
- Pedro has endured a miserable summer against the Gunners. Just a fortnight ago he suffered a fractured cheekbone after being smashed in the face by goalkeeper David Ospina in a pre-season friendly. And it got worse today as he was red carded for a nasty rake down the back of Granit Xhaka's Achilles.
![Olivier Giroud was the man who stepped up to convert the winning penalty](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 960 589"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
16Olivier Giroud was the man who stepped up to convert the winning penaltyCredit: Getty Images - Getty ![Arsene Wenger and his side have claimed the first piece of silverware this season](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 960 660"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
16Arsene Wenger and his side have claimed the first piece of silverware this seasonCredit: Rex Features - The last two red cards in this fixture have both now been issued to Chelsea men. The previous one was handed out to Branislav Ivanovic in 2012.
- Arsenal's victory continued a recent trend in this clash. The three previous Community Shields had all been won by the FA Cup winners.
- Chelsea's defeat also continued their miserable run of form in this contest. They have now lost their last four Community Shield matches against Manchester United (2010), Manchester City (2012) and Arsenal (2015) as well as now this one.
- Arsene Wenger must have been pretty confident heading into the clash. Aside from the Emirates and Highbury, he has won more games at Wembley than at any other ground. And he stretched that to 13 this afternoon.
SOCIAL SAYS
WHAT THEY SAID
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger: "It was not a friendly, it was a game of high intensity and we put ourselves in a difficult position just after half-time.
"Overall I believe we had a performance where we continued the end of last season. That's what you want to focus on.
"It is a dream to make the fans happy. We try very hard and I would like them to stand by the team. We might go through some good periods and some not so good periods. We want to be united and together. Hopefully we can make them happy at the end of the season."
Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka: “We’ve had a good pre-season and this performance was the first step of the season.
“I’m very happy we won. Next week is the Premier League and I hope we star well.”
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