Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea (4-1 pens): Gunners win the Community Shield on penalties after Sead Kolasinac header cancelled out Victor Moses as Pedro sees red

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As Arsenal waited to collect the Community Shield at Wembley, Antonio Conte wandered about, arms folded and head down, with the look of a very bemused man.

How did his team lose this game? Why did his goalkeeper take his team’s second penalty in the shootout? How did his shiny new striker miss the target completely from 12 yards? And what is an ABBA shootout anyway?

As Conte pondered all this and doubtless much more, Arsenal collected the season’s first piece of silverware. Arsene Wenger’s team came from behind to level and won the strange penalty competition that followed by four goals to one.

Arsenal won the first trophy of the 2017-18 term against Chelsea through spot-kicks after an entertaining Community Shield

The victory was Arsenal's second over Chelsea at the national stadium this year following the FA Cup final in May

Victor Moses put Chelsea ahead a minute into the second half with powerful finish after a corner went uncleared by Arsenal

Chelsea looked to be heading towards victory until Pedro was surprisingly sent off for a tough tackle on Mohamed Elneny

From the resulting free-kick debutant defender Sead Kolasinac headed Arsenal level with powerful finish into the far corner

The game went to penalties with Thibaut Courtois surprisingly taking the second Chelsea kick - he smashed it over the bar

The new Chelsea No 9 Alvaro Morata followed Courtois in the new ABBA system of penalties, but failed to score

It was left to Olivier Giroud (centre right) to score the winning Arsenal penalty, and he did so with aplomb

MATCH FACTS AND MATCH ZONE

Arsenal (3-4-3): Cech; Holding, Mertesacker (Kolasinac 33), Monreal; Bellerin, Elneny, Xhaka, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Welbeck (Nelson 88), Lacazette (Giroud 66), Iwobi (Walcott 66)

Unused subs: Ospina, Maitland-Niles, Willock

Goal: Kolasinac 83 

Booking: Bellerin 16 

Manager: Arsene Wenger 

Chelsea (3-4-3): Courtois; Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Cahill; Moses, Fabregas, Kante, Alonso (Rudiger 79); Willian (Musonda 82), Batshuayi (Morata 74), Pedro

Unused subs: Caballero, Christensen, Scott, Boga

Goal: Moses 46 

Bookings: Azpilicueta 13, Alonso 35, Willian 36

Red Card: Moses 82 

Manager: Antonio Conte 

Referee: Bobby Madley

Just 50 seconds into the second half, Arsenal switched off following a corner and Victor Moses was able to fire past Petr Cech. For more stats, pitch maps and information from the Community Shield, visit our exclusive MATCH ZONE service by clicking here.

 

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It wasn’t the fact that Chelsea lost the shootout that really mattered, it was the manner in which they lost it.

The ABBA system is new and will take some getting used to. The best way to explain it is that it works like a tennis tiebreak. One shot to team A, followed by two for team B, two for A and so on. The idea is to prevent the team going second having to deal with the pressure of always trailing.

At times here the teams didn’t look totally convinced about whose turn it was, players being tentatively shoved forwards like nervous teenagers inching towards a youth club dance floor. But that didn’t excuse the peculiar way that Conte and his players went about the business of trying to win it.

It was strange enough to see a central defender, Gary Cahill, go first. But after he scored and two Arsenal players, Theo Walcott and Nacho Monreal, converted successive kicks, Chelsea self-sacrificed in spectacular style.

Bizarrely, Thibaut Courtois took Chelsea’s second kick and ballooned it over the bar. On the touchline, Conte closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he saw £70million striker Alvaro Morata drag the first meaningful goal attempt of his Chelsea career miserably wide with his right foot.

Giroud kisses the Community Shield amid the celebrations as Arsenal enjoy a second Wembley win in three months

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger waves to the crowd after wining his first major match since signing a new contract

Courtois reacts after missing with his awful penalty - although £70m striker Morata, who followed, managed no better

Giroud on the other hand kept a cool head and finished with power to show to Arsenal that he still may have a future there

Moses smashed the ball home from six yards out after Gary Cahill looped a header into the area and he reacted fastest

Cesc Fabregas leaps on Moses - who was sent off in the FA Cup final defeat for diving - as their team-mates and fans celebrate

Kolasinac, signed on a free transfer from Schalke this summer, escaped the opposition defenders to score the equaliser

Chelsea were static and looked stunned following the surprise red card, and Kolasinac took full advantage to score

With his large build belying a good turn of speed, the Bosnian bears all the hallmarks of being an Arsenal cult hero

So when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud stepped up to score for Arsenal, the whole thing was over and Conte was left with questions to answer.

