On Sunday, 10th of August, 2014 Arsenal FC dismantled Manchester City 3-0 to secure the first silverware of the season when they claimed the community shield title which they won back in 2005. Arsenal who has previously gone nine years without a trophy can now boast of two in 85 days.
Arsenal showed their intention to claim the silverware right from the start of the match with new boys Calum Chambers and Mathieu Debuchy impressing on their competitive debut.
It took 21 minutes for Arsenal midfielder, Santi Carzola to open the scoring. Recently linked with a move to Athletico Madrid, Arsene Wenger will have to be persuaded with a very good offer to let go of one of his key players.
Manchester City was caught on the break when Yaya Sanogo held on the ball well to lay up Aaron Ramsey who took his time before scoring the second goal of the match for the gunners with Willy Caballero having little to do in stopping it.
Machester City rallied back for a short period in the second half trying to get back into the game but the eventual man of the match, Olivier Giroud was determined to make Caballero’s start a nightmare as he struck from 25 yards to make it 3-0 after 61 minutes.
David Silva’s inclusion at halftime gave City a lifeline with their play and Stevan Jovetic looking the sharpest in City’s attacking moves but Wojciech Szczesny was in good form to stop most of the threat posed by the sky blue team.
Arsenal held on to close the match and will be relying on the confidence for the start of the new season with their German world cup winners billed to return to training on Monday, 11th August.
Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger also named Mikel Arteta as the new skipper of the London based team ahead of the new season following the departure of former captain Thomas Vermelean to Barcelona for a reported fee of 19 million euros.
Mikel Arteta, 32 was captain of Everton under David Moyes before moving to Arsenal two seasons ago and will be assisted by Per Mertesacker.
The second tier of English top flight, Championship also kicked off over the weekend with a 1-1 draw between Blackburn Rovers and Cardiff city.
Watford trashed Bolton 3-0 while Fulham lost 1-2 away at Ipswich town. It ended 2-2 between Wigan Athletic and Reading while Middlesbrough secured a 2-0 win over Birmingham City with Nigeria defender, Kenneth Omeruo coming on after the 3rd minute.
Still in England, Jose Mourinho will have to think of an alternative before the end of transfer window as star man; Didier Drogba has been reported to be out for the next 6 months. The Ivorian got injured in the pre-season match on Sunday against Ferencvaros, with the match decided by Cesc Fabregas’ stunning strike for a Chelsea 2-1 win.
In France, the French Ligue 1 kicked off with a 2-2 draw between defending champions PSG and Reims.
Last season’s runner up, Monaco lost 1-2 at home to FC Lorient with veteran Ricardo Carvalho seeing red in the encounter.
Yon won Rennes 2-0 with goals from Steed Malbranque and Alexandre Lacazette.
Nice piped Toulouse 3-2; while Marseille played a 3-3 draw at Bastia.
Nigeria’s Vincent Enyeama started the campaign well by keeping a clean sheet but his team ended up with a 0-0 draw at home against Metz.