Having spent much of the summer with doubts swirling over his long-term future at the Premier League champions, none of what happened at Wembley on Sunday will have helped.

His team contained not a single new signing — Morata began on the bench — and maybe that was deliberate. By fielding an XI almost identical to the one that finished last May’s FA Cup final defeat by Arsenal at the same stadium, maybe Conte was underlining his recent assertion that his squad lacks depth.

After a tense opening quarter of the game, Alexandre Lacazette came inches from opening the scoring when he hit the post

Lacazette's effort came after a sweeping counter-attack, and his impressive curler had Thibaut Courtois beaten

Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker went off after half an hour after getting an accidental elbow to the face from Cahill

The Arsenal physios tend to the bloodied Mertesacker, who had been heroic in the FA Cup final against Chelsea last season

Cech and his Arsenal team mates show their concern for the German, who had to be replaced by debutant Saed Kolasinac

Mertesacker had until that point looked solid in the Arsenal defence as they restricted Chelsea to few clear early chances

Whatever the case, the shootout looked chaotic. As Courtois hurried to take his kick, it almost looked as though Chelsea didn’t really care. That impression only deepened when the Belgian all but lashed the ball out of the ground.

Conte and his team did care, of course, you only had to observe the disconsolate Morata afterwards to know that. But Chelsea has not always appeared a terribly settled place during the weeks of summer and nothing that happened on Sunday will have changed that.

For a while, Chelsea had exerted a semblance of control. Indeed, had the Spaniard Pedro not been sent off with 10 minutes to go they probably would have held on to their lead to win.

But when things are not quite right at a football club, weird things tend to happen on the field.

Willian went over in the box and wanted a penalty, but was booked for diving - replays showed he had kicked his own leg

The Brazilian looked initially as if he had been touched by Hector Bellerin, but replays showed a gap between the players

Alex Iwobi provided early invention as the Gunners started the brightest, getting to the byline and looking to play in crosses

Blues forward Pedro played in a protective mask after fracturing his eye socket in a pre-season friendly against Arsenal

Cech races out of his area to head away a long ball while Pedro and Rob Holding watch on during a tight opening at Wembley

Arsenal were the better side early on and looked dangerous. Their own big summer signing, Alexandre Lacazette, almost scored in the 22nd minute, curling a measured right-foot shot against the post from 13 yards. Another forward, 21-year-old Alex Iwobi, was lively, too, and for 25 minutes it was an uncomfortable afternoon for the English champions.

But Chelsea grew into the game as the first half wore on and had established themselves as the more assertive team by the time they took the lead in the first minute of the second period.

It was a poor goal for Arsenal to concede as they failed to clear a corner properly but Victor Moses exhibited fine timing and technique to control and score from eight yards. The player sent off in last season’s FA Cup final would have relished the opportunity to emerge as the match-winner here.

Before his shootout humiliation, Courtois produced a truly outstanding save to deny Elneny's long range power drive

Iwobi prepares to play a pass, while surrounded by concerned looking defenders for the Premier League champions

Arsenal improved and Courtois had to save well from Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka, but the threat from Wenger’s side seemed to have passed when Pedro slid in to rake Elneny’s achilles with 10 minutes left.

It was a daft and dangerous tackle, and though most would have expected to see a yellow card from referee Bobby Madley, replays suggested that the red was at the very least understandable.

On the touchline Conte looked peeved and 30 seconds later he had more reason to be as Bosnian defender Sead Kolasinac — on for injured Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker — beat a clumsy Chelsea offside trap to head Xhaka’s free-kick into the corner on his competitive English debut.

Subsequently Walcott could have won it for Arsenal, breaking clear only to be denied by a lunging block from Cahill. With hindsight, Conte may wish the whole thing had ended there.

Chelsea's biggest summer signing, striker Alvaro Morata, was surprisingly left on the bench, as was Antonio Rudiger

The £70million signing from Real Madrid eventually appeared in the 74th minute, replacing Michy Batshuayi up front

Alexis Sanchez was not deemed fit enough to play for the Gunners and was left out entirely, as was Mesut Ozil (left)

Fans stream up Wembley Way to the national stadium, which hosted the traditional curtain raiser of the English season

Arsenal fans wear masks of the face of Frenchman Lacazette, the £53m signing they hope will return them to the top four

Two young Chelsea fans smile for the camera before the game, between the Premier League champions and FA Cup winners

A minute's silence was observed before the game to remember the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in Kensington